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Dear Friend,

It’s the day after Labor Day…which means summer is over, and it’s time to get back to work!

There’s lots of opportunity in these next few months — and the biggest opportunity is to lay the foundation for a BIG new year.

Now is the perfect time to start looking at where you are, and preparing for where you want to be.

What kind of goals are you setting NOW to make sure next year is your best year ever?

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could take next summer off?

And still make money.

It’s possible, even in a hands on business like real estate to make money without being involved personally in every transaction.

So, what I’d like to talk about this week is:

How To Set Up Your Business So It Makes Money Whether You Show Up Or Not.

I’ve got a lot to share with you, so this letter is a little longer than usual.

I’m going to lay out a step-by-step plan you could literally have completely set up in the next couple of days.so get comfortable and let’s get to work!

STEP 1: Buy into the IDEA that it’s possible to make money without working and paint a clear picture in your mind of how that would look.

Can you buy in to the IDEA that it’s possible to make money in real estate without even showing up?

I’ve seen it.so I know it’s possible.

What would you do with your time if you didn’t have to work?

What would a day in your life look like?

It’s important to look at what you want for your LIFE before you start doing any planning for your BUSINESS.

One of the best things I’ve ever done is to sit down and spend time THINKING about what I really want for my life.

It starts by answering the statement:

“I Know I’m Being Successful When.” in as many ways as are meaningful to you.
(Try for 10)

Doing this will give you some insight in to what really matters to you. What drives you to do what you do, and will give you a clear picture of where you’re headed.

More than anything.it will help you identify when you’re NOT headed in the right direction!

I’ll share mine with you, so you can get an idea of what they look like.then I’d encourage you, as step one, to spend some time defining success for YOU.

Here are success definitions:

I know I’m being successful when.

I can wake up every day and ask: “What would I like to do today?”

I can live anywhere I choose.

My passive revenue exceeds my lifestyle needs.

I’m working on projects I’m excited about.and doing my very best work.

There are no whiny people in my life.

I have no deadlines or time obligations.

I wear whatever I want all the time.

I can quit any project at any time.

I can disappear for several weeks with no affect on my income.

I wear my watch for curiosity only.

Now, those are MY 10 definitions of success. They may not be for you, but they are how I guide my decisions and how I decide whether a new opportunity “fits” for me.

You can probably see from this list, that time freedom is very important to me.

I’m at my most creative when I can wake up.and decide right then what I’d like to do that day. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it’s not.

What is important for you?

Maybe you like time commitments and schedules to be planned in advance.

Maybe, you might say “I know I’m being successful when every hour of my work day is perfectly planned with appointments.”

That’s one of the things my friend Jim McQuaig of Nations Home Funding, in Northern Virginia does.

He’s identified that his most valuable activity is sitting with new clients in his office for an initial 45 minute consultation, and his team structure is set up to make that happen consistently.

What would the IDEAL situation for you look like?

4-day work week? 10 am to 4 pm

July and August off next summer?

My ideal for you, would be that you can catch a glimpse of the possibility that you could make money in your business without having to do it all your self.

Once you’ve got that vision.you’re ready to move on to.

STEP 2: Design a separate division of your business that is not dependent on you – right from the beginning.

If you’ve bought in to the idea that you can make money without actually showing up…you may need to rethink the way your
business is currently set up.

Unfortunately, a lot of top producing Realtors have businesses that were built on personal promotion.and now those same businesses are dependent on them because it was THEIR name that built the business.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I was on a plane a couple of years ago and read in Forbes magazine how the “Blue Man Group” generated over $69 million dollars in revenue for the year.

They’re the percussion guys you’ve seen on the Intel commercials with the blue face paint.

They’ve got very successful concurrent shows in Las Vegas, New York, Chicago.and other cities.

I was very impressed by that and it put them on the annual list of the top money-earning entertainers.

There was another article in the same magazine about how the 3 creators of the Blue Man Group had conceived the whole idea from the beginning so it wouldn’t be dependent on just them.

There are really 34(!) Blue Men.and the originators only perform on very special occasions like the Grammy’s and the Super Bowl.

They actually had the foresight to look ahead and realize they didn’t want the Blue Man Group to be limited by depending on any specific three guys.

Also on that list were Siegfried and Roy.with $35 million.

The difference clicked for me immediately – and this was just months before Roy was mauled by a tiger…

Think about it.

When someone is going to see the Blue Man Group. they’re going to see 3 Blue Men who can put on a great show. They don’t know that it’s not the originators of the group they’re actually watching. And they don’t care.

When someone goes to see Siegfried and Roy.they’re going to see SIEGFRIED and ROY.and they would be completely disappointed if they weren’t there personally.

They are going to see SIEGFRIED and ROY…not 2 guys and a tiger!

Of course, as soon as Roy was unable to perform, the whole show was shut down, and hundreds of people lost there jobs.

I know lots of million-dollar plus earning real estate agents who have built businesses like Siegfried and Roy.

Even MORE half-million dollar earners.

The one thing they have in common, is this slow realization that they’ve sort of painted themselves in a corner, with a business that demands more and more of their personal time as it
becomes more and more successful.

How do you get out of that?

Simple. You start right now thinking about setting up a separate division of your business that isn’t going to be all about you.

Preferrably, a division of your business that doesn’t depend on you at all.

It’s ok that you’ve got a business that’s built on your name recognition.

It’s ok that you’ve got to keep on doing your bus-bench campaign or your personal promotion newspaper.

It’s ok, because you can set up this “Blue Man” division of your business without interrupting what you’re doing right now.

In fact, the very best way to test the waters with this concept is to start slowly, but deliberately, creating a small portion of your income with no involvement whatsoever.

You’ll see. It IS possible for people to buy or sell a home without you personally holding their hand.

Imagine that!

Want to know how to do it?

I thought so.

STEP 3: Narrow Your Focus.

Your business is too complicated.

I know this, because I see it every day.

Almost every Realtor I know is looking for a way to EXPAND their reach. They want to cover as wide an area as possible, so they can have a chance at even more business.

It’s very time consuming, and expensive, to build a business that is set up to help people in the entire tri-city area.

“Buying or selling? Call me and discover the difference!”

“First time homebuyers, move up buyers, horse farms, commercial properties we do it all!”

It’s this mindset of needing only a small portion of a BIG pie that creates this desire to EXPAND instead of focus.

It’s a false comfort.

The real key to growth and especially Blue Man type growth that doesn’t depend on you.is to think NARROW, not wide.

Niche marketing is always easier and more profitable than generalized marketing.

The mindset you want to have for this is not. “I just need a small percentage of all the business in the Greater Tri-County Area” it’s about thinking in terms of DOMINATING a very specific segment of the Tri-County market.

One of the most successful Realtors I know has built his entire business around helping people buy and sell Condos in Toronto.

His entire business is set up to only work with Condos in the central part of the city.

Result? He dominates the condo market and sells over 1000 (!) condos a year.

He doesn’t list houses. He doesn’t sell houses. Just condos.

My encouragement to you would be to look at the individual segments of your market, and choose one that you will aim to DOMINATE.

Not dominate on a personal promotion level, but on a Blue Man Group level.

Imagine that you are creating a business SYSTEM to serve that single segment of the market, and the catch is that you can’t be involved in ANY part of the actual service delivery.

What would you do if your task was to dominate the first time buyer market in your area, or the townhouses..or condos. or inbound relocations and you had to do it with OTHER PEOPLE instead of YOU?

It’s a whole different mindset when you’re thinking about how to deliver a great service through other people.

That’s a muscle you probably haven’t developed so it may “hurt” the first time you use it.

The key to accomplishing anything through other people is to think about developing SYSTEMS and PROCESSES that will allow other people to achieve the same results YOU would if you were doing it personally.

Stick with me because this is going to be the key to building a business that can make money whether you show up or not.

There are 3 things you’ll need to be able to address in order for your business to make money without you.

You have to be able to generate LEADS.

You have to be able to CONVERT those leads, and.

You have to be able to FOLLOW-UP with the leads who are not ready to buy right now.

Let’s start with the first one.

STEP 4: Use a lead generation SYSTEM you can put on autopilot.

The biggest obstacle to most businesses is being able to generate a consistent flow of quality leads.

For most Realtors lead generation means PROSPECTING.

Hamster wheel type prospecting.

Things that require you to do them consistently to get results.

Cold calls, FSBO’s and expireds. Holding open houses. Floor time.

Those things are not predictable though, because they really can’t work without YOU.

Remember, what we’re looking for is a SYSTEM that can work without you.

I’ll describe a system I developed over 10 years ago that will get a ton of leads without depending on YOU. (By the way.it is working just as effectively today as it did 10 years ago, and is still bringing in business without me involved at all.)

