NSW Business Chamber Awards 2015
By Jun Kurosawa

Michael Kurosawa, Infinity Property Agents – City of Sydney Business Awards Nominees 2015

It’s nice to be recognized and particularly when you’re in an industry that is as competitive as the real estate industry. This year, Infinity Property Agents was nominated as a finalist in two categories – Business Leader (Michael Kurosawa) and Excellence in Small Business.Winners will be announced on Thursday, 23rd July at the Sydney Town Hall.

1. Excellence in Small Business The Award recognises:

• Business growth over the past 24 months
• Strategies and plans to achieve business growth
• How these strategies were implemented
• Measurable results – both financial and non-financial

The awards focused on our property management division which has witnessed 74% increase in the number of new properties under our management and revenue increase of around 43% over the past 24 months.

The organisation developed a strategic marketing plan which focused on creating new business whilst developing stronger relationships with our existing client base. Our marketing efforts targeted specific regions and developments within those regions. We analysed the business practices of our competitors to benchmark a premium service offering to our customers and researched our client base to determine the level of satisfaction from both landlord and tenant perspectives, acknowledging and addressing areas of weakness.

In addition to traditional marketing efforts, a stronger focus was placed on digital marketing with in-house development of weekly e-newsletters, seo, online reviews, company blogs, ad-words campaigns, extensive social media focus and digital formats of presentation kits.

2. Business Leader The Award recognises:

• Scope of responsibilities
• Achievements over the past five years
• Key challenges faced and how these were overcome
• Community focus

The owner of Infinity Property Agents, Michael Kurosawa came from humble beginnings as a Japanese immigrant 28 years ago. Having worked for some of Australia’s best known estate agencies, he currently leads a team of 13 staff and manages 550 properties valued at in excess of $3.7 billion, assisting 480 investors to develop their property portfolio.

Five year goals focus on expansion to at least 1,000 properties under management, new, larger office location, and double the staff structure, expansion of our cleaning services, sales and commercial divisions and potentially branching out to regional areas. The company is also focused on its community offering, assisting Sydney community groups and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation along with closer ties with our South East Asian communities.

As an independent agency, the key challenges faced are that you don’t have the support of a larger network and franchised brand. This requires you to work harder, building stronger relationships with your existing client base and provide a higher level of service, exceeding benchmarks of that of the larger agencies. You also need a team of staff that share the central goal and vision for excellence in customer service. Staff are provided with regular training, specific KPI’s and frequent rewards.

As a business leader, Michael is also a member of the Malaysian-Singapore Association which builds business networks between Australian and South East Asia, providing regular talks on the Sydney property market and educating members on investment opportunities.

July 2015
Michael Kurosawa – Managing Director
0411 641 662

@nswbc @cityofsydney @realestate_ipa

Author: Bernie Tynes