Why I opened an agency in the worst recession in living memory

I opened my agency in 2008. If you were in the industry then, you will remember what that was like. Lenders had stopped lending. Chains were collapsing every week. Agents who had been around for twenty years were shutting branches. And I was handing in my notice to go and open one.

What I had going for me

Not much. Eleven years at an agency in Ruislip, where I had started on the front desk at seventeen and left as a senior negotiator and valuer. No money to speak of. No investors. A wife who believed in it, which mattered more than any of the rest.

Why a recession is a good time to start

Nobody tells you this, but a bad market is the cheapest time to build an agency. Rents on shops come down. Good staff are available because the big firms are letting them go. Landlords who have been neglected by agents cutting corners are looking for someone who will actually answer the phone. And your competitors are too busy surviving to notice you.

The other thing a recession teaches you is to run the business like a business from day one. We could not afford to carry anyone. Every pound had to work. Those habits stayed with us for eighteen years, and they are a big part of why someone wanted to buy the business at the end.

What I would do differently

I would have started lettings sooner and taken it more seriously. Sales paid the bills in the early years, but it was the managed book that built the value. I would have written things down earlier. For the first five years the business was in my head, and that is not a business, it is a hobby with staff.

If you are thinking about it

If you are an experienced agent thinking of going it alone, the market will never feel right. It did not feel right in 2008 and it does not feel right now. What matters is whether you can get instructions, keep landlords, and run the numbers. If you can do those three, the market is just weather.

That is why Owners has a brokerage for agents who want their own business without being on their own. If that sounds like you, apply and I will call you myself.