ARE YOU THE ONE PEOPLE THINK OF FIRST? If not, you may be losing out.

What comes to mind when I ask you to name some items?

Name a brand of toothpaste. What brand of copy machine do you know of? What facial tissue do you use? Shoe. Fanciest exotic car.

You most likely answered in order; Colgate or Crest, Xerox, Kleenex, Nike, Lamborghini or Ferrari. These are the major players in those industries. For some, their brand has become the industry, such is the case for Kleenex and at least was for Xerox for many decades. This is what’s called Brand Awareness. If I hand you some money and ask you to go to the store to buy me some Kleenex, I may not actually mean ‘Kleenex’, I may just want the cheapest facial tissue, but since you may not even know what facial tissue means, I’ll just say Kleenex, and then when you go to buy it you’ll probably buy me the Kleenex brand since that is what I said.

BE THE BRAND

What’s your brand? If you offer any kind of service or run a business of any kind, YOU need to be the brand. Are you the one people think of? Whatever your industry, whether it be carpet cleaning, Real Estate Agent, House Flipper, Rental Property buyer, House Cleaner, Yard Care, etc. If you are not at the front of someone’s mind when they need those things, you probably won’t get the business. And if you do get the opportunity for the business but are slow to respond or don’t provide excellent service, you probably won’t continue to get more business since you will then be known as the one to NOT call in that industry.

For instance, I buy rental property. I have been able to offer and complete purchases with different agents in different states. I have made mention that no matter the size of the deal, send it to me. If it is a good enough deal and too big for me to take on alone, I have other investor friends that may pool their money with me to buy it. So when a huge opportunity presented itself earlier this year where a large amount of cash was needed to purchase an amazing opportunity, I got it under contract and was able to get the cash together and close on it just a few weeks later.

I am always receiving leads from multiple sources from all across the country. And that is great. My involvement on investor and personal finance websites has more or less transformed me into the “expert” in my area of Eastern Idaho. People read my comments and see that I am active on those sites and contact me. This leads to more opportunities to partner on more deals.

The point is, if you want to grow your business and have success, you need to get yourself out there. Socialize and talk to everybody about what it is that you do or what you are looking for. If you are a house flipper or rental property buyer, let everyone know what you are looking for. Mention something like, “Hey, I’m looking for a 3 bed 2 bath brick house built after 1950. If you ever come across something like that or know someone that has something like that to sell, please let me know.”

People may get sick of hearing about it, but the day that they hear about that thing, because you’ve mentioned it so much, they will think of you and call you up. Think of it like a commercial. Always talking about it is no different than seeing a Charmin toilet paper commercial at every commercial break of your favorite show. You don’t complain about that do you?

DON’T BE AFRAID TO TALK

I admit, I don’t really like talking to people much. But I know I have to if I want to find great deals. And you also never know, you may just be able to help out someone in a difficult situation. Often times the houses you can buy to flip or to renovate and hold as a rental are in very bad condition because the owner doesn’t have the ability to fix it up themselves. No Real Estate agent will want to sell it because it is not “sell-able” since it is beat up and ugly. But the owner needs cash to help with some other problems and they just want out of the house. You can be the one to help them and make it a win-win. You offer them what they need now and help them out of a bad situation and you get a great deal.

Did you ever notice that Insurance agents seem to call and email a lot? Mine does at least, and that is fine. She’s doing what she needs to do. That way whenever someone asks for a referral of a great insurance agent, who do you think comes to mind? You need to promote yourself. If you don’t nobody else will. If you want people to refer business to you, make sure they are thinking of you.

So get to work. Figure out what it is that YOU represent. What’s your business? What’s your Brand? And let everybody know. Post it on your social media platforms. Mention it in as many conversations as you can. Whenever I get asked by someone I just met “What do you do?” I always mention I am a real estate investor and I’m always looking to buy more and if they ever know of anybody selling to please let me know.

YOU CAN DO IT!