Category Archives: Business

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How to Shave 30 Minutes a Day Managing Email

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If you are like me, you have learned to hate email.  I remember when email was the “new thing.”  Getting email gave you that warm and fuzzy feeling.  It made you feel important.  Remember the movie You’ve Got Mail?

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Email has now become a drug, and we are addicted.  As a major form of communication in the Commercial Real Estate industry, many CRE practitioners feel like they must check their smart phone every five minutes.  Show of hands:  who checks their phone before they even get out of bed?  Guilty here.

Beyond that, email has become the Great Interrupter of the day.  How often are you plugging away on a task – making great progress – and that beep and corresponding box at the bottom of your screen pops up.  You are derailed and may not be able to regain your focus.  This is why I hate email – always distracting.

It is possible to control this fire hose of hundreds of emails that scream for our attention every day.  And it is completely possible to shave a minimum of 30 minutes a day that otherwise is spent managing emails.  For me, a self-proclaimed efficiency nerd, 30 minutes a day is huge!

Now, you can go the scorched Earth route espoused by Tim Ferriss in his best-seller The 4-Hour Work Week.  His method has more to do with ignoring email and training everyone to know that you only respond to it once a week.  That just doesn’t fit the CRE industry.  Instead, I use a method that I learned and tweaked from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen.

  1. Clear Your Inbox Daily – This is a commitment.  Without this step, the system fails.  Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I [state your name], do herby commit to clearing my inbox on a daily basis.”  You must change your behavior for this to work, and it will be hard.  I’ve read numerous places that it takes 21 iterations to establish a habit.  Commit for the next 3 weeks to clear your inbox daily.
  2. Read an Email Only Once – My Achilles heel in this system is having that one email that I don’t know what to do with – so I ignore it.  You do too.  Only read an email once, then run this triage.  Can I accomplish this task in 2 minutes?  If so, Do It Now!  Be done with it!  If it would take longer than 2 minutes, then you must decide:
    • Delete It – if it is spam (unsolicited email), or something that requires no action and contains nothing you need later, then press delete.  And don’t just press delete, do so quickly and with gusto!
    • Delegate it – I’m passionate about teams and systems.  If someone else on your team can deal with that email, then delegate.  Delegating anything to anyone that can accomplish the task frees you up to do the tasks that only you can do.  Those tasks should be HDA’s (High Dollar Activities).  The more time you spend on these tasks, the more you will make.  Simple as that!
    • Defer it – Sometimes you get those emails that don’t require something to be done, but is information that you will need later.  In that case, file it.  My filing system consists of two folders.  I have an Actionable Emails folder of emails that will require a task that takes longer than 2 minutes.  The other is the Reference folder.  If an email contains information that I will need later, I dump it here.  Note:  the more complex your filing system, the less likely you are to use it.  Keep it simple!  I use Gmail and the search feature is so good that it allows for an ultra-simple filing system.
    • Do it – Again, if it can be done in 2 minutes or less, deal with that email now and be done with it.
  3. Turn the Notifications Off – This is such a simple step, but it has a huge impact.  Do not allow your emails to be flung at you like darts to a dart board.  You can control when you check your email.  Do so.
  4. Use Filters – As I said before, I use Gmail.  It allows me to set up filters that will automatically weed out the emails that I do not want to see in my inbox.  Pay attention as you are clearing your inbox for the next 21 days.  What emails do you repeatedly not read and just get rid of?  Set up filters (or rules if you are an Outlook user, and I feel for you!) to do the work for you.

What would you do with 30 extra minutes a day?  What other ways do you manage the daily email onslaught?  Join the conversation and leave your comments below.

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12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! Part 2

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The path to success is not clearly marked.  It is muddled.  It is foggy.  You realize you have gone off the path as you get up from the ditch.  In this 2-part post, I want to help shed light on the path to success by sharing the 12 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!  In this post, I cover the second 6 keys.  (You can find Part 1 here.)

In my last post, I introduced the first 6 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!  Before I share 7 – 12, let me briefly review the first 6:

  1. Obtain Knowledge
  2. Become a Student of Top Producers
  3. Hire a coach!
  4. Go to Conferences
  5. Read!
  6. Systematize Your Business

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!

