Tip of the Week: Get Involved

Learn about ways to get involved in your community — and choose one community service project that suits you. There’s no downside at all from a business standpoint; it’ll help you be perceived as someone who knows and cares about the community. But you’ll also find it personally rewarding.

There are other ways to show you’re a concerned citizen while advancing your business interests. Begin attending local planning and zoning meetings. You’ll learn about land issues, and the meetings are a great place to get to know builders and developers. New construction is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for many salespeople. Yes, older homes, particularly at the high end, have appeal. However, many buyers, given the choice of a new home or an existing home at roughly the same price, will choose the new home for the same reasons people prefer new cars to used cars: everything’s new, everything works, and there’s probably a warranty.

At first, it can be hard to know where to start. I was kind of at a loss. You don’t quite know how to get involved. But really, it’s a matter of reaching out to someone who’s already involved and asking, “How can I help?” Those people love to bring new people in. If you find something that’s interesting to you, be it a home tour or charity or whatever, you find someone who’s working there and ask. They might come back to you with a “Well, how do you want to help?” So it can be challenging, but when you start brainstorming with these people and going to the meetings regularly, it absolutely helps not only the community itself, but you do get people who recognize you and your business.