Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in real estate marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Amanda Webb, Founder of Gravity Real Estate Marketing, located in Carrollton, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Gravity Real Estate Marketing was born from a desire to help real estate agents create a successful business while still enjoying life outside of the office. By providing quality yet affordable marketing services like branding, website design, copywriting, and content creation, our team equips real estate agents with the tools necessary to stand out from the competition and acquire new clients. Even further, our mission encourages agents to take back control of their lives by finding time to focus on family, friends, and fun. Ultimately, we strive to give real estate agents access to services that make it possible for them to have success in business and balance in life.

Tell us about yourself

Working in the real estate industry has been a great adventure for me. It all began in 2015 when I started working as a marketing coordinator for a popular national real estate brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. As part of my role, I trained agents on how to best use the marketing tools provided by the brokerage. My job was highly rewarding as agents often asked me if they could hire me to assist them on the side further. Seeing this as an opportunity, I launched my own business in 2019, where I give agents the tailored guidance and help that they need. In helping these agents succeed, I grow with them and gain immense satisfaction along with it.

My ambition to grow my business and help real estate agents grow theirs is driven by a desire to improve my work-life balance. Working alone in my business, I have come to appreciate the value of delegating tasks that others can do so that I can focus on those activities that only I can do. It takes discipline and learning how to become a business owner rather than an employee--but once you learn how to stop holding on so tightly to everything, you'll begin to achieve both success and personal fulfillment. Knowing all too well the perils of burnout, outsourcing tasks has become instrumental in growing my business and sustaining me on the journey.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

In July 2019, I had an idea - could a real estate agent employ the same profitable tactics as course creators in terms of converting leads using content creation? To test this out, we drafted a plan that incorporated blog writing and weekly emails, and within half a year, the open rate of her emails skyrocketed from 10-12% to over 20%, while website visits rose by 30%. The incredible response just kept snowballing, too, as the increase in engagement translated into her best quarter ever as an agent in Q1 of 2020. In total, she managed to close over $1 million worth of deals!

Fast forward to today, and it is quite clear that our hard work paid off, as her open email rate is now over 40%, and she averages 3-5 responses per email sent. This success has enabled her to become one of the top 100 agents in the state of Texas.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

One of the hardest elements of being a business owner is defining and enforcing boundaries, both with yourself and your clients. Every entrepreneur must learn how to recognize who their ideal client is and, even more importantly, understand that sometimes it's better to walk away from an opportunity, even if it means leaving money on the table. I also had to learn that it's necessary to put up boundaries around working hours and make sure I was taking care of myself outside of the business - something that's still a struggle! It can be difficult to determine when it's okay for me to relax or indulge my personal interests in lieu of work, but ultimately I know it's going to help me accomplish more from a place of clarity and contentment.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  • The first is having the three most important plans laid out ahead of time before anything else is key for success. Creating a business plan focused on your target audience and mission and vision for the company will help you lay down the foundation for growth. It's also important to develop a marketing plan that creates a strong brand presence in the market and keeps you on the message to reach your goals and audience. Most importantly, creating an effective financial plan will help keep budgeting on track while also ensuring revenue goals are realistic in order to turn a profit. With these three plans in place from the onset, any hopeful entrepreneur can start their journey confident that their business has set itself up for success.
  • The second would be to make sure that you have systems in place from day one. This means having a reliable process for reaching out to potential clients, following up with them, or onboarding them into your services. To make this all as efficient as possible, try to also automate whatever processes you can - this could save you a great deal of time that would normally be spent manually responding and organizing. Looking back, I left a lot of money on the table simply because I didn't have the proper systems in place to follow up with potential leads and sales calls. Knowing the backend of your business is just as important as working on the front end to ensure you're always moving forward.
  • The third tip I'd give to anyone looking to start or grow a business would be to hire help as soon as possible. No one person can do everything or be an expert in all areas needed, so having someone else on your team not only reduces stress but helps ensure things get done more quickly, especially when you don't have time. My own experience taught me that having a virtual assistant handle simple tasks such as scheduling social media, creating graphics, uploading content to my website, or any other tedious tasks that may come up can free up your valuable time to work on what matters most. After that, really analyze what goals you are looking to achieve with your business and bring in help that will be beneficial in aiding you in making these dreams come true.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://gravityrealestatemarketing.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gravityrealestatemarketing
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gravityrealestatemarketing/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandarioswebb/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gravityremarketing

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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