Feeling overwhelmed by how much you have to do? Have you kept up with the rapid changes in technology? If the increasingly fast pace of the real estate business is draining your energy, a "systems" approach may be exactly what you need to put you back in control.

Having "systems" that support you and your business is critical to surviving in today's fast paced environment. A "system" can be something as simple as taking a different route to work each day to search for For Sale By Owners or as complex as doing virtually all aspects of your business on-line. The key is the system is "repeatable," reduces time and effort, and yields consistent results. If you're interested in working smarter rather than harder, here are eight areas where you can begin "systematizing" your business.

1. Simplify your phone and message system. Get rid of your beeper, change your cell phone number (and don't give the new number to your clients), and have all messages flow into a single number. Change the message on your voicemail daily indicating the date, the time period where you'll be returning calls (say from 3:00-5:00 PM), which of your listings are available, and which are under contract. Check your messages every 1-2 hours and return what is urgent. Answer the remaining messages at the time you specified in your voicemail. By checking only one place for messages and letting callers know you'll be returning calls at a specified time, you are now free to work more efficiently without phone or beeper interruptions.

2. Use "electronic forms" to write your offers, counteroffers, and listings. If your Board of Realtors doesn't have these forms, you can do your offers and counteroffers on your computer rather than laboriously writing out these documents by hand. Once completed, you can email the document to your buyers or sellers and have them fax back the signed copy saving you both time and gasoline.

3. Prospect using an email newsletter. Instead of expensive mailing pieces, use a newsletter service like those provided by Realtytimes.com or Inman.com. For a nominal fee, you can send a customized email newsletter to your customer and client lists. For additional information visit:

http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtapages/NLplus_FAQ.htm OR

http://www.inman.com/content/starting.asp

4. Set up your own personal referral base. If your company does not provide "Concierge" services (a single phone number where customers and clients can get assistance with any aspect of their move from repair people, furnishings, warehouse storage, etc.), put together your own referral network. This is a great way to give and receive referrals from trusted service providers.

5. Promote your open houses on-line each week through your own web site as well as nationally through:
http://www.realtyonline.net/PreferredSite/PreferredWebPage.asp

6. Track your transactions on-line with an automatic system that emails your customers and clients with updates. For as little as $20.00 per month, you can set up your own transaction items, access your transactions from any computer with Web access, automatically be reminded via email of important dates as well as update your clients via email when you make a change. To learn more, visit:

http://www.realtyonline.net/Default2.asp

to view a sample of this service. Since it automatically updates your clients when you make changes, this is a great way to increase "client contact" throughout the course of the transaction. It's also a powerful tool on listing presentations to help you differentiate yourself from the competition.

7. Delegate your Internet marketing efforts. There are a wide variety of options. Based on our personal experience at www.RealEstateCoach.com, hiring a "virtual" assistant is the best option Visit http://www.assistu.com to learn more about this incredible service. You can also have a service such as http://www.goto.com set up your "meta tags" to help drive more traffic to your web site.

8. Use an 800 number as the contact number on all your listings. This allows you to capture valid phone numbers on any lead who calls on your listings or advertisements. Wondering where you should begin? Start with whatever is easiest and then add one new idea each month. In 8 months you'll have them all of them in place and watch how your systems "Make your business go and grow!"

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Bernice Ross, Ph.D. and Byron Van Arsdale own and operate www.RealEstateCoach.com, the most comprehensive source for training and coaching via telephone in the real estate industry. If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our complimentary newsletter, Real Clues on our web site at www.RealEstateCoach.com. While you're visiting our site, check out our training and coaching programs as well as over 200 pages of ideas on how to have a great life and a great business.

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