The Importance of Finding Your ENOUGH Number
I’m not a quitter but when THIS happened, it made me question everything.
The year was 2022 and we had just come off the back of one of the most unanticipated property booms in history. Well, the history of my career anyway.
Fuelled by the Covid pandemic and side-stepping completely out of left field, I went from telling clients we may have to put their property searches on hold because we’d all be in lockdown, to being inundated with families relocating (escaping) the likes of Sydney and Melbourne — bringing their moving plans forward early to start a new life in Brisbane. I’d never been busier in my life.
Business is Good but Burnout is Bad.
Sure, my business was booming and the money was rolling in the door quicker than I could buy another Christian Dior handbag, but in the aftermath of it all, I was a complete wreck.
Burnt out was an understatement and the day I sat in the chair to have my hairdresser tell me a large section of my hair had fallen out was the final straw.
“Have you been stressed lately Wendy”, she asked. I glanced her a look that implied — “really?!” You know me. ALWAYS.
That night I called my mentor in tears and told him I was done.
Real estate had broken me. Literally.
He laughed it off, knowing we’d had this kind of discussion a dozen times over. “You’re not quitting, you’ve just hit your limit.”
Limit?
Do we even have a limit in real estate?
In an industry where your earning capacity is uncapped it’s hard to find room for limits, even when we do feel stressed and burnt out beyond belief. My old self told me to suck it up and keep going.
But that day, I made a decision to change.
I HAD hit my limit and I needed to do something about it.
And so from that day forward, I wasn’t going to be a limitless agent.
I was going to set boundaries around my time. Restrictions around the number of clients I worked with and force myself to prioritise self care.
No exceptions. No looking back.
In truth, I had already set myself up financially by investing strategically in both property and liquid assets like managed funds and shares. I didn’t NEED exorbitant amounts of money to live a good life. I just needed ENOUGH.
The Enough Number.
So I calculated my Enough number and worked the number of deals I needed back from this.
Here’s a look at what was going on in my head at that time:
I assessed the deals I’d done over the last 5 years and worked out my average commission per deal. Surprisingly, when I sat down and reviewed the figures I realised I had in fact lifted my average fee by $10K in that time.
With my good friend and chief financial advisor Cara Brett by my side, together we looked at my living expenses (factoring in my business expenses as well) and came up with what I like to call my Enough Number.
That’s the amount I need to make (before tax) per year, to live my current lifestyle, plus a little more for investing.
As it turns out, when I looked at my average fee per deal, I only needed to do 7 deals a year. Yep, just 7!
Not 30, like I had previously which led to my burnout state.
Now comes the tricky part…
Can you really be successful doing just 7 deals a year?
Re-setting my mindset to BELIEVE that 7 deals a year is in fact enough to feel, well, successful still. (Because we all want to feel this way in our career.)
In real estate, we’re encouraged to do more.
Rewarded for the hustle and it’s the volume agents who are pumping out deal after deal that seem to get all the accolades and validation.
So can I really consider myself a success if I’m only choosing to do 7 deals a year?
The conscious answer is YES.
But i’ll admit, choosing to scale it back (even though I know it’s made my life so much happier) has been no easy feat. Especially when there is so much pressure to keep up the hustle.
So here is my message to you.
If burnout is not your thing, do what I did and have the courage to scale it back, despite what everyone else around you is doing.
Focus on raising your fee so you’re making more from each deal and that way you can start to wind back the NUMBER of clients you work with to free up more time.
I teach this concept in my Masterclass for Women in Real Estate.
Calculating your Enough Number.
If you want to calculate your own Enough Number, this podcast episode will help move you into action.
MEET THE WRITER
Hi, I’m Wendy.
I’m a storytelling writer, champagne lover and Luxury Buyer’s Agent based in Brisbane Australia. I share my journey as an independent real estate professional and self-made career woman. MY STORY
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Wendy Russell is a Luxury Buyer’s Agent, social introvert and self-made business woman on a mission to help career women step into their power as high-value professionals. It starts here.
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