How brokers can best prepare for the holiday closure

Not sure where to start? Here are our top tips to get you on your way!

Think about your brokerage’s day-to-day operations

Consider the daily tasks you automate or perform on auto-pilot — are they covered while you’re away?

Remember to email your clients, update trading hours, set an out-of-office reminder, and schedule content marketing.

Our top tips:

1. Include your closure or time out message as part of your email signature.
2. Ensure you have an auto reply message set-up to buy you time.
3. Have a message on your phone to ask people to text you if urgent and leave a voice message if not. Make note on your date of return in this message.
4. Book 30 minutes a day for a check in so you can get back to your timeout. A healthy mind is a clear mind.

Reflect on the past and prepare for the future

Before you go ahead and make any New Year resolutions for 2023, start by reflecting on your brokerage journey this year. What went well? What would you do differently? How will you grow? 

Our top tips:

1. Take time to compare the year that has been with the year before — if you have taken steps forward, then you’re clearly on the right track.
2. Choose five things you have done well — challenge yourself on how you can do them even better in 2023.
3. Choose five things you have not done so well — is this a simple adjustment or is a bigger change needed for 2023?
4. Create a “parking lot” (items you would like to implement, but not time critical) versus an “action board” (items you have to do — time critical).

Choose a ‘fighting day’

If you must work over the holidays, be intentional with your time. Choose a “fighting day” to get in the zone and commit to productivity. Go hard on that designated day so that you can commit to your family on all other days. 

Our top tips:

1. Show up and be your best version — clients deserve this of you.
2. Family Plan v Business Plan — attend to the family and then add in what business needs to be done and attended to.
3. Be active (activities), not busy (busy doing what?).
4. Don’t push things out as this will affect your time out versus your time on — stay strong.

 Say ‘no’ to vacation guilt 

A reminder for those who need it: you deserve a break! End of story. Period.

Taking time out will benefit your productivity, health, and much more. 

Our top tips:

1. Take the time to put your phone down and not look at the computer.
2. Play a board game, golf or whatever it is that makes you forget about it all, something that puts a smile on your dial.
3. Sandbag what can wait until you return from your break and deal with it then to ensure your time out is really timeout.
4. Test this each time as you will find yourself getting better at it — the more you think about it, the bigger it gets.

Ruan Burger is the founder of broker training and coaching company Success & Broker.

During his career as a broker in Queensland, he built two successful mortgage broking businesses — one in regional Gladstone and the second in metropolitan Brisbane. 

In 2021, he sold his broking businesses to launch a new training and coaching business, Success & Broker (Success and Broker), in partnership with his wife, Kylie Burger.