Starting with just 31 properties under management, no sales listings and 4 staff,Tamara and Elaine coached, managed, built and grew their team to 27 staff, 750 properties under management and a consistent sales team with one of the highest average sales agent tenures in the country. They built a business of attraction for both staff and clients and they won the Customer Service Award for the most outstanding customer service program in Vic/Tas for the Ray White network.
After selling their real estate business, Tamara and Elaine took a brief break to reflect on their next venture. They ultimately co-founded Business By Design Duo with the goal of coaching and empowering other business owners to become strong and effective leaders, and create a positive and productive business culture that they and their team love working in.
Due to their experience and success in building their own real estate business, they have also become sought-after experts in sharing their journey, expertise, and strategies for growing, streamlining, and selling a real estate business. Their approach to setting up and organically growing a rent roll has become of particular interest among business owners and Business Development Managers.
Tamara and Elaine's coaching approach focuses on providing practical ideas and strategies that business owners and managers can immediately implement. They believe in giving leaders the confidence and know-how to foster strong and effective leadership and cultivate a positive and productive culture. Once these foundational elements are in place, business owners and their teams are well prepared to tackle the long-term sustainable growth of their rent roll and sales business.
Coaching & Training Topics
Principals - Leadership and Culture Coaching Topics:
- Clarifying your vision and strategic business planning
- Culture and Leadership Coaching
- Preparing your business to sell/succession planning
- How to reward your team to help keep them motivated and striving to be better.
- Staff retention initiatives
- Creating and planning Collaborative Planning Days
- Staff inductions that will streamline your business
- Delegating effectively
- Building successful relationships with Key staff or partners within your business & effectively managing conflict
- Quality Customer Service - How this can set you apart from your competition
- Team Communication strategies
- How to make the best out of every opportunity to capture sales from your rent roll.
- How to induct new clients into your business
Principals and PM Team Leaders:
- How to improve the value of your rent roll
- How to create great processes & systems within your PM business
- What are the main KPI's in your Property Management Department that you should be closely monitoring?
- Building the Culture YOU want within your business/team
- How to build a business of attraction for both employees and clients
- How to create an Awesome Customer Journey for your landlords and tenants
- Leadership training and development for Team Leaders/Head of Dept
- Creating effective communication strategies for your business
- Risk Management of your rent roll
- Quality v quantity inside a rent roll
- Why and how to do an internal audit
Sales Agents:
- Database management training
- Sales & auction campaign training
- Prospecting strategies
- How to make the best out of every opportunity to capture sales from your rent roll.
- How to get the most out of your open homes
Business Development Managers:
- How to be the best BDM in the business
- Building a rent roll organically
- How to know and understand your point of difference and become the local expert
- Streamlining Processes for Optimum Business Growth
- Communication strategies
- How to hold a successful investors information night
- Working with your team/business to generate referrals
- Proactive prospecting
- Educating clients and being the expert
Property Managers:
- Rent Roll Health Checks
- Training Property Managers to become the best in their field
- Building better long-term relationships with your clients
- Set KPI’s and work with the team to achieve these
Communication strategies - How to improve your customer service.
- Building google reviews from your raving fans both rental providers and renters
- How to ensure rent is at or in line with market value
- At Risk clients, know the warning signs
Ross Hunter
Director Edison McGrath & One Degree Business Consulting
Elaine and Tamara built an extremely successful real estate business and are now sharing in their success by coaching and mentoring business owners with their vast experience in this space. They are very passionate about what they do and our business has benefited and continues to grow as a result of their consulting.
Being a great business owner is like being a parent, there is no handbook to guide you through the tapestry of challenges that will be thrown at those that decide to traverse this rocky yet rewarding road. Those that occupy the space of "great business owner" are limited, enter Tamara and Elaine.
Over the years that I have worked with Tamara and Elaine, they have built a business that from the foundations up epitomises what leadership is all about. Their focus was on building strong relationships, a great culture and continued personal development for both themselves and their team. Their tenacity led to a business that grew year on year and thrived in an harmonious way as a result of Tamara and Elaine being focused as business leaders and never being afraid to do what needed to be done.
Stephen Dullens
CEO, Ray White Vic/Tas
Ray White is Australia and Victoria's largest real estate group, with over 110 offices and 2,000 members throughout Victoria and Tasmania. Tamara and Elaine operated the successful Croydon office, which Tamara purchased in 2010 and Elaine became a Principal in 2017.
Throughout the time of ownership by Elaine and Tamara, this business has gone from strength to strength. Recognised over multiple years, Ray White Croydon was the recipient of numerous awards in an array of areas. The office and team members were particularly recognised amongst the strongest across Victoria in property management, rent roll growth and customer satisfaction results, as well as many individual agents sales awards.
Tamara and Elaine have done an excellent job at growing and retaining their team. In an industry that often sees high staff turnover, the Ray White Croydon team have amongst the highest average tenure throughout Victoria. This was seen particularly in the sales team, with almost all sales agents having been with the business for in excess of seven years. A testament to the fantastic job they have done to build a close-knot team and strong culture, all these members remain with the business as the time of writing in the next generation of business ownership.
Well recognised for their strong leadership skills, Elaine and Tamara were often sought out by the other Ray White Principals and leaders for help and assistance with their own business, something Tamara and Elaine were always happy to assist with.
James Wilson
Director, Ray White Croydon.
Tamara and Elaine are exceptional business leaders and highly respected in the Ray White group and real estate industry in general.
My business partner and I purchased Tamara and Elaine's Ray White business in Croydon and coming from another highly successful Ray White business, we were instantly impressed by the quality of the systems they had put in place and the quality of their rent roll. It is quite unique to have such a large rent roll in the condition in which they had built it to, which is a credit to their business style.
Many of the staff, including over half of the sales team, have worked at the office for over a decade and speak extremely highly of Tamara and Elaine. The culture they had built is quite unique and something we aspire to maintain and grow. We wish them all the best and know that they will be extremely successful in their next venture, and will be highly beneficial to those they work with.
