Guest contributor Scott Newman of REALTOR®Mag says:

I think Jay-Z put it best when he said, "I'm not a businessman; I'm a business, man." He understands, as do all the top-producing real estate professionals out there, that in order to be a success in any professional endeavor you need to run your business like a business. That means controlling your empire from the top down in a well-defined and well-managed hierarchy.

Why is this important? Simple. In order to continue to grow your business and thus your earning potential, you need to make decisions on how your organization will function—which means making some tough decisions on what tasks to handle and what tasks to delegate or outsource.

I am going to break down some of the tasks and responsibilities that have many agents struggling to decide whether to delegate or outsource in an effort to make best use of time for the long-term health of your business.

Web site

With so many of our buyers turning to the Internet to search for properties, having a great Web site is no longer a luxury—it's a must-have.

I constantly come across Web sites that are nothing more than a template thrown up on a domain, and that is a recipe for disaster. Those types of sites have absolutely no SEO value whatsoever, and are seen as cheap and unhelpful by consumers.