Market shifts like this are tough. It can feel like every day is a battle. I feel it myself and I see it in the P&Ls we’re managing for agents around the country. Some quick thoughts.
If you’re not getting and reading a P&L at least monthly, I hope you have a trust fund ready to kick in to fund the deficit. This is not the market where you can “sell another house” and expect your finances will work themselves out. Whether we do it for you here at Alchemy, or someone else does, it must be done by someone. Like your real estate license, a P&L is not optional.
If you are getting and reading a P&L, and you’re not profitable, you need to know your cash burn rate. Meaning how many months of cash, at the current loss, do you have? A lot of agents had rough Q1s and Q2 isn’t necessarily roaring back like it normally does. This means a big seasonality swing is going to be very hard to digest this fall. Get ahead of that now. Don’t let this market take you out of business because you run out of cash.
While cutting expenses is important, consider the cutting may need to happen on the personal side. You can’t beat your business into expense reduction mode while you’re drinking a martini on the beach in Aruba – and expect that to work out very well.
This is a marathon. You need to have a self-care routine in place. Personally, I think we are closer to the beginning of this shift than the end, don’t burn out. We’re just getting started.
Remember you’re probably not going to make the money you’re used to right now. That’s okay, this is a market share game. You’ll make money on the backend, stay focused on building your activities to be relentless and your skills to be masterful and you’ll be very pleased when things shift back up again.
