As always, life at Integra Towers has been busy although I have, unfortunately, lost a few of my excellent, long terms clients, due to their successful sales and exits from the business.
It has been a huge pleasure to work with these clients – in some cases for more than ten years – and help them build businesses that have become valuable and attractive to being acquired by others – the downside to me, of course, is that I have then “lost” the account as they get merged into larger enterprises with their own infrastructures etc already in place.
Over the last couple of years or so, I have been delighted to see my clients Gibbs Gillespie, Orchards of London, Northfields, First Union, Courtenay and others successfully sell and become part of larger groups such as Lomond, Leaders Romans and Dexters.
I was also involved (as a NED) in the sale of teclet to OnTheMarket which has subsequently been acquired by Costar who, in acquiring the entire share capital of the group, saw an end to my ongoing involvement.
Fortunately and excitedly, there are many other clients that I work with where we are continuing to build and improve and, noticeably, in recent weeks, a number of new business start-ups where my experienced input is helping them get up and running both efficiently and effectively and with the best chance of future success.
Of course, in life, one door closes and others invariably open and I am now seeking an advisory or non-exec type role, in addition to my normal work, to replace my previous involvements at teclet/OnTheMarket Software and Coadjute.
Having been appointed as both a Director and a Trustee of The Propertymark Trust in February I have been working hard with my colleagues on making the charity fit for purpose in today’s world and on raising awareness and generating support and funding from across the Propertymark membership and wider industry.
In June I attended the Propertymark One conference as a guest of Nathan Emerson, the Chief Executive of Propertymark, and also represented The Propertymark Trust on the day. There was a full day of excellent content and it was good to catch up with so many friend from across the industry.
I have, over the last few months been a regular speaker at a number of the Regional conferences organised by Propertymark and will, in the remainder of the year be presenting at the conferences in Kent on the 10th October, Sussex on the 16th October and Surrey on 21st November.
I will be presenting my ten P’s of estate agency success – a view of how businesses should review and plan to maximise their success – this follows on from my previous presentations on how compliance should be used to create more productive and profitable businesses.
Recent weeks have seen me appear on two web broadcasts – the first with Conveyancing Matters and the second with Minerva – both looking at the home buying and selling process and, in particular how improvements can be made and how upfront information can help facilitate faster and more secure transactions.
I have, for a number of years, been a participant member of the Home Buying & Selling Group and I continue to participate and work with various stakeholders across the industry to bring about improvements in both the speed and certainty of the home buying and selling process.
Training remains a key element of the services that I provide to the industry and I remain in demand in sales, compliance and management training, delivering both virtually and in face to face scenarios.
I have just revamped my website and booking system with all training courses for the remainder of 2024 now taking bookings.
I continue to provide a number of clients with website and social channel content and also press releases on their services and key announcements.
In July I attended two separate book launch events where my industry friends – Elaine Penhaul of Lemon & Lime Interiors and Lisa Brice, a former colleague and a qualified NLP trainer and business coach launched their books – How to Sell Your House and bQuick Coaching respectively.
Both books are excellent reads and full of great practical tips for improvement. My admiration for both ladies having got their ideas into print is immense.
In terms of my own business development – I have not been idle and I am delighted to announce the launch of Landlord Events in a Box – a new business service/product where I am working with Julie Ford a well known letting industry adviser and tenancy dispute mediator.
This new service/product will enable agents to hold successful landlord events by providing all of the necessary guidance, templates and content.
Most agents know that holding such events would dramatically enhance their business performance yet they never get around to organising.
We will take a lot of the planning and hard work out of running such events and provide an ongoing framework with access to a growing library of relevant and interesting content to keep things fresh and of value.
You can find out more here:
