4 Truths of Pivoting Your Business During Hard Times from the Founder of eXp Realty

Being in actual property comes with pure ebbs and flows, as with many industries. However for anybody who was round in 2008, life was actually, actually good—till it wasn’t. In 2008, I used to be operating one of many prime groups within the nation. A part of that was understanding the rising function of the web and the way it may generate heat leads. We had prime actual property portals in Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; Bellingham, Washington; and Seattle. After which the housing market crashed.

Pressured to shut all however one location and downsize to our leanest potential group, we circled the wagons. It wasn’t a straightforward time to be a frontrunner, but it surely compelled me to innovate—innovate or fold. This wasn’t my first pivot, but it surely was my largest, borne out of financial hardship however leading to one thing better than we may have imagined on the time: the biggest cloud-based brokerage agency on this planet with greater than 77,000 brokers.

As all struggles do, this expertise taught me some exhausting truths. The reality about what it takes to maintain a corporation not solely alive, however rising; and the 4 truths of a pivot, which I share with you now.

Reality: Your group gained’t at all times perceive.

We discovered that counting on brick-and-mortar workplaces put us in danger. We would have liked to construct a defensible actual property mannequin that didn’t bear the burden of bodily overhead prices. eXp Realty advanced into a completely cloud-based mannequin so as to present safety in occasions of financial uncertainty. However your group gained’t at all times perceive or see the massive image. Innovation can really feel unstable till it’s proved. That is the place your current relationship of belief comes into play.

Reality: Good is the enemy of nice.

Would we’ve got turned to a cloud-based mannequin if 2008 turned out in another way? Certain, perhaps. A few of the greatest improvements occur as a result of we’re compelled to place every little thing on the desk and make grueling choices about what not suits. Typically it’s beginning over fully. The advantage of beginning or reinventing a enterprise throughout an financial downturn is that your mannequin is constructed on survival, not prosperity. The identical isn’t at all times true for companies constructed throughout steady occasions. As legendary enterprise writer Jim Collins says, “good is the enemy of nice.” Practice your self to see the chance in occasions of chaos and uncertainty.

Reality: Hope isn’t a method.

Many organizations squeaked their manner via the recession by adapting their enterprise fashions simply sufficient to outlive. Some resorted to chapter. Some merged. Some received fortunate. However their companies by no means capitalized on the chance to reinvent, to construct defensive partitions in opposition to the subsequent inevitable impediment. Hope isn’t a method. Hope is like taking part in the lottery when the chances are tens of millions to at least one. You possibly can select to sit down with the ache and frustration of seeing your exhausting work washed away or you’ll be able to face it head-on and embrace the problem of reinvention.

Reality: Pivots take immense power.

Should you get good at pivots, you perceive the choice matrix that goes with them. I’ve the understanding of what it takes to make one other pivot. However they take loads of power. Pivoting a big group is an enormous endeavor. You’re altering the paradigm the corporate was constructed on. Naturally, the bigger the corporate, the more durable it’s to reinvent. As a frontrunner, you’re again in startup mode. You’re in all probability working 10 to 16 hours per day, seven days every week to make sure the reinvention holds and also you’ve thought of all of the issues that might go flawed. This isn’t to discourage you from contemplating a reinvention, however that will help you perceive what it takes to undergo with it.

Pivoting is akin to innovation. Are you making a giant innovation inside your organization or business? Or are you making small iterative modifications? They’ll each have an effect, however one can change the entire trajectory of your group. What are the massive dangers you wish to take? How do you set your self up for fulfillment? The facility of the pivot is huge innovation adopted by huge motion.

* * *

Life usually presents just a few alternatives for a full pivot—and it’s not often for good purpose. It’s a buzzer-beater when your group and everybody who depends upon it’s on the road. For us, the flexibility to go cloud-based was the right storm of a declining housing market and most houses having high-speed web.

Now, collaboration know-how makes our mannequin accessible to almost any business. With digital workplaces like Virbela (a subsidiary of eXp World Holdings) and Meta, Zoom and Google Meet, Trello and Asana, your groups merely don’t should be collectively to scale the group. From a younger age, I noticed the function of know-how. I dined on Common Mechanics and Apple Chunk magazines. A part of a proactive pivot technique is recognizing the alternatives and in addition being prepared to take the shot.

This text initially appeared within the Could/June 2022 Subject of SUCCESS journal. Disclaimer: SUCCESS is a subsidiary of eXp World Holdings, which is the mum or dad firm of eXp Realty. Photograph by