Chris Phillips

My Real Estate Story

After graduating high school I decided to pursue a career in real estate. I quickly obtained my license and began as an agent with Century 21. Real estate is a great career choice if you are willing to work hard and don’t want to spend a lot of time in a classroom. Within my first year I became an assistant manager and began learning how to run a brokerage and a business. I later joined an established team as an asset manager, handling a large number of transactions where I honed my skills negotiating deals and solving problems.

After a successful tenure with Century 21 I had an opportunity to become the Managing Broker for an independent firm that specializes in online lead generation, something that was still in its infancy at the time. This was my first real exposure to the power of the internet directly impacting business and it was an amazing experience. During my time here the firm tripled in size and we acquired some very talented people, one of whom I partnered with to form a new team at Keller Williams.

As the Operations Director for our new team, I was responsible for designing and implementing the systems to scale our organization. Within three years we went from a non-existent team to one of the top five teams in our marketplace and the number one team for Keller Williams in our region. During this process I realized I had a passion for learning new things and implementing ideas, and that I was particularly interested in technology, systems, and management.

I began working as a consultant for other real estate organizations, helping to implement systems that allowed them to scale their business and reach their goals. This kept me focused on the things I enjoy most about the real estate business, solving problems and designing systems. I am still actively consulting and continue to share the knowledge I have gained.

My Programming Story

I was first exposed to programming through real estate and began learning about it slowly at first. Real estate kept me busy and I was having success but felt I could do more. I wanted to find something that allowed me to bring my own ideas to fruition and realized that programming was the answer. Programming seems like magic to me, a medium where immersive experiences can be created to impact lives as well as enhance the capabilities of businesses and organizations.

I began reading about the basics, HTML and CSS, and it seemed like programming was going to be easy to learn. I then moved on to Javascript and it became apparent that I would need more than just books to learn this new skill. I found some YouTube courses for C# and began following along with moderate success. I then decided that it was time to put some money into this new endeavor and follow a structured path, so I signed up for Codecademy.com.

Codecademy is where I really felt like I was starting to make progress. I completed the intro courses for HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and C# before committing to Full-Stack Engineering. I was able to apply my knowledge to the real world by editing real estate websites and creating templates. I was able to use Javascript to customize and automate Google Documents utilizing their Apps Script service. I even got to use SQL by learning and implementing the Query function on Google Sheets.

As I write this, I am a half-way through the Full-Stack Engineering course with a goal of being done by 2024. I ultimately want to be able to write custom applications that persist data for business as well as for fun.

How To Operations

Operations is the efficient management of business practices to achieve a desired goal. Oftentimes the focus is to reduce costs and save time, however, it can also focus on delivering impeccable service for luxury brands or eliminating errors for a medical practice. A good operations manager will understand the end goal and design systems to meet that goal. I keep in mind the following steps when working within an operations department as a manager or as a consultant:

Identify > Build > Implement > Delegate > Repeat

Identify

First, identify the regularly repeated processes that occur within the business. For a restaurant this would be preparing meals and servicing customers. For a real estate company this would include listing property for sale and working with buyers. The key is to start working on the processes that you repeat most frequently.

Second, determine the primary goal for that process and any possible secondary goals. The primary goal almost always takes precedence when there is a conflict with any other goals for the system you’ll be designing. Making decisions is easier when you know what you want at the end.

Third, identify all the people that will be involved with this system as well as the people that will be impacted. It is important to get their input to gain a better understanding of how things are currently working. This also helps with implementing the new system later in the process.

Build

Systems usually consist of three parts: people, tools, and processes. The people doing the work will leverage tools for efficiency to complete the steps of a process. When building a system I typically start with the process which is essentially a checklist of everything that needs to be done to complete a task. To begin, make a list of all the tasks. Review your list and reorder as necessary or identify pieces that may be missing.

Once the process has been completed you then identify the tools that will be needed to execute the process. In some cases there may not be any tools required. You’ll also want to consider the type of people that will be doing the work so you pick tools that they may be more comfortable with. For example, administrative people tend to like working with spreadsheets but if I am designing a system for sales people, I am going to stay away from that as a potential tool or at least minimize their involvement.

Implement

Once the system has been created, it is time to implement it in the business. This isn’t something magical, you simply start using the new process and tools to do the work. What you are looking for are problems with execution or any ambiguities so they can be addressed. A good system will eliminate a lot of the thinking and decision making which slows work down. In smaller businesses you may be doing the work yourself, in other situations you may need to train new or existing people on the new system. Review the process, teach the tools, and ensure that everyone understands why the system is important. When people know what to do and why they are doing it, they’ll do a much better job.

Delegate

The final step is to delegate the oversight of the system that has been created. This may not be something that needs to be done immediately, but if you are in an organization that is trying to scale, the responsibility of running the system needs to be delegated. This will free up time for you to begin designing new systems for the organization. You’ll no longer be running the system but it is still your responsibility. This means you’ll rely on reporting from the person in charge of the system to keep you informed.

Repeat

Now you have time to identify the next system to implement. Look at the business to identify where the most time or money is invested to determine where you can make the most impact. Are there any recurring tasks that cause you particular frustration? Think about tasks that need to be done every day, week, month, quarter, or year. If nothing comes to mind, it may be time to grow, so think about sales, marketing, and recruiting and how you can make an impact there. The job is never done.

Contact

Thank you for visiting and getting to know a bit about me. Email me if you have a question, suggestion, or want to set up a virtual meeting.