10/7/09
I’m admittedly not a fan of the term “downtime” in business, because too often when I hear the term it is used as an excuse for not putting forth more effort. In fact, I work with agents every day who think that because it’s the beginning of the year “things are slow.” Another favorite of mine is “I’m waiting for the market to stabilize.”
This presents us with a paradox: Things are slow because of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Things are slow because it’s early in the year (i.e. Jan, Feb and Mar). I’m not a mathematician, but it does look like that accounts for 5 months out of the year…almost half a year. So that leaves 7 months to make a 12 month living. I don’t know any successful full-time agents who regard their job as “seasonal.”
I originally wrote about this topic on my ActiveRain blog in January 2008, and with winter quickly approaching I think now is a good time to address this topic again:)
Now I do realize that this time of year can be less busy in some areas. If this is the case for you, take advantage of the time you have to kickstart things for 2010 by diving in and having fun helping people.
Whether you’re happy doing 2 or 3 settlements a month or you want to do more, take a look at this article from RIS Media (my favorite REsource) for some really nice ideas:
http://www.rismedia.com/wp/2007-12-22/10-ways-to-utilize-winter-downtime-create-a-profitable-2008
