By Bill Butler, Productivity Coach, RE/MAX Leading Edge

I’m SOOOOOOOO busy!  Oh my gosh!  This is brutal!  I barely have time to eat!  This market is ‘cray cray’!

Sure, Springtime is when many  agents are the busiest as we’re working with the new influx of buyer clients as well as introducing the new Spring inventory.  However, how we define ‘busy’ can define a career.

One of the distinguishing factors between successful agents versus those who constantly struggle is knowing the difference between being productive versus being “busy”.  We can “busy” ourselves to death…these tasks are easy on the brain, fill up our day and conveniently keep us from doing the things we need to do to grow our business (ahem…lead generating, follow up and providing value…).

In order to minimize the peaks and valleys of the typical annual market, we constantly need to evaluate how we’re spending our time.  The challenge for most agents is that they don’t produce enough income at once to be able to hire help on a long-term basis, so they’re left doing it themselves.  You know the tasks…installing signs and lockboxes at listings, delivering checks, smoke inspections, mailers and more!  All of which can be executed by someone else while the agent can focus on revenue producing activities of lead generation, going on appointments and negotiating contracts.  If only hires could be made a la carte…hmmm…

Well, thanks to the world famous interwebs…hiring a la carte affordably is now a reality in real estate!  Here’s the plan…Make a list of all the tasks that suck 5 minutes or more out of your day that you could teach someone how to execute in less than 15 minutes (Bonus points for ones you loathe doing!) Next, contact a representative at one of the companies listed below…they can help on a per diem/per task basis:

Task Rabbit Your “boots on the ground” option.  Pre-screened and reviewed people who will perform tasks as simple as delivering 7-Up and saltines to a sick client or loved one (I’ve used them for this task for myself!) to stuffing envelopes, photographing events and installing signs.  Task Rabbits charge by the task (min. $40) or by the hour (avg. $15-$20/hr…more for more specialized tasks like accounting or marketing).

Fiverr - Anything virtual…and I mean ANYTHING that can be done on a computer can be done through fiverr.com extremely inexpensively.  Logos, spreadsheets, copywriting, research, marketing collateral…you name it!

High School Interns - Pay them 8/hr to run your social media blogging/pages.  They understand social media better than any other demographic AND they’ll enjoy doing it.  They also understand your community much better than anyone located in Fargo or Jakarta.  Give them business cards to make them feel official and praise them for all of their online glory!

There you have it…pick one task TODAY and assign it to a representative above and see your productivity rise, your blood-pressure lower and efficiency skyrocket!