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With the summer holidays around the corner, an agency director and single father has shared with REB how he balances a busy career, running a business, and parenting all at the same time.
Harcourts Werribee director Petar Krnjeta shared with REB how he balanced running a busy agency as a single parent, crediting organisation, time management, and leading by example.
According to Krnjeta, who co-parents his six-year-old son, managing a busy schedule to accommodate family commitments comes down to thorough planning and the help of a reliable team.
He admitted that it was often a challenge to manage an office while fitting in family holidays and day-to-day commitments such as school sports and other after-school activities.
“Particularly when you're working six days a week and then trying to balance and make sure that the business is running at float as well,” he told REB.
“It all comes down to just preparing ahead and making sure that everything's organised.”
To manage his time effectively, Krnjeta said he liked to maintain a routine, waking up at 5am from Monday through Sunday, believing that discipline equals freedom.
He also said that treating family time and his son’s extracurricular activities as appointments also helped him plan his day efficiently.
“It took me a lot of years to get to that level, but now I'm at the part of my career where I can now work my schedule around what I need to do, commit to my son and make sure that I'm present at the time,” he said.
Krnjeta also said he planned his weeks to factor in time with his son, including a half-day of work on Wednesday and drawing on his team's help on weekends.
“I've got a very supportive team that supports me with open for inspections, so I could spend some more of my weekends with my son, so there's a bit of balance there,” he said.
He said his office also supported him in other ways, with one team member assisting with prospecting, and a more senior agent helping him manage property owners.
Speaking on how he achieved a work-life balance, Krnjeta said it was often a challenge to completely switch off after business hours, given he still received plenty of calls in the evening.
However, he said he was committed to being attentive to his son and had learnt to plan holidays and activities in advance.
“In this industry, you've got to plan your schedule ahead. So most of my schedule is planned anywhere from six to 12 months ahead.”
He also said he communicated clearly with his team about the dates he was taking off and factored his staff’s time off into his calendar to ensure the agency's efficient operation.
“Just being ahead of the game is probably the biggest advice I can give to any single parent out there,” he said.
He said an important lesson from his career was to give the same time and energy to his family as he gave to his clients.
“Sometimes I come home emotionally drained, but I just