About 10 years ago, I noticed that the new home subdivisions had really nice showrooms with a big table top topographical map of the area that color coded where the different house styles were, and all around the room were pictures of the models and floor-plans.

I started thinking all of the houses that are already built in my area are not going anywhere. They’re always going to be there.

If you want a 3 bedroom brick bungalow they’re all in the Prince Charles area.

If you want something a little bigger, maybe a split level or 2-storey, they’re all in the Delrex area.

The half-dozen townhouse developments are always going to be there.

I got to thinking. “Why don’t I put together a Guide To Halton Hills Real Estate?”

So, I did. I went out one afternoon and took pictures of 60 houses to give a good representation of the kind of homes available in Halton Hills.

I wrote up a little description of each picture.put the average price range for each style.coded on the map the neighborhoods you could find those houses in..got a map of the area.added some community contact numbers, and formatted it up into a nice 20 page booklet.

It was a simple little guide, photocopied in black and white, that I would get printed at the local quick print shop a couple of dozen at a time.

Next, I put together an ad offering:

“FREE Guide To Halton Hills Real Estate” and later discovered
that “FREE Guide To Halton Hills Real Estate Prices” pulled even better.

I ran those ads in the Homes magazine.with a little clip-out coupon you could mail in for you guide, or an 800 number you could call to order.

There was NO picture of me.

No mention of me.

Nothing about me except a discreet listing of my name and real estate company at the very bottom of the ad because it was required.

What happened the first time I ran that ad and every time
I run it is that dozens of people send in that coupon, or call the 800 number every month. (In fact, they still do)

I wasn’t doing anything to make it happen, except running the ads, and going to my mail-box.

I ended up licensing that SYSTEM to about 40 different agents all around the city.and showing them how to use the guide to generate all the buyers they could ever want.

That model is exactly what I would do if I were coming in to YOUR town today.

I’d also have a separate guide for Condos, for first time home buyers, for investors, for people who want to build a NEW home.

Any target market you can think of really could be adapted to that model. It’s the simplicity of it and the VALUE of it to your target market.

Anyone looking to move to Halton Hills would be looking in the homes magazine to see what kinds of homes and prices were in Halton Hills.

They’d see the ad for the Free Guide.and they’d call.

They’d call because it was Free, Valuable, easy.and it would give them what they were looking for in the early stages of their home search – INFORMATION.

The thing about a tool like the guide is that you don’t need to have listings to generate all these buyers. It doesn’t matter what kind of market you’re in buyers are always going to be looking for Information first.

If you’re the one offering it, you’re the one they’re going to call.

This system allows you to just “set it and forget it.”

Every time you run the ad, you’ll generate buyers. Like clockwork.

Without even having to think about it.

And, the best part is.they’re not calling to speak to anybody in particular, because they’re just calling for the guide.

It’s not about YOU, it’s about them — so they call.

Perfect for setting up a BLUE MAN type of operation.

It’s not going to be disappointing if YOU personally don’t answer them, because they’re not expecting to talk to you. Hopefully, they don’t even know who you are.

That system will work whether you’re in town or out of town. In the office, or out showing homes. At the movies or on the golf course.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s working while you’re not and that’s what we’re looking for.

You don’t have to worry about being available to answer ad calls, or sign calls, because they’ll just leave a message with all their contact info. They’re not expecting to talk to you right away.

Very handy for not feeling guilty when you’re out of town and not able to answer the ad calls on Sunday.

So, now that you’ve got a way to generate buyers without you at work.let’s move on to the next thing you’ll need to have in place before you can completely remove yourself from the business.

STEP 5: Use a TRAINABLE lead conversion system.

When you start generating a lot of leads, what you may find, is that you are generating more leads than you can handle in addition to what you’re already doing.

That’s why it’s important to have a SYSTEM to help identify who the very best prospects are, so you can focus your limited time and attention on THEM instead of the people who are NOT true prospects.

Ultimately, what we’re looking for is a system that can be run without YOU so in order to get consistent results, we need to have a consistent measurement to decide who are the prospects we’d like to work with.

What I’m always looking for are what I call “5-Star Prospects”

5-star prospects are people who are.

