Happy Independence Day!

As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, I think of how fortunate we all are, and how much we owe to our Founding Fathers.

We cannot repay them, but we can honor their memory – and honor our Armed Forces past and present – by appreciating our independence and celebrating our freedom to choose (among other things) where we live and what we do for a living.

You have chosen to be even more independent – by choosing a career that doesn’t guarantee a paycheck at the end of the week, but instead rests on your own talents, tenacity, and hard work.

However, your independent career means…

No paid vacation for you!

That means, unless you’ve planned to take some down time of your own, a long holiday weekend can be frustrating. Many of the people you want to connect with are simply not available. That includes clients and would-be clients as well as other agents, lenders, title company reps, appraisers, and inspectors.

Many of them will have made themselves scarce on Wednesday, and won’t be back in full working mode until next Tuesday.

How can you make the best use of a long holiday weekend?

One choice is to take the time off yourself and fully enjoy it. You can spend extra time with your loved ones, head for the woods to go camping, head for the water, check into a fancy hotel and pamper yourself, stay home and putter, or anything else that would make you feel renewed and refreshed.

Perhaps you have company for the weekend. If so, do “be there” and enjoy them.

Another choice is to attend all the BBQ’s and other gatherings available to you. There you’ll have the opportunity to get acquainted with some new people or reconnect with some folks in your sphere. If you happen to wear something with the company logo, or even your little “R” pin, those who are interested in real estate will want to chat about it. Be sure to put a handful of business cards in your pocket!

If you’re at all like me, you’ll be at home. We may go to town to watch the fireworks, and I’ll take time to listen to our National Anthem, but otherwise it will be a quiet weekend. While it might be fun to go out on the boat to enjoy the sunshine, we’ll wait until the crowds go home. Since the roads, lakes, rivers, and forests will be overflowing with both residents and tourists, now is a good time to stick close to home.

If you’re staying home this long holiday weekend, what will you do with your extra time?

There are household chores, of course. I don’t think anyone but people with a full-time staff can ever run out of those. And if you have a garden – there’s always another weed to pull.

Then there’s record keeping – I’m not sure it’s possible to ever get that completely caught-up.

You could just relax: Watch TV, read, play games, take your dogs for a long walk, sleep in until noon, or whatever takes your fancy.

OR – You could do something to further your career.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

‘The secret of getting ahead is getting started.’
Mark Twain

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year
as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year
while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
Charles Richards

21 things to do to make good business use of a long holiday weekend

Review what marketing worked and what didn’t work so far this year.
Create a marketing budget for Q3.
Update your databases & mailing lists.
Write or purchase new prospecting letters and get them uploaded to print or email.
If you’ll be using postal mail, print the letters, address the envelopes and have them ready to go.
Write enough blog posts to get you through July – or farther!
Go through your website checking for broken links – fix the ones you find.
Update your agent bio and any web pages that might have outdated information.
Decide on any new pages you need for your website – then either write them or contract to have them written.
Explore your MLS site to find an active neighborhood that might make a profitable new farm territory for you.
Create a new buyer “capture box” for your website, then write or purchase follow-up letters. Upload them to your autoresponder and schedule the mail times.
Create and print “Free Market Analysis” postcards for mailing in July and August. (Or send them to the person who prints them for you.)
If you mail your own postcards, print an extra set or two of mailing labels.
Pre-write thank you notes, such as the ones in my Thank You Set.
Go through your database to find birthdays or Happy Home Anniversaries coming up in Q3. Write the cards and put the mailing date where the stamp will go.
Read a book that will enhance your skills.
Go to Active Rain and read articles that will enhance your skills.
Refine your listing presentation – what can you add or delete or improve?
Get out of the house and take some photos to use on your community pages.
Check your listings – update photos and/or narratives if necessary.
Take some time for gratitude. Maybe listen to this Dr. Seuss tale: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

If you set your mind to it, you can probably come up with another long list.

But the point is – there are plenty of productive things you CAN do when you can’t reach the people who won’t be available over this long holiday weekend.

I wish you a Happy 4th of July, and a happy, productive, independent life!

Time to work courtesy of Stuart Miles @ freedigitalphotos.net
Reading by the pool Image courtesy of Ben Schonewille at FreeDigitalPhotos.net