Those of us with children know that you can’t tell them anything…
There’s Simon Shinerock, a director of Angels Media (our friendly rivals, Estate Agent Today etc) and chairman of Choices, writing on April 18th in EAT about ‘Why working from home isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be’.
“Which brings me to the question of what the industry will look like post-crisis.
“Will we see a mass closure of high street offices as traditional agents are eclipsed by the new breed of self-employed working from home or from a regional network hub?
“Interestingly, the predictions vary greatly.
“For example, Keller Williams confidently predicts its model will prevail as do a host of work from home franchises, strange that.
“I also believe that for all the reasons mentioned above, most agents won’t be effective working on a self-employed franchised basis, from home or anywhere else.”
“There is more than one way to skin a cat, it’s just that some ways are better than others and in estate agency, it’s my belief the high street is still the best way.”
Seems that Simon Shinerock’s son, Josh, either doesn’t read EAT or he’s not taking his dad’s advice about work from home franchises.
Kids eh?
https://www.facebook.com/notes/sheryl-thomas-estate-agents-powered-by-keller-williams/changing-the-perception-of-estate-agents/108942554214859/
Comments (7)
Shinerock Junior at KW …….. Trojan Horse 😉
I agree, I’m sure it will Simon
Oh well, I guess I’m bang to rights on this one! I would just say that I stick by my assessment that working from home isn’t for everyone and that the high st will prevail as the mainstream business model. That said, being self employed will work for some, Josh may well be one of them, after all he is my son and has worked with me for nearly ten years so should have a fighting chance and I support him in his ambition to strike out in his own, sometimes it’s not easy being the son of a successful businessman. I also believe Having the structure of a Franchise or network makes sense, at least for a while. However, in order for a Franchise to have lasting value I believe it needs a true USP, otherwise it becomes more of a network much like they have in financial services, not a bad thing in and of itself, just a different model. One way or the other time will tell but I’m sure the experience will be a positive one
Ewemove and other independent niche agencies have proven that the key to ‘nonITZA’ agency is being a good agent.
10 years working at Choices means Josh will know what he has to do and how to do it. I wish him well.
I’d agree with that Robert. Being a great agent comes first. Then choosing a model that allows you to maximise your customer-facing time to ‘sell and win new business’ is critical. Often being tied to a shop on the High Street means you can’t meet clients in their home as often as you might like, as you have to stay in the shop.
As we know at EweMove, what great agents want is the right level of support that takes away the burden of ‘managing a business’ and allows them to be what they are, which is great agents.
Having a brand behind you that people know and trust, having all your marketing designed and ready to deploy means yet more time that is otherwise spent on non-sales activity as a business owner (in this example developing your marketing strategy and collateral) is saved and can be spent on sales activity, which generates revenue.
The same applies to our IT infrastructure. All cloud-based and suitable to be deployed anywhere, in a shop, a serviced office, or from home at the will of our agents (some of whom do operate from the High Street). So we were, as it turns out, already COVID-19 lockdown ‘ready’, before anyone knew what COVID-19 was. Hence our agents were active throughout the lockdown.
I could go on, but seeing our new sales listings up +17% in June, compared to our best month ever historically (which was May 2019) and +26% higher than Feb 2020 is great to see and does demonstrate that you don’t need to be tied to the High Street to ensure success.
If “being a great agent comes first” is important why do you take on so many new franchisees that have never worked in estate agency before? Lambs to slaughter springs to mind!
All great agents were once not agents. Or great at something else….I count myself among them….