By Jessica O. Swink
Editor, Small Business Insight
Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
With the housing market as volatile as it has been in the past few years, most may wonder how real estate agents fare the hard times.
“Even in a bad economy, people are buying and selling their homes,” says principal broker Cindy Hawks of Keller Williams. “The number of people has remained the same.”
The only thing that has changed is how Hawks prepares her agents for this market, focusing on lead generation and how each agent can grow his or her business to power through this shift.
To achieve these means, Hawks has hired a master coach that teaches a class each Monday morning to get the agents’ week started and focused. Her office houses a training room that seats 55 people and, every day of the week, topics of professional and personal development are covered. Hawks believes that as her agents become better people, they become better real estate professionals and better business owners themselves.
To Hawks, making each employee a stakeholder in the business is a crucial step in setting up her business. Everyone has a say in how policy and procedure are put into place.
“This way, agents aren’t competing with other agents, and this allows us to have our fingers on the pulse in the market,” Hawks says. “If they grow, we grow.”
This method seems to work well for Hawks, as she has increased profitability each year for the past four years, and has grown her business to a $3 million franchise in just 5 years.
As an owner, she feels that one of the hardest things a leader can do is to offer compassion.
“Women have a natural talent to be compassionate, and to listen,” Hawks says. “You also have to decide what’s more important: the money you make or who you are in business with. If you work well with those around you, the money will come.”
These bits of advice will continue to come from Hawks as she empowers her agents to continue powering through the hard times.
“We’re here, we’re not going anywhere, and there’s plenty of pie for everyone,” Hawks says.
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