7.  Use Technology for its Time Management & Efficiency Benefits – I am not the tech geek that can explain to you how things actually work.  I just love using technology to squeeze more productivity out of a day.  Top producers are fanatical about time management and efficiency.  I have written posts that go into more depth about this:

8.  Build a Team – Top producers are team oriented.  Top Producers are not loners.  They don’t try to do everything.  They understand the value of a team.  And not only just having a team, but maximizing the production of that team.  Rod Santomassimo discusses this in his best-selling CRE book – Brokers Who Dominate.  Beyond the fact that I am profiled – along with about 22 others – this is must reading for any CRE practitioner.

Top producing brokerage teams are generally made up of a Senior Producer (Rainmaker), and Junior/New to the Business advisor, and an administrative assistant.  The key to the best teams is hiring/recruiting well and assigning tasks according to the strengths of the team.  The best teams run like a well-oiled machine (or the Colts offense in the 2nd half of Sunday’s game!).  They do so because everyone knows the plays.  They know their roles.  Systems and communication are vital.  Read more about systems here.

9.  Treat Your Business Like a Business – The alternative is treating it like a hobby.  You’d be shocked at how many brokers treat their businesses like a hobby.  I can look at your books and tell you in 30 seconds whether you have a hobby or a business.  The difference?  Brokers that treat their business like a business invest in it.  They spend money hiring a coach.  They advertise.  They go to conferences (see key #4 above).  They hire talented team members.  Brokers that have a hobby tend to whine about not having money to put in their business.  It is really that simple.  Top producers invest in their business.

10.  Focused and Positive – Top producers work while they are at work.  This seems so simple, but it is not.  Top producers don’t spend much time chatting with others in the office.  They are not found at the water cooler.  They never take an hour “off” for lunch.  They may have a lunch meeting, but they never shut it down for an hour in the middle of the day.

They also have unwavering positive attitudes.  PMA – positive mental attitude.  They choose to be positive – optimistic.  They understand the message of Dead Poet’s Society because they live it.

11.  Specialization – In retrospect, specialization should be #2 on the list.  Top producers are not generalists.  They specialize in an asset vertical or at least a geography.  (I have to throw the geography part in here because I am a small town geographical specialist – at least in part.)  This allows them to create presence as an expert – to be the go-to guy.  If you are the broker who will work on anything – stop it.  Pick a lane and become the subject matter expert in that lane.

12.  Passion – Top producers bleed passion.  It oozes out of their pores.  They can’t wait to get to work in the morning and absolutely love what they do.  Everyone has tough days, but passion is what top producers rely on to persevere.  Passion is the ingredient that brings the other 11 keys together into a sum that is much great than its parts.  Passion sells – it is obvious to your clients whether you possess it – or you don’t!

So those are my 12 keys.  Which one speaks to you as most important?  What did I leave off the list?  I encourage you to share your thoughts below!
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12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! Part 1

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This post is the first in a two-part series on Top Producers.  You can find the second part here.

The Commercial Real Estate industry – or any industry really – is often so different from the Marine Corps.  I’m specifically thinking about advancement – growth – achievement.  In the Marines, there was a formula for promotion – at least at the lower enlisted ranks.  I knew exactly how to earn promotion.

Time in Grade – Time in Service – Physical Fitness Test (PFT) score – Education.  Add it all up, and you were ranked against all your peers.  You always knew where you stood.

Not so in CRE – or any other industry I’ve seen.  The path to success is not clearly marked.  It is muddled.  It is foggy.  You realize you have gone off the path as you get up from the ditch.

In this 2-part post, I want to help shed light on the path to success by sharing the 12 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!

