Kim Hughes

Providing solid solutions since 1999 specifically tailored for today’s real estate professional.

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3 Real Estate Systems to Have in Place for 2017

Now that holiday decorations are put away, we have set our 2017 goals and got our heads back in the game, let’s make sure we get off to a fantastic start by learning the Top 3 Systems you need to have in place to run your business like an Entrepreneur.
Join Me For – YES! Real Estate Agents Are ENTREPRENEURS!
A LIVE Facebook Event

Thursday January 26, 2017 at 7:00 PM CST/8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Learn the top 3 systems you need to have in place for 2017!

Visit my Facebook Page here to attend the event on Jan. 26 at 7:00 PM CST.

 

90 Day Real Estate Planner

90 Day Real Estate Planner

You Asked For It and Now You’ve Got It! The 90 Day Real Estate Action Planner has arrived. Get yours during the pre-order sale now, and save $20. Click here to see what you get when you purchase your very own Real Estate Action Planner.

Let me ask you this…at the end of the day when you are going over what you accomplished, do you feel satisfied in the way you accomplished it?

Do you feel organized?
Have structure? Focus?
Did you create a habit?

This real estate planner has been in the making for over a year and it was solely created for the real estate entrepreneur who is ready to get serious and start walking the walk and talking the talk. This planner not only helps you with time management, but helps you create direction and take action in your daily life – both professional and personal.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. 

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Awesome Project Management Apps

project management appsWhether you want to keep track of personal tasks or large-scale team projects, using a project management app can help get you organized and simplify the process. The following project management apps are easy to use and offer plenty of great features…

Asana

A task management app that is great for project management too, Asana allows for an easy way to track work across teams. Review progress of tasks and projects easily, and cut down on the amount of meetings and emails needed. Share tasks lists with your team and keep track of conversations, simplifying communication.

Asana integrates with WordPress, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Harvest, HipChat and more. Cost is free for teams of up to 15 people, and premium cost is $8.33 per member/per month with reduced price for small teams.

Trello

This app is easy to use and is ideal for managing ideas, lists and projects. Trello is based on Kanban boards, a system developed by Toyota. It looks great, features drag-and-drop cards, and allows use of attachments, labels, conversations and checklists. Manage several project boards, assign multiple team members to projects and cards, and schedule due dates.

The basic account is free; the Business Class account is $9.99 per user/month and features app integrations, team overviews and more security; Enterprise account is $20.83 per user/month and is ideal for large companies with multiple teams.

Basecamp

A well-known, flexible project management app, Basecamp lets you organize everything you need to get projects done. The app offers a centralized schedule, docs and file storage, lists, message boards and comment threads, real-time chat, automatic check-ins and more. There are multiple project displays, and you can set deadlines, delegate tasks, get notifications, review reports, and easily search for specific information related to your project, team member, etc.

Cost is $29 per month for internal teams, or $79 per month for use with clients and allows separation of internal communication from client communication. Enterprise account starts at $3000 per year and offers lots of file storage, personal account manager, live-demo for your team, consulting on Basecamp, guaranteed uptime Service Level Agreement.

If you have been looking for a way to get your tasks and projects organized, these apps should do the trick. There are plenty of other project management apps out there, but these are visually appealing, user friendly, and offer great options to keep you on track.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. Visit KimHughesCoaching.com for details!

Image courtesy of elitatt/Flickr.com

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Blog Tips for Real Estate Agents

Blog Tips for Real Estate AgentsAs a real estate agent, the importance of blogging fresh content regularly, can’t be stressed enough.

Blogs get picked up by search engines, drive traffic to your website, and eventually result in new leads. When people need information about your community or buying or selling a home, you want to be the one they turn to. Blogging can help establish you as an expert in your community. Provide great content on a regular basis, and your audience will keep coming back for more.

What makes up great content? We at Kim Hughes and Company research the latest trends for our clients, including information on local markets, in order to put together an effective blog strategy that gets results. We find that posting evergreen content that is informative, educational, entertaining or addresses problems and concerns really works to engage our real estate agents’ audiences. A blog article that utilizes keyword stuffing (overuse of keywords throughout the article) and too many links will come off as spam – this should definitely be avoided.

Blog Strategy

While it is important not to go overboard, your blogs should contain a few top keywords, active links, tags, alternative tags (alt tags), and your call-to-action. Include a high quality photo in your content that contains alt tags as well. There are several great royalty-free sites to find photos that can be used commercially.

Your blog should ideally be hosted on your website in order to drive traffic there. Share your blog articles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. This is a great strategy to boost your blog and website visibility, and to improve your chances of reaching a wider audience through sharing.

Ideas for Blog Content

Here are a few topics that we post that really get results for Kim Hughes and Company clients. Consider posting 2-3 times per week. The important thing is to be consistent. This will help retain a devoted following for your blog and help it achieve a higher search engine rating.

