Balancing Two Jobs
I get it. Real estate isn’t just easy money that roles in on its own. Not only does it take work, but it takes time to build a business and a pipeline of clients. That doesn’t mean you get a pass on paying your bills.
So now what?
There are more than a few real estate agents out there who manage both working as an agent and in another job that provides a more steady stream of income. Whether you are new in real estate or are having a slower stretch in your existing real estate career, here are some tips for you to balance a two-job situation.
1. Understand input and income are directly related. Most people understand that, in a ‘normal’ job, the more you work the more you make. If you don’t work many hours in a given pay period, you aren’t going to get much in your paycheck.
Real estate really is the same. It is very much a case of you get out of it what you put in. It takes effort and time to build a real estate business. Not everyone is going to buy or sell the day that you talk to them. It takes time to build those relationships and get potential clients to the point of making a move.
If you are going to take on another job for more steady income, how much time will that take from you building your real estate business? Let’s be honest, it is going to take time away from real estate. Now that may be a necessary tradeoff. Just be realistic in your expectations from each.
2. Set boundaries for each job. Like taking a bull by the horns, if you don’t control it, it will control you. Following up from tip one, set the number of hours you are going to work in your other job. Then set aside hours specifically for your real estate business. Hold yourself accountable for that time like your boss holds you accountable at the other job. The catchphrase here is ‘time blocking’.
3. Use your resources. What aspects of your real estate work can you automate? What tools does your brokerage provide to help you with efficiency?
Look at it this way – there are high productivity activities and low productivity activities. Prospecting gets you more clients and more clients make you more money. Getting your paperwork into the system at the office may be required for you to get paid, but it doesn’t directly make you money. Is there someone at the office that can help with getting paperwork uploaded? It may even cost you a few bucks, but if you could instead use that time to pick up even one new client, would paying that fee to the office be worth it?
What can you use AI to build for you (always with your review before sending to the world)? Can you create and schedule a whole series of social media posts in one sitting so that they just automatically go out while you are perhaps working your other job?
4. Focus on the most productive. You may feel the need to do a wide variety of things to keep your real estate business running. But how many of those things truly contribute to your success? You may produce a weekly 60-minute social video. That’s great. What’s your viewership? What response are you getting from those videos? Are clicks and views translating into clients? If you ask your most recent clients and none of them even know you do weekly videos, then maybe the videos aren’t the best use of your limited time.
When your time is limited by multiple jobs, you need to focus on efficiency and productivity. To go back to my days of framing houses, a pair of pliers can be used to drive a nail. But if I have a hundred nails to drive in before first break, I’m not using pliers to do it. I’m going to get a good, heavy hammer. That hammer will do the job easier, faster, and at a higher quality. What is your hammer for your real estate business?
5. Healthy accountability is healthy. If you are human, your attention and efforts will wander. It’s just the reality of being human. Find a trusted partner to hold you accountable. That may be your broker, team lead, officemate, or a good friend. Educate them on your goals, boundaries, and challenges. Then ask them to regularly check in and ask how you are doing in each of those areas.
If you are a people-pleaser like me, some of those check-ins are going to hurt a little. But if you have the right accountability partner, they truly are focused on improving growth and success rather than just getting hung up on your failures.
Sound like a lot to accomplish? You don’t have to do it all at once. Pick one of these five tips that could have the most impact for you personally and start there. When you have a good foundation in that area, use that success as a springboard to take on another tip. A hard truth for many people is that you will never reach perfection. But the freedom in that statement is that you don’t have to worry about being perfect. Instead, just be a little better than yesterday.