I know that may sound like a strange title but stay with me, OK? This morning like every morning I looked at my horoscope in the paper. By the way I am a Virgo. Today’s reads “Multi- tasking is the only way you can be sure of accomplishing your goals.”
Whether you believe in horoscopes or not, there is a valuable lesson here I want to share with you. First, let me say I am a hyper –A type ADHD personality. So maybe these things are true? Who knows?
Think about what you do during the day. Most of us only really “work” a few hours a day. In fact, a recent study has shown the time of actual work to be 53 minutes of the average eight-hour day.
We read. We answer e-mails. We surf the net. We look out the window. We get interrupted by our staff. We see what’s for lunch or dinner. So let me share a few ideas with you that will make you much more efficient and hopefully make you more money.
Our job is truly a juggling act. We must market our services or we don’t close loans. Then we must meet with the clients. In our niche of reverse mortgages our customers, their advisors, and their families generally have many questions and we must be sensitive to make them comfortable.
Then we have to make sure they have been through counseling. Then take the application. Make sure the appraisal has been ordered. Review it. Coordinate with the title company. Make sure the loan closes properly. Do you attend the closing? How are you following up afterward? Wow—I am getting tired just writing this.
The problem is an eternal one in our industry. Ever notice the peaks and valleys in your business and of course in your income. It’s very simple. When you are busy originating you stop marketing—no time, right? Then you close all of your loans and wake up and say, “Oh no! I better get busy getting some new deals.”
This vicious cycle continues all year, every year. So what’s the solution? Well, honestly there are a few. So let me list them here.
- Block at least two hours a week undisturbed to work on your business instead of working in it. During these two hours you need to review your marketing plan and implement new techniques and improve the ones you are currently using.
- Work in 45 minute spurts—uninterrupted. This is a very little known technique yet it is highly effective. Concentrate for the full 45 minutes. In fact Sue and I use an egg timer for this. No phones. No e-mails. No “Crack-berry” going off. Just focused attention on the task.
- Make sure you are not doing $10 an hour work. What I mean here is that you should not be doing tasks that are not related to marketing your services, originating, or closing loans. Sue has admitted in the past she was guilty of this.
Sending out your newsletter, licking stamps, etc. is work you need to outsource. So now go back and mentally think about your own day. Were you effective? Did you accomplish what you needed to? If not you now have some tips to use to increase your commissions and your sanity!
Sue Haviland and Brian Sacks are the co-founders of