1) Willing to engage in a dialogue

2) Friendly and co-operative when you talk to them

3) They know what they want (and are realisitic)

4) They’re moving in the next 6 – 12 months

5) They’d like you to help them

In order to be successful as a massive lead generator, I’ve learned that you’ve got to be able to identify very quickly the people who have the highest chance of becoming your client, and focus all of your attention on those people.

The corollary to that, is quickly identifying the people who are NOT going to be your clients and letting them go.

QUICKLY.

That’s the key.

It’s better to know you’re not going to be able to help them right from the start, than to HOPE you’ll be able to help them, and bang your head against the wall.

Most of the trouble in lead generation and follow-up comes from spending time with 2, 3 or 4 star prospects.

That’s what gets frustrating. No matter how hard you try, You can’t CREATE 5-Star Prospects, you can only DISCOVER them.

If they’re not 5-Star prospects, it’s better for you to know it up front and move on.

This weeding out at the beginning is the first step in a GREAT lead conversion process.

PLUS: it’s trainable.

Once you know what you’re looking for, and you have it written down, and can explain it. Anyone could do it.

Anyone can have a conversation with a new lead and find out whether they meet the 5 requirements we’re looking for in a potential new client.

With a simple checklist and some training that may involve listening and watching YOU have a few of those initial new lead conversations (or listening to them on tape) – even a BLUE MAN could do it 🙂

That’s what we’re looking for!

So, now you’ve got a way to generate leads WITHOUT YOU, and a trainable way for SOMEONE ELSE to determine whether they are real prospects or not.you’re more than half way to a system that can make money whether you show up or not.

The next thing you need to do is.

Step 6: Improve and AUTOMATE your follow-up system.

Here are some interesting facts about leads:

-Half of them are NEVER followed up!

-Just over HALF of the people who inquire WILL buy a house in the next 12 months.

-Of those who DO buy a house – only 15% of them will do it in the next 90-days.

That means 85% of the leads you generate TODAY are more likely to buy 90-days or more from now, so the longer you can keep in contact with them.the better chance you have of working with them when they’re ready.

The good news is you won’t have much competition.

Most of your competitors are more likely to have a 6 DAY follow up program than a 6 or 12 MONTH follow-up program.

Successful lead generators realize that the real EQUITY of their lead generation program is in the future. The NEW leads are not the HOT leads.

There WILL be some people who want to buy a house right away.

About 15% of them.

And you could make a good living and return on investment just working with the ones who want to buy now.but the BIG return on your investment will come when you’ve got a SYSTEM to keep in touch with the 5-Star Prospects for a year.

You’ll be the only one consistently following up with them.

They’ll appreciate it.

They’ll call you when they get ready to move.

I promise.

So, what do you do to follow up with them.

Here’s what I did with the Guide To Halton Hills leads.

I’d find the 5-star prospects, and weed out the others.

Twice a month, I’d send a letter along with some clippings of local real estate news and all the new listings in their price range.

Like clockwork.

Every other Tuesday.

Rain or shine.

Want to know how I was consistently able to make that happen every 2 weeks?

Simple. I had someone ELSE do it.

Darlene.

She was much more dependable than me. She would make sure the mailings went out every time..on time.

Since it was her only responsibility for those Tuesday afternoons, it got done.

I showed her how to do it ONE time, and she took over.

Nothing else got in the way of her doing that mailing.

Not like me. If it was up to me, something else would always get in the way. Appointments. Offers. Emergencies. Golf.

Having Darlene was my ticket to freedom.

Having a Darlene of your own to manage a follow-up system will make your life better. It only has to be for a few hours every other week to start.

You can have someone come in just to manage your follow-up system two afternoons a month.and you don’t have to worry about it at all.

I hope I’ve done two things for you this week. I hope I’ve at least planted the seed of possibility for making money in your business without being involved in it.and I hope I’ve inspired you to take some action about it!

I know the most important thing you need to grow your business right now, is a predictable way to get listings and find buyers.

That’s why I spend all my time thinking about and developing tools to automate
that process for you.

On September 14th, I’m going to be hosting a teleseminar series called “The Art Of Finding, Getting, and Selling Listings”

So, if you’d like to get MORE listings for LESS money this fall – and get a BIG head start on next year’s spring market, head over to GettingListings.com and register TODAY!

I hope you can join me.

Let me know…

Next week I’m going to be back with another Marketing Monday full of ideas to find buyers, get listings and convert leads.

PS – Are you the subscriber of the week? Check out the message board to see…and claim your prize!