If You Try to Be a Master of Everything, You’ll End Up a Master of Nothing

There is a saying in life that I often think about. Simply put:

"Jack of all trades, master of none."

This figure of speech is used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills, but is not outstanding in any particular one. Is this a horrible thing? Not necessarily. But, in some cases, it could end up leading to your demise. Real estate is one example where this holds true.

Agents have a tough job. You literally are your own business. Many of you "wear all the hats," needing to be everything to everyone to get your day to day done. Even those of you that have a team around you still suffer with the challenges of trying to get everything done in a single business day without letting things slip through the cracks.

So how does being a "jack of all trades" impact your real estate business, you ask? It has to specifically do with the last part of the saying that says you become a "master of none." Your broker might try to help you, you might have a coach or mentor, and you may try to get all the advice you can--but at the end of the day, they aren't paying you a salary or keeping you afloat. You either drive business in the door, close deals, and make money, or you starve and leave real estate. Reality is not kind to Realtors®. That is a fact.

So given that you have to excel at generating leads and executing deals, making your clients happy and hopefully getting referrals in order to survive, what could possibly get in the way? The simple answer is EVERYTHING.

Real estate has been and is becoming a more and more technological business. When you factor in that many agents aren't really up on the latest technologies and many tech platforms are requiring that Realtors® learn more to do the things they are used to doing day in and day out, it's no wonder that many agents have to choose whether to work on their "internal stuff" or focus on things that directly lead to revenue (commission checks).

I think there is a happy medium in this, though. Simply put, you DO NOT have to be a jack of all trades. Outsource the things that do not directly either lead to revenue generation or are things that are outside the realm of your day to day business. There are people that specialize in doing these things and you can hire them. Time is money, and they can do it faster than you, allowing you to take that time and spend it generating new clients, listings and income.

How you put a plan like this into action can be done many ways. I personally am a fan of trying to find a single platform that can do as many of these things as possible, ensuring that everything works together well and nothing falls through the cracks. If a pre-packaged solution like that is a good fit for you, great! If you are a bit of an inventor though and want to build your own, perfect mousetrap, using multiple vendors and linking them together, that is okay, too.

The main point here is that you need to focus on what is important--selling real estate. You cannot and should not try to become a jack of all trades.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.