San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 14, 2011
As a mortgage broker or loan officer, you cant count on any government bailouts for your business. These five tips by Michael LaPeter, co-founder of Agent Zen, will help to trim the fat and make your business lean, mean, and most of all more productive:
1. Use Free Online Office Software.
Something amazing happened in the past couple of years: free office software has in many cases actually gotten better than paid products such as Microsoft Office. Theyre faster, simpler, and most of all, free. If youre not using Gmail, start. Youll automatically have access to google calendar and google docs, which lets you easily create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and more. If you can spare $ 50 a year, upgrade to Google Apps for business, which lets you create professional looking email addresses at your domain. If your company makes you use outlook, encourage them to check out Google Apps. Theyll save money, and youll have better email and office software.
2. Use WordPress For Your Mortgage Website.
Face it: You cant afford to spend thousands right now on a custom website. The good news is you dont need to: use WordPress instead. WordPress is not only free, its the most popular content management system for websites out there. This means that there are thousands of free and inexpensive themes available, even themes designed specifically for mortgage brokers. You can purchase a world class theme from a reputable company such as Woo Themes for $ 70, and instantly look better than 90% of your competition.
3. Partner With Real Estate Agents For A Win-Win.
My Single Property Websites (http://mysinglepropertywebsites.com/sponsor) is currently offering a sponsor program for $ 79 a month that lets you offer an unlimited number of single property websites to an unlimited number of real estate agents. Find 20 agents and have them pay you back $ 4 a month, and its free for you! Youre not only splitting your marketing cost, youre developing relationships.
Single property websites are growing more and more popular, as they let an agent create a site for a specific listing, with syndication to other sites, craigslist posting, and a ton of other marketing tools to make it easy for agents. Use this tool to develop relationships with agents, while also getting your name out in front of buyers (your name is on every single property site). More details here: http://mysinglepropertywebsites.com/sponsor
4. Track Your Expenses.
As a loan officer you deal with peoples finances all the time, and you know its never been more important to track your expenses. Unfortunately quickbooks can be a hassle, and youre busy focusing on the income side of things. A simpler solution: create an account on Mint.com, a free personal finance tracking website. Create two accounts: one personal, and one with just your business bank accounts and credit cards. Its not as thorough as Quickbooks, but it only takes a few minutes to setup, its free, and most importantly youll actually use it.
5. Use a Free/ Low cost Online CRM (Customer Relationship Manager).
If youre not yet using a contact manager, youve probably been turned off by either the cost or the painful setup. Do a google search for highrise, an online contact manager made by 37 Signals. Its free for up to 250 contacts, then $ 29 a month for up to 20,000 contacts. Setup is a snap, and theyve gone out of their way to strip all the clutter so you can focus on sales. You cant afford to let any leads slip through the cracks!
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a start. You can’t change the economy, but by focusing on and improving what you can control, you’ll have the best odds possible for succeeding in 2011.
About Michael LaPeter:
Michael is an active real estate broker and co-founder of Agent Zen, which creates web based software for the real estate industry.
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