As the Managing Director of One Agency I talk to a lot of real estate agents who are unhappy in their current situation.
Many are considering taking the leap into starting their own agency and the biggest hurdle in making that decision is often fear.
An acronym I like for FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. You may be sick of working for a principal who retains more than 50% of your hard earned commission, or you may be a principal who is sick of feeding the ever hungry franchise head office with your hard earned profits. What’s stopping you from taking control of your financial future?
If you are fearful of opening your own business or moving out from the constraints of a traditional franchise, it would be productive to identify what the specific items are, that make you feel that way.
You need to analyse each of those fears and determine if they are ‘real’ or not.
Fear is a paralysing emotion and generally doesn’t achieve anything much positive. That is of course unless it’s fear your personal safety, such as crossing a busy road, which is to be respected. However for the most part, when we look back at what we were once fearful of we often find that we have usually moved on and it no longer applies. This is what typically happens if you plan to open a business, you feel the fear and then do it anyway, then wonder what it was you were fearful about in the first place! The perceived fear is ALWAYS greater than the actual situation, in other words, it’s never as bad as you think.
So let’s talk specifics. You’d love to have your own business (and who wouldn’t like the freedom AND BENEFITS that brings?) but you are fearful. The first thing you should know is that you are completely normal. Totally and utterly normal.
Whenever we step into unfamiliar territory and take a leap of faith, we don’t know what may occur and therefore it makes sense to have certain amount of fear and trepidation. That’s to be expected and it’s perfectly understandable.