  1. Obtain Knowledge – In the Commercial Real Estate industry, the best place to start is the CCIM Curriculum.  It is the best I’ve seen.  Additionally, regularly meet with and befriend commercial lenders, property owners, appraisers, and other agents.  They can give you key insights into your market.  Purpose to be the absolute market expert in your geography and niche.  You can do this quickly, but it is hard work.  Knowledge is what makes you valuable to those you wish to serve.  The following keys are meaningless without it.
  2. Become a Student of Top Producers – Find the top producers in your office or market.  Study them.  Ask them to meet with you.  Learn when they get to the office.  Dress like they dress.  Do what they do.  Read what they read.  How many calls do they make in a week?  How many meetings do they have?  Go and do likewise.  You do not need to recreate the wheel.
  3. Hire a coach – Nothing will speed your progress and personal growth faster than hiring the best coach you can afford.  All the best athletes in the world have coaches.  I have paid for a personal coach for 3 years now.  It is an investment in myself and my company and worth every penny.  It is like strapping a jet-pack on my back in my flight to success.  Here are 6 reasons why:
    • A coach allows you to learn from someone that has successfully walked the road that is ahead of you.
    • A coach prevents you from making crippling mistakes.
    • A coach gives you a fresh and objective set of eyes on your business.
    • A coach provides accountability for what you have committed to do.
    • A coach facilitates clarity.  This is huge and often so hard to grasp while inside your own business.
    • A coach evaluates honestly.  From an independent and objective place, a coach can critically critique or encourage according to the need of the moment.
  4. Go to Conferences – Go to your company’s conference.  Go to industry conferences like the CCIM/IREM National Conference or the ICSC.  These events can completely broaden your thinking.  You can expand your network and learn from the best.  I always leave a conference with new connections that I’m thankful to have met as well as great actionable ideas to move my business forward.  Here are some conferences I plan to attend in the coming months and years:
  5. Read – I’ve read and been told that once you’ve read 3 books on a subject, you are an expert in that subject.  Just 3 books.  Top Performers are constantly sharpening their skills by reading.  When I wanted to learn the sales process, I read the classic Tom Hopkins book How to Master the Art of Selling.  When I wanted to learn more about building a platform and blogging, I read the new best-seller Platform by Michael Hyatt.  When I wanted to improve my impact with an elevator speech, I read a great book Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect by Terri Sjodin.  And this can be so cheap!  Go check 3 books (or audio-books) out from your local library and be an expert in a month!
  6. Systematize Your Business – Systems allow you to break a process or procedure down into its smallest parts.  You then delegate those tasks to your team.  This allows them to operate in their giftedness (if you hired well).  You then do only the tasks that only you can do – HDAs!  High Dollar Activities.  I’ve written an entire post on this topic that you can read here.
Be on the lookout for the second post detailing the other 6 keys to become a top performer – faster!  In the meantime, what would you add to the list?
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The 3 Main Differences Between Prospecting and Building Presence

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I learned the Commercial Real Estate business from my dad.  Our family goes back at least 7 generations in this town.  To say that my old man knows everyone is an understatement.

Growing up, my dad’s signs were everywhere – and his face was on them all.  I couldn’t go anywhere without him staring at me.  Those signs probably kept me from making stupid decisions on more than one occasion.  When it came to Commercial Real Estate, he was top of mind – still is, really.  He had created tremendous presence.

He had created so much presence that I don’t remember ever seeing him do much prospecting.  Business just walked in the door – it would just come to us.  Huge blessing.  And that was before 2008.

Most of you don’t have the blessing of being 7th generation in a smaller town where generations of your family have been high-profile.  That is my advantage here.  Most of you are from larger cities.  Most of you have stiff competition.  Top performing CRE practitioners do not take things for granted.  They systematize their businesses.  Two critical systems that must be in place deal with Prospecting and Creating Presence.

These two systems are both similar and very different at the same time.  I have this conversations with my coaching clients on a regular basis.  Some of the activities that you do in your practice will fit into one or the other – or sometimes cross over into both.  So let’s define the 3 main differences between these two essential parts of your business.

3 Differences Between Prospecting and Creating Presence

1.  Purpose – The first and overarching difference is the purpose.  When you are Prospecting, your purpose is ASKING FOR THE BUSINESS!  If you aren’t asking for the business – you aren’t Prospecting.

Creating Presence is completely different.  Here you are trying to become and remain top of mind.  This is all about building relationships and adding value.

2.  Methods – Methods is the reason confusion exists between Prospecting and Creating Presence.  The methods for accomplishing these two systems are extremely similar.  Only because the purpose is different is there much differentiation.  In both systems, you send letters, make calls, have meetings, etc.

