The Multiple Business Evolution

Can your database be used to serve or build multiple businesses? A great example of the implementation of this concept is KWX. Gary Keller’s list is largely one database but is being utilized by Keller Mortgage, Keller Covered, MAPS, The One Thing, and others. Look around your hometown or online and try to identify business opportunities that your database has already given you a leg-up on. You can apply your list to a wide range of business endeavors tangent to and outside of the real estate market.

The Sawdust Evolution

My favorite example of this evolution is Ben Kinney and Brivity. Ben originally set out to create a real estate-focused CRM that all of his expansion locations could work out of to keep them organized and on the same page. What happened was that he realized that in doing so he had solved a very real problem for other agents and began licensing it out across the globe. What products are you sitting on that have naturally arisen from the efforts you have already been making? Taking a look at the systems and tools you have developed during your time as an agent and business owner and identify which portions can be packaged up and sold to individuals and companies who are still trying to solve those problems themselves.

For inspiration, take a look at what Jennie Wolek is doing with Mirror my Business and Your Journey With Jennie. She’s developed content and courses that bring agents up to her speed without having to blindly hit all the stumbling blocks she has encountered and identified along the way.

The Industry Evolution

Here’s where you can shift from serving clients IN the industry to those OF the industry. Take Gene Rivers, for example. He and his team were largely serving buyers and sellers in the real estate market but in time began to shift towards market centers, title, and mortgage companies that service the agents in the industry that in turn service the buyers and sellers. The idea here is that once you’ve learned what services and products you value as an industry insider, you should be able to identify what is lacking in how you are being provided those services and products and begin to provide them. In an industry where you cannot cut out the middlemen you deal with, how can you become a better middleman to the extent that you become the best option available?

The Model Evolution

Often there is an arms race to create the best product, but what’s more important are the models you use to produce those products. Take a look a look at McDonald’s franchises. They don’t provide the best burgers or even the best service, but what they do provide is a reliable and replicable process that allows franchise owners to create a consistent product that is predictable and scalable. Look internally at your business and ask yourself what you do so well that you can market it to other businesses or groups and can you provide that through expansion or franchising?

Keep in mind that the whole idea here is to get you to think bigger, brighter, and better about your database. Approach your database from the perspective of each of these four evolutions and you might be surprised at the lightbulbs that go off. Let me know what you come up with!