When scaling up, many agents make the mistake of hiring too many people, too fast. It’s better to approach it methodically, and slowly add leverage. Should your first key hire be a buyer’s agent or an admin assistant? How do you know that you’re leveraged the right way? How do we push through the uncomfortable moments that come with growth? On this episode, team owner Dan Holt shares on the “good, bad, and ugly” of growth, and how he got through it.

As far as a team, you’re really more in the people business. Understand that those people are your clients now. -Dan Holt

3 Things We Learned From This Episode

• Make the right first hire (09:07 - 09:49)

  When our businesses are in the growth phase, we should consider hiring an assistant first to take work off our plate. Hiring a buyer’s agent first is a mistake a lot of us make. When we have an admin, we’re giving away only 5% of the paycheck, but with a buyer’s agent we’re giving away 50%. A buyer’s agent will eat into our profits at a time we should be careful with our spending.

• Don’t put too many useless tasks on your plate (11:32 - 12:01)

  Instead of focusing on our highest dollar producing activity, a lot of us make the mistake of trying too many tasks at once. Being an entrepreneur isn’t about doing as many tasks as possible-- it’s about narrowing our focus to what is most profitable.

• People are the reason for our successes and failure too (21:48 - 22:00)

  The better the talent, the fewer times we have to hire. If our biggest successes come from the people we’ve placed in our business, then we also have to accept the fact that our biggest failures can come from the times we’ve tried to cut corners and hired the wrong people.

Whether we choose a path of complacency or a path of success, it’s going to be hard either way. It’s challenging to work hard and push ourselves for our team, but it’s also hard to struggle and scrape by if we don’t strive for success. Keep in mind, it can also be super rewarding to figure out how to be a systems builder, a manager, a leader and a visionary. Ultimately, growth is going to be sloppy and hard at times, but if we follow the systems without taking shortcuts, we’ll reach our goals.

Guest Bio- Dan Holt is the broker/owner of The Dan Holt Team in Springfield, Missouri. Dan entered the real estate industry in 1999 and began by building homes. He learned the market and began to grow his team through other real estate professionals who desired to be number one just like himself. He attributes his success in today's fiercely competitive marketplace to his unique Team Partnership concept. Go to https://www.thedanholtteam.com/ for more information.