An example of Prospecting is when I go after a Dollar General store.  I send a letter.  I follow-up with a call to someone I haven’t met before.  I go for a meeting and then ask for their business.

When I’m Creating Presence, I send letters as well.  But I want VIPs to get something from me of value.  I call to schedule meetings.  I’m not asking for business.  Instead, I’m working on building relationships that can lead to business and referrals in the future.  The methods are similar – the purpose is what makes them different.

3.  Results – The result of Prospecting is getting the listings that you proactively pursue.  You decide what you want to go kill and bring home.  You do the research, find the properties and their owners, and go after them.  This is proactive and gives you more control over what your business looks like.

The result of Creating Presence is like what I described of my dad.  He was top of mind.  When someone had a problem or an opportunity related to Commercial Real Estate, calling him was a no-brainer.  You know that you’ve created presence when business starts coming to you.  You aren’t competing.  Business is being referred to you.  Here you are more beholden to what the market offers up, but it is so much easier.

What other ways are Prospecting and Creating Presence different?  Or the same?  Do you simply rely on your presence to bring you business?  In what ways would your business change if you prospected for the business you actually wanted to do?

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The Day I Followed and Disagreed with Brian Tracy

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About a year ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the national Sperry Van Ness convention in San Diego.  I’d never been to San Diego – that town rocks!  I was to speak on how to use LinkedIn to connect with prospects and aid in prospecting.  I have spoken at the Sperry Van Ness convention a couple of times before – always on some aspect of Social Media.

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I was to speak after lunch.  Right before lunch, the best-selling author and prolific speaker Brian Tracy spoke.  He gave a fantastic keynote on goals.  It was the best I’d ever heard on that subject.  However, at some point in his speech, he basically said that social media had no place in sales.  You might get known, but you’d be known and broke.  I felt 200 pairs of eyes turn and look at me – at least it felt that way.

I disagree with Brian Tracy, but he is also exactly right.  I’ve never made a sale directly from a tweet.  That may never happen.  You make a mistake when you make the means the end.  Social Media is a means to connect, build relationships, and add value.  Social Media is about connecting as humans – having an impact on someone.  Chris Brogan has a new book coming out called The Impact Equation that makes this point.

Over the past month, I’ve connected with @theBrokerList.  TheBrokerList.com is the idea of Linda Day Harrison, and is the first online CRE broker directory – very cool.  (Go ahead and stop reading this post and check it out.)  We actually spoke on the phone yesterday.  It turns out that she married into a family that is from where I went to college.  My mom is from her hometown, and I have a brother living there now.

I now like Linda on a personal level.  See how that works?  On a professional level, I am going to do some guest blogging on www.theBrokerList.com.  This helps her by bringing attention and fresh content to her site.  It helps me by giving me exposure to her viewers.  Now that I know her a bit and like her, I want to help her.

This is the power of connecting with a person versus generating retweets.  I tell stories in my blog posts because I want readers to connect with me on a personal level.  All of life is about relationships – relationships with your spouse, your family, your boss, your employees.  Business is about building relationships with prospects, earning the right to call them clients, serving them until you become a trusted advisor, and on….

Social Media is simply a new and trendy vehicle to accomplish the same end:  connecting with people.  I now find it ironic that I follow Brian Tracy (@briantracy) on Twitter.  He sells too much there – hehe.

How do you use Social Media to connect with people?  To build relationships?  To add value to people’s lives?  When do you make the means the end?  When was the last time you checked your Klout score?
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How Physics is Similar to Your Business

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The Avengers came out yesterday.  Big moment for my family.  I would be Iron Man – coolest cat on the planet.  My wife is a big fan of Thor.  I’ve tried to pull of that accent but it doesn’t do it for her.  My 10-year-old would be Captain America, and he should.  He already has that True North sense of right and wrong.  My 6-year-old goes between the Hulk and Hawk-eye.  My daughter still doesn’t understand the rules and ran into the living room with a Spiderman costume on.  It is futility explaining to a 3-year-old that Spiderman wasn’t an Avenger – not to mention he didn’t have a pony-tail.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I bring up the Avengers for a different reason, though.  I feel like the Hulk is sitting on my face.  I have the distinct pleasure of having both nostrils out of commission.  So, I’m going to tell a quick story and then ask a few questions.  Then I’m going to bed.

