There have been many highlights for Ray White Whangarei and Tutukaka as they celebrate their 10 year anniversary, after growing to become one of Ray White NZ’s top 10 businesses.
Ray White Whangarei and Tutukaka directors John Monteith, Allan Sykes, and Vanessa McKenzie have been working in the industry together since 1998 and have been business partners since 2003.
Mr Monteith and Mr Sykes have been in the real estate industry for 40 years, while Ms McKenzie started working in the industry as a receptionist at just 18 years old, and became a business partner in 2003.
After several meetings with Ray White NZ CEO Carey Smith, the team decided to join Ray White in 2011.
“Since joining we have not looked back,” Ms McKenzie said.
“The culture, technology, support, leadership, tools, and continual forward thinking of Ray White New Zealand have enabled us to nearly triple our business.
“The education portals, ideas, and software implemented help us as business owners to create tension in our mind to further grow the business.”
Over the past 10 years, Ray White Whangarei and Tutukaka have experienced tremendous growth.
“We have grown our business by concentrating on having the best processes, support team, and leadership we can – we work incredibly hard on a work hard, play hard culture whilst being able to have the hard discussions when they are needed,” Ms McKenzie said.
“We have approached the industry with an attitude of ‘what is next on the horizon?’ and can we be the first to create a customer centric solution that keeps our business relevant.
“We ask ourselves ‘if it is not of value to our team or our customers, then why are we doing it?’ Our people are an incredibly important part of this recipe.
“Have high standards, stick to them and keep pushing each other to be better. Find better, more efficient, more valuable ways to deliver our services.
“ We have high expectations of our admin team, sales team and ourselves. We are proud of those high standards and all work hard to have the best environment we can.”
Ms Mckenzie said the fantastic team of staff, as well as becoming one of the top 10 businesses in Ray White NZ were just some of the highlights of the past decade.
“We immensely enjoyed our very first Ray White Awards – they were absolutely incredible, we had never seen anything like it,” she said.
“We would have struggled without Carey Smith’s unwavering confidence and advice through the Global Financial Crisis.
“Mark McLeod’s mentoring sessions with his incredible vision and direction for the future – and the best one-liners!” have given us as business owners aspiration and confidence.
Mr Monteith said the decision to join Ray White was one of the best he’d ever made.
“After four decades in the real estate industry, these past 10 years have been the best of my life,” he said.
Mr Sykes said the culture at Ray White was what he loved most about the business.
“Culture is caught, not taught and Ray White leads by example,” he said.
Ms McKenzie said the best advice she could provide for others trying to grow their business would be to watch what other leading businesses are doing, and emulate it.
“There is so much experience in the network, we have all done it wrong before we got it right,” she said.
“The industry is changing at pace, listen, think and then implement as quickly as you can.
“Don’t let perfect get in the way of better – just give it a try – have the flexibility and determination to change what’s not working. You are not always right, no one expects you to be.
“Have the hard conversations when they are needed and communicate, communicate, communicate. Have a goal to be the auction house of your city and be the hunted not the hunter”.
“Involve your team in the big decisions, have a clear direction and be prepared to celebrate at every opportunity”.