Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur who has founded and grown six different businesses in his lifetime. In 2007, he sold one of his businesses for over $100 million. Mr. Brodsky is a columnist and senior contributing author to Inc. magazine and recently penned a great article about starting a new business. While his topic might have been general, he certainly had the real estate industry pegged.
Mr. Brodsky posed the question, “instead of searching for the ‘next big thing’, how about going into a business everybody already understands?” To define a business everyone already understands, he gave three specific points: a business that has been around for more than 100 years, an industry that is a little antiquated, and one that has the potential for you to carve yourself a niche. The real estate industry easily passes the first requirement. The real estate industry has been around for well over 100 years in the United States, and over 1,000 years in Europe and Asia. (If you think about, real estate as a product has been around for over 10 billion years.) A business that has been around for over 100 years does not need to be hyped or advertised. People know the basics of how the real estate industry operates.
Secondly, the real estate industry is antiquated. Other than the advent of the Internet – which radicalized all industries – the real estate industry has remained far behind in terms of a true shift in culture and behavior. Real estate agents 100 years ago still showed their clients various pieces of property in person. The only difference between a showing appointment today and a showing appointment 100 years ago was the means by which the agent and the client arrived at the property. Yes, there have certainly been improvements to the systems and techniques real estate agents use on a daily basis, but there has not been a theoretical shift in how the real estate industry operates. The real estate industry is antiquated, and the sooner real estate professionals find a way to stay ahead of the curve the better for those professionals and the industry as a whole.
Finally, according to Mr. Brodsky, a business must have niches. Without niches, although the industry may be well established and be antiquated, the business would not be open to growth. Take restaurants for example. Every restaurant does not serve every kind of food; instead, every restaurant offers its own unique menu of foods. So too does the real estate industry have the ability for professionals to create a unique niche. A commercial real estate agent can focus primarily on medical offices. A residential real estate agent can focus primarily on high-rise condominium buildings. Or, a real estate professional can focus on investment or distressed properties that need renovations.
If you are thinking of entering another industry instead of the real estate industry, I challenge you to examine that industry to see if it passes Norm Brodsky’s three requirements for a powerful, sustainable business. If the other industry does pass these three requirements and your mind is more engaged by the other industry, I encourage you to enter that industry. But, if that industry does not pass the test, I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of all that the real estate industry has to offer.
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