 

The Story

This may be hard to believe, but my favorite subject in high school was physics.  I am a thinker.  I’m not sure why.  I’m not much of a feeler, a bit more of a doer, but definitely a thinker.  I want to know why stuff works the way it does.  Physics was full of ‘Aha’ moments for me.  I remember when Mr. Claypool showed me the formula behind why a curved road is banked at a certain degree.  This was super cool to me.

I remember toying with actually majoring in Physics in college.  Turns out that I majored in playing guitar into wee hours of the morning and dropping class….  My youngest brother is currently studying physics at my college right now.  In some ways I envy him.

But enough about physics.  Do you know how Physics is like Commercial Real Estate – or any other business?

If A=B and B=C then A=C

What do I mean, you say?  Consider this about your business.  What works?  What led up to that big sale – that big deal?  Did you know that if you repeat certain patterns you will get certain desired outcomes?  My business of CRE is just like yours in this regard.

The question is how do we do more of those patterns to get more of those desired outcomes?  You need a formula that works.

In my business and with my coaching clients, we call these systems.  I understand that if I send out this many letters and follow-up with this many cold calls, then I will get this many meetings.  If I get this many meetings, I will win this many assignments.  This is prospecting, and it needs to be a system.

Repeat certain behaviors to achieve desired results.

A Few Questions

Why don’t you systematize your business?  One of my hero’s in the business spends 2 hours a day cold-calling.  He’s the boss of is office.  He is working a system.  And he’s killing it.

Have you ever sat down with your team to brainstorm what works – and what doesn’t?  You’d be shocked at what you find out.  That is, if you’ve created a team that trusts enough to tell you truth.  Break things down to their smallest parts.  Delegate.  Maximize efficiencies.  Spend more time with clients and prospects.  Let your staff do anything that they can do so that you can do the tasks that only you can do!  Systematize!

What’s keeping you from taking that time needed to work ON your business instead of IN your business?  Something to think about:  top performers have accountability and coaches.

Let me hear your thoughts.

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My Tools to Manage Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day

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One of the most frequent questions that I get as I speak to groups is how I manage twitter.  No one believes that it only takes 15 minutes or less a day.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let me clarify.  In one of my previous posts – The Rule of Thirds – I shared the 3 types of tweets that you should be using:  curating original or other great content, engaging with others, and getting a little personal.  The key to the first category of curating original or other great content is getting the tweets done and scheduled at one time.

So without further ado, here is my list of time-saving tools.

Chrome – Chrome is Google’s web browser.  It is fast and has a simplistic elegance.  I also want Google to like me.  My favorite thing about Chrome is that it has a ton of add-on apps.  Two of them I will describe below – huge time-savers.  I also use the Chrome App on my shiny new iPhone 5.  All my bookmarks transfer – it is beautiful.  If you haven’t tried Chrome – download it now.  It is free.

Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a fantastic social media manager.  There are a number of others like it – tweetdeck, seesmic (just acquired by Hootsuite), and some others.  It allows you to do a number of things.  First, it allows you to automatically organize all the tweets out there.  You should set up permanent searches for mentions of your handle (ex. @bobarronccim), your industry, your city, etc.  Here is a screenshot of mine.  Note:  there are other set searches spanning to the right.

Hootsuite also allows you to post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and can manage multiple accounts of each.  It also allows me to schedule tweets.  This is key.  After I finish writing a post, I can schedule when it will be tweeted in the future – and on LinkedIn and Facebook as well.  Huge time saver!

Hootlet – Hootlet is a wonderful thing.  Find the Tools menu in Hootsuite and drag and drop the hootlet icon into your browser menu bar.  It allows you to easily tweet from any webpage.  If I am on GlobeSt.com, and I want to tweet out a great article, all I have to do is click the hootlet.  It generates the title of the tweet and the link.  Genius!

Google Reader – This is where the real-time saving happens.  Instead of bookmarking the websites that you regularly go to find great content, use Google Reader.  All those websites then send their new content straight to you.  Using RSS (really simple syndication) from your favorite sites, the new content gets sent straight to you.  Go to Google Reader and sign up.  It is free!  Here is how it works:

BufferApp – Buffer is my all-time favorite app.  It is essentially a queue that holds your tweets and releases them per a pre-set schedule.  This means that you can scan through Google Reader, pick out the 10 or so best articles, and simple click the buffer button.  It creates the content of the tweet just like the Hootlet, and puts it in the buffer queue.  This allows you to be tweeting all day long even though you simply spent 5-10 minutes filling the queue.  And it’s free!

Note that Buffer allows you to tweet it now or throw it in the queue.  So super easy!

Paper.li – Paper.li is a really cool app that aggregates the stories tweeted out by those your follow into an online newspaper.  Once a day, it sends a tweet for you and names some of the authors of those tweets.  They really appreciate “you” mentioning them, and Paper.li is completely automated.  And it’s free!

What do you use to increase your efficiency and save time?  What did I miss?  I can’t wait to learn something from your comments that will save me some more minutes!
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Light Bulb!: The 5 Benefits of a Virtual Office

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This is the 3rd post stemming from The Difference Between a CRE Broker and a Drug Dealer.

I started working with my dad in Commercial Real Estate the day after I was discharged (honorably!) from the Marine Corps.  He is a CCIM designee and understands the value of that education.  He had me in the CCIM intro class the following week.  I didn’t have my license.  I was as green as they come.

Light bulb

The instructor had us introduce ourselves and share with the class how long we had been in CRE.  27 years.  15 years.  35 years. 8 years.  Me:  “4 days and I don’t have my license yet.”

That was the first day I’d ever heard of a Capitalization Rate.  It was a completely meaningless and nebulous term.  The percentage linking Value to Net Operating Income?  What is NOI?  You’ve heard the term ‘dear in the headlights.’  That was me.  This was the end of 2004.

Fast forward to yesterday.  My 10-year-old had an assignment requiring him to interview someone who uses math at work.  He chose to interview me.  I taught him that the only equation in CRE that matters is V = NOI / Cap.  Value equals Net Operating Income divided by the Cap Rate.  At some point in the last 8 years, I had a ‘Light Bulb’ moment when these concepts clicked.

I’ve known for a while that the mobile/virtual office was the way of the future.  I’ve inherently understood that this model increases efficiencies.  It makes me more effective – from anywhere.  However, I couldn’t quite articulate the why.

I had another Light Bulb moment yesterday during a fantastic webinar by ClientLook‘s founder Michael Griffin.  He was able to clarify for me the value of being mobile.

Why You Should Consider a Virtual Office

  1. Your Office Moves With You – Do you remember the line in Spiderman 2 when Doc Oc says, “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand!”    This is the totality of your office in the palm of your hand.  To accomplish this you need to have a paperless office.  I explain the steps to making that happen in my post – The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office.
  2. Beyond paperless, you must commit to moving your office online.  This means using websites instead of software.  You need a web-based email solution like Gmail.  You need a web-based CRM like ClientLook (be looking for a review of ClientLook coming soon).  You need to choose web-based solutions that work across all platforms.  Mac or pc.  iOS or Android or (what’s the name of the other one?).
  3. Drop the Legacy Technology Anchors – Michael Griffin calls desktop software Legacy Technology Anchors.  What a great description for all the programs on your desktop that keep you anchored there.  Cut those puppies loose and claim your freedom!  And consider, you will have to upgrade every one of those programs.  You will have to update the servers that run your office.  You will have to update your desktop.  I pay monthly licensing fees that are known costs.  Do you know how much life your servers have left?  Do you know how much their replacements will be?  No, you don’t.
  4. You Need Less Space – This point will vary greatly depending on what kind of office you have.  It will vary by the size of your office.  How much rent have you paid in your life for square footage to store files?  What about for servers and IT equipment?
  5. You will do it now or later – You may never do away with having an actual physical office.  I do believe that you will have true mobile and virtual capabilities.  I encourage you to be on the front end of that wave.  Use it to your advantage.  Make it a point of differentiation between you and your competition.  The technology to pull this off has never been easier or safer.  Your excuses are gone.
Raise your hand if the idea of having all your data stored online makes you queasy.  Why is that?  This topic leads to a discussion of data security.  What concerns do you have? Or are you comfortable with it?  Let us hear your thoughts.
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The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office

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In Monday’s post – The Difference Between a Commercial Real Estate Broker and a Drug Dealer – I shared the story of how I was able to drive by a Dollar General Store in the middle of Kentucky and get the owner on the phone before leaving town.

The key to pulling that off was having a paperless office.  All my data is in the cloud.  All my data is accessible to me anywhere my iPhone has a signal.  I can access it on the fly.  It means I can jump on opportunities with lightning speed.  And speed kills.

In today’s post, I am going to share with you what you need to achieve the paperless office, and the steps to take to get there.

What You Need

The first thing you need is at least two monitors.  Think this through with me.  When you are using paper, you lay the paper on your desk, refer to it, and use your computer.  To go paperless, all the paper is in digital form.  Therefore, one monitor is to “lay the paper on your desk” and the other is for working.  I personally use 3 monitors.  I had 4 for a while, and it was overkill.

The second thing you need is a scanner.  The one that I have is a Fujitsu Scansnap S1510 (affiliate link).  I highly recommend it.  It is ridiculously easy to use – one big shiny blue button.  I scans directly into the file you choose.  No emailing to yourself, downloading, and saving to a file.  It also scans super fast and gets the front and backs of pages at once.  It scans in color and b/w, and is durable.  It is also very small so it doesn’t clutter your fabulously clean and paperless desk!

Let’s be honest – if converting your paper files is not quick and easy, you won’t do it.  Having the right scanner makes the tedious conversion process so much easier.

The third thing you need is a Dropbox account.  See my review of Dropbox for more information.

Steps to the Paperless Office

Now that you know what you need, here are the simple steps to achieving the bliss of the paperless office:

Step 1:  Set Up Dropbox – If you don’t have a Dropbox account yet – click here and sign up.  It is simple and free.  There are other apps like Box.net, and others as well.  Dropbox is the category leader and what I use.  Download Dropbox on all your computers.  Then download the Dropbox App on your phone, iPad, and everything else.  Your data will sync seamlessly between them all, and you can access from anywhere on the fly.  Genius!

Step 2:  Design Your Cloud-Based Filing System – This step is hugely important.  Before you start scanning in all your old files, map out your digital file system.  Mine looks like this:

Note a couple of things.  Put these main category files in order of how often they will be used.  Then number them.  This makes the filing and finding process so much easier.  The next level of the SVN folder looks like this:

Same deal here.  Put them in order of most used and number them.  You are essentially making an organizational file tree.  This exercise alone will give you great clarity regarding your business.  When you open the ‘1 – Listings’ file, you see this:

Open the ‘Current Listings’ file and you get all my current listings:

Your tour behind the curtain ends here.  The key to converting your listing files from paper to digital is simple.  Duplicate the sections in the paper file into the digital file.

Step 3:  Scan In All Your Paper/Files – This is tedious and takes some weeks.  I could take longer depending on how far back you decide to go.  Pick a date.  I chose the beginning of my career – Nov. 2, 2004.  Before that, I have stored paper files.  After that, it is scanned.

This is a job for an assistant or a temp.  Do Not Do This Yourself.  You will get lost in nostalgia, and it will take forever.

Step 4:  Commit – Once you get everything scanned in, commit to yourself and to your office to remain paperless.  It is efficient.  It is green. I only print files when I have a client requiring a copy.  When you execute a new listing agreement, scan it in and give the original to your new client.  Receive an offer via email?  Save it directly to the appropriate file.  Commit!  You don’t need to print anything.  It is all on your phone!

Step 5 – Back everything up, and then do it again!  I back my top 5 main category files up daily.  Everything gets backed up weekly in 3 place:  my machine, an external hard-drive, and an off-site data center.  And they back it up again daily.  If you aren’t willing to be religious about backing up your data, then don’t go this route.

So what is preventing you from going paperless?  This is a big transition to consider.  What are the pros and cons as you see it?  Let me hear your thoughts.
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