Welcome back to our business-building blog for high-producing agents on fast-growing teams. Today we’re here to answer the question, “How do you have a for-profit business with a nonprofit purpose?”
If you’ve been selling homes for a while like I have, you’ve probably been wondering about how you can have a bigger impact on your community. After about a decade in the business, I wasn’t sure if this is what I wanted to do with my life and I was questioning what I wanted to do.
After talking with my wife and a few other close friends and family members, I came to the realization that I’m uniquely positioned in real estate to learn about people’s needs and serve them on a really deep level.
I decided to start a new referral program. I always ask my clients if they know of anybody who is thinking about buying or selling, but I never ask them if they know anyone who might be going through a tough time that we could serve in an anonymous way.
“This referral program has brought joy to many people.”
That idea led me to developing the Community Appreciation Program that allows us to serve others in the community by using our database as leverage to find them. Here’s how we did it, in five easy steps:
- Open up a separate checking account.
- Put a percentage of every commission check in there.
- Ask every client this question: “Who do you know in the community with a random, urgent need whom we might be able to serve?”
- Have the client enter the person’s information in a Google survey or spreadsheet.
- Once you’ve picked someone, call the person who gave you the referral and ask them to partner with you to give the gift. Ask them how it went afterwards.
This is just one easy way to bring purpose back into your real estate business. If you have any questions, or if you have an example of another way you or your team is giving back, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.