  • Just listed and just sold properties
  • Listing price changes
  • Buyer topics such as first-time buyer information, mortgages, credit reporting
  • Seller topics such as how to boost value, timing the market, pricing, etc.
  • Homeowner topics such as renovations, home safety and maintenance
  • Current real estate market trends and local statistics
  • Community events and holiday information
  • Press releases for company changes and awards

Although blogging can be time-consuming and can require some strategizing to maximize its effectiveness, it is a proven strategy for boosting business that shouldn’t be overlooked. Hopefully you have gained a little insight and a few ideas to consider from the information above. Don’t have time to manage blogging? Contact me today for a consultation, and I will be happy to discuss how we can help.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. Visit KimHughesCoaching.com for details!

Image courtesy of StartupStockPhotos/Pixabay.com

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Fall Marketing Ideas for Your Business

Fall Marketing Fall is a busy time of year with school activities, seasonal festivals and holidays. It is a time of fresh starts and new ideas, and business owners can take advantage of plenty of marketing opportunities throughout the season. Here are a few great ideas you can try, to give your business a boost this autumn.

  1. Hold a photo contest. With so many fall activities going on, such as school activities, sports, festivals, and beautiful changing scenery, there are lots of great photo opportunities. Invite your audience to join the contest and award a prize for best photo. Make sure to include a hashtag and encourage everyone to share the details.
  2. Attend local festivals. Do you have Oktoberfest celebrations or fall festivals near you? Get in touch with the event coordinators and find out how you can participate. You may be able to set up a booth or become an event sponsor.
  3. Offer Halloween deals. There are lots of opportunities to come up with catchy taglines centered around Halloween for your promotion. You can also offer online content pertaining to Halloween recipes, costumes, parties and safety to engage your audience.
  4. Holiday promotions. Many of us are already thinking about holiday shopping. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas are just around the corner. Offer online content regarding money saving tips, budgeting, and planning. As the holidays get closer, start promoting deals on your products or services.
  5. Participate in a charity fundraiser or canned-food drive. You can gather the community to serve at a shelter, nursing home, etc. or you can simply offer discounts to customers who bring in items to donate to a local charity.
  6. Hold a customer appreciation event. The Thanksgiving season is naturally a great time to show your customers how thankful you are for them. Partner with the local pumpkin patch and give out pumpkins to your past clients – make sure to take photos. A Thanksgiving pie give-a-way is always a big hit, as are hayrides. Look at your community to see what it has to offer and partner up with a business, your lender, title company, etc. Building relationships is what is all about this fall season.

Try out a few of these ideas to help ramp up business this fall. Being involved in your community this season, whether locally or online, is a great way to get some extra exposure for your brand and gain some new customers.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. Visit KimHughesCoaching.com for details!

Image courtesy of Chris Fort/Flickr.com

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Best Organizational and Productivity Apps

Productivity AppsWe all need a little help getting it together at times. From keeping up with family obligations, to work and everything that falls in between, it is imperative to have a system in place to keep track of it all.

Luckily there are quite a few apps out there that can help you manage most anything. Here is a run-down on the apps that made my list of the most efficient, useful and easy to use.

Evernote

One of the best note-taking apps around, Evernote allows you to keep track of projects, archive files, save webpages, photos, voice notes and more. Notes can be tagged, searched, exported and added to notebooks that can then be stacked. Share projects and tasks with your team, and allow them to edit if desired.

IFTTT

“If this, then that” or IFTTT, allows you to create formulas or “recipes” to automate your tasks. You can connect devices and apps and tell them how to interact. For example – you can automate cataloguing email, exporting email receipts to Evernote, downloading new music to Dropbox, or sending a message in Twitter when certain hashtags are used.

Last Pass

Have a ton of passwords and struggle remembering where you keep them all? LastPass is a password management service that stores encrypted passwords. Features include one master password, form filling, password encryption, cross-platform availability, multifactor authentication, credit monitoring and more. Log in to all of your accounts quickly and with much less frustration.

Todoist

Great for managing projects and tasks anywhere, even offline. Todoist allows you to collaborate on tasks in real-time with distraction free design. Start a project, create a sub-project, task or sub-task. Set up notifications and reminders, recurring dates, labels, filters and more. Todoist works on just about every platform you think of.

Google Now

With Google Now, simply use voice commands to find a restaurant, send a text message, set up event reminders and more. The app provides “now cards” to deliver the information you need, when you need it. Get weather information, traffic reports, track packages, flights, discover nearby events, attractions, etc. All of the information that matters to you is right at your fingertips.

There are many great apps out there to help us stay on top of just about anything you can think of. The apps featured here are well-designed and easy to use. They are definitely worth checking out if you would like some help making home and work life simpler.

Ready to create the changes that will help you move towards living the life you REALLY want? Now is the time to take control of your personal development by eliminating self-doubt. Give your confidence a boost so you can value the life as well as the business you have dreamed of. Contact Kim Hughes when you are ready to Bring Clarity, Balance, and Confidence to your business. Visit KimHughesCoaching.com for details!

Image courtesy of AJEL/Pixabay.com

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