So, your real estate license is sitting crisply in your wallet, you just set up your laptop on you assigned desk in your new office, and you are about to announce to your friends and family that you are a real estate agent and open for business!

Good for you. Okay, but, where do you start? Well, I have a lot more to say about that than there is room in this blog post, but let me offer you, the newly minted real estate agent, five quick tips to get you on your way:

1. Dress for Business

Your early days in your new career may be spent sitting at your desk or talking on the phone and not doing a lot of client facing activity. No matter what, every day, dress for success. Dress like you are meeting clients, dress like you are selling million dollar homes, dress like this to demonstrate to the world that you are serious about your new business.

2. Structure your Time

Again, this is important in the beginning when you don’t have clients and transactions dictating your daily activities. Get to your office on time, and stay all day. Don’t take a three-hour lunch. Make appointments with yourself throughout the day to conduct your business building activities. For example, from 9-10, update your contact list, from 10-11, make calls to your sphere, and so on. Don’t expect anyone else to tell you what to do every day. Make your own work schedule.

3. Practice your Elevator Pitch

Firstly, you have to create your elevator pitch. Who are you? What do you do? Get used to saying it out loud. You have a lot of friends and family to tell about your new career. You are going to be making a lot of calls. What will you say? Make your message clear and concise. And say it confidently. “I sell residential real estate in all the neighborhoods of the city of Boston. I sell condos and single family homes and help tenants and landlords too.” It doesn’t have to be complicated, just clear and confident.

4. Know Your Market

Before you are actively working with buyers and sellers it can be difficult to get inside properties to become familiar with the inventory in your market place. Attend as many broker open houses and public open houses as you can. Ask listing agents if you can preview their properties. Spend time looking at the new listings every day, track how long they take to go under contract, observe their list prices and their sales prices. Become adept at talking about the data, the prices, and the speed at which homes are selling. Know your inventory, know your market. Be ready to talk about it with buyers and sellers.

5. Shadow an Experienced Agent

Talk to the top-producing agents in your office. Offer to help them with open houses or with administrative tasks, in exchange for their mentorship. Ask to accompany them on buyer tours, on listing presentations, talk to them about how they started in the business, and ask them for advice. And, most of all, remember that these agents were once like you. And one day, you will be like them.

Good luck!