A leader's approach to embracing business evolution

I started as a lead agent at Place Bulimba in 2012 and was fortunate enough to become a partner in that business. When it was decided that we would form “Place One Group” (Four Place Offices geographically aligned) I could see that this was an amazing opportunity to take a larger share and become a director of the One Group.

Part of this change was shifting my entire team from Place Bulimba to the new Place Camp Hill (previously operated as Place Coorparoo). In the Camp Hill office, my team has gone from strength to strength, and we will have had our best year ever this year. The office has a combination of established teams, agents that were already in the business and an injection of new talent. Turnover has increased by more than 300 per cent from the previous operation out of the same space.

The whole team attend all meetings, training and social functions together as “The One Group” and get enormous value from that participation.

How has it changed your life?

The best part of being part of the Place One Group is that my day-to-day life at work is still managing my own team to list and sell real estate in the local area, with a purpose of “Helping people find their happy place”. Being part of the one group means that I don’t need to be concerned about the day-to-day management of the office or the team. This is all managed by the principal (Paul Curtain) and the two co-principals. I do get to benefit from being involved with the larger team and the referral systems within that.

Put simply - it’s the best of both worlds as we feel very independent in our own office but benefit greatly from the leadership team of the Place One Group.

How did you know you were ready to become a director of Place One Group, and principal of Camp Hill?

I had held senior director roles in other businesses before starting in real estate, so I always wanted to get back to having input and influence into the business direction. When the opportunity came up to be a director, but with the option of not having to be involved with the day to day management, I knew it was the right combination for me.

What are the benefits of being in a leadership role?

It’s great to have direct input into current and future strategy. I have had a lot of business experience outside of real estate and just 12 years in the industry, which is unusual for someone in my role. It helps me have input with a business approach rather than just a pure real estate approach quite often bringing in thoughts and feedback from a slightly different angle.

How have the services at HQ helped in your business journey?

The Place HQ services are awesome. We get access to best practice services in HR, payroll, finance, marketing and of course strategic management without having to have all these people directly on our payroll. It makes the growth journey much smoother and easy to accelerate when you need to as all the resources you need are there.

What sort of future growth are you hoping for with the office and team?

I have very ambitious plans for my team, The Camp Hill office and of course the Place One Group.

My Team – We are currently a team of six, with four salespeople and two in operations. We are in the process of auditing ourselves and taking on all of HQ’s updates to ensure we are industry best practice in operations. I have a new salesperson starting in February to double down in one of our core suburbs (I always recruit from outside of the industry).

The Office – Having grown so much in such a short period our next challenge is space and within the next 18 months we need some extra space. We are reviewing options for this growth with a clear aim of staying in our core area of Camp Hill. We are already number one agency in camp Hill and Coorparoo and we see so much opportunity in the immediate suburbs around this to also be the number one agency.

The Place One Group – We are in the process of integrating two existing offices and opening another in Cannon Hill. I believe these businesses will show the improvement and growth that you’d expect with the management experience that the one group and Place HQ can supply. Whilst we say that’s enough for now, I’d say watch this space.

What do you love most about being a partner in The Place One Group?

We are always looking for ways to be ahead of the market, to improve, train and be best in whatever we take on. I love the pursuit of excellence and the constant challenge to improve whatever we do!
8. If a high-performing agent was looking at opening an office - why Place?

A high performing agent does not always mean you are the type of person that can open and manage an office on your own. However, if you believe you are ready to grow and expand, opening within the Place group using the services of Place HQ allows you to still focus on being a high performing agent.