I like the people I work with but recently I’ve had a few experiences that really stuck in my craw. One is, that several people in my office have literally taken my marketing materials and stuck their own information into them and called it their own. How appaling is that? I can no longer leave any electronic copies of anything on the server at the office because evidently people can’t be trusted not to steal.

Another is, people who don’t know how to create a marketing or business plan asking to see or copy mine. I want to be a nice person but on the other hand, I spent a lot of time and money learning how to develop mine and actually putting it all together. I would be happy to show someone what their plan might include, but in a sense I feel like they should do their own work and not copy mine.

And I think too many people get hired into this business who have no business being here. Sometimes I think all you do by helping the weak ones is delay the inevitable. Maybe that’s not very kind but it’s how I’m starting to feel about it.

When I show someone my business plan, they don’t “copy” it any more than anyone literally copies anything. They take a few things from here and a few from there, and form their own that works for them.

I don’t think there are very many “proprietary” issues in real estate, clearly not as many as some think there are. Not referring to Reba here, but the whole proprietary picture and listing issue.

Reba, one other thing came to mind today. Maybe that agent, though seemingly monetarily successful, was the un-organized, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants type of agent looking for some help with structure.

Ardell, I guess that makes me the kind of gardener who likes to dig into the soil and figure out what’s growing where, and why and then experiment with lots of different seeds.

Reminds me of something a mentor told me when I started in this business.

Something like Everyone is a Gardener. Some plant the seeds, some tend the crops, some pull the weeds and some reap the harvest.

I think I’m a weed puller? Often the people who reap the harvest are not the same crew as those that planted the seeds. Just is… We can view everyone as a peer or a competitor…just a viewpoint.

I say there’s nothing new under the Sun and nothing better than raising the profession by sharing with our peers.

Bloggers don’t sleep. We just blog through the night and close our eyes momentarily to help combat eyestrain.

I had a mentor once, a manager who I would go to with ideas. He would say, “great idea, now put it into a business plan and come back and see me then. ” I learned a tremendous amount from this guy, because he helped me find the internal motivation to do things instead of just telling me how to do things. Maybe you could point her in the right direction and then give feedback. There are many available resources for simple business plan templates. Maybe she just needs some encouragement and direction. Maybe not, you’ll have to keep us posted. Like Jonathan said above, you’ll find out quickly.

The most bizarre part of it to me is that she’s an established agent with good volume (I was told 30-50 transactions per year and up to $225k in revenues) so I found it interesting she sought me out. Oh well. I guess I’ll just accept as a flattering request!

Most RCG readers probably know the difference between mentoring and a business plan. What I find intriguing is that what you experienced might be a subtle or not-so-subtle sign of something else happening in the industry.

For the most part I have found that most people have good intentions when they ask for help, though I have experienced situations similar to yours with predatory competitors.

Maybe the agent was trying to ask for help, but didn’t really do it in a very graceful way because it’s difficult for some people to ask for help when they’re struggling.

I am curious to know how struggling agents are managed in your office. Is there a framework set up to help new agents or any agent write a business plan? Maybe this is a sign of a wider industry problem, maybe not. I would enjoy reading a blog post on this topic, if you’re willing

I wish you a very restful evening and look forward to reading more from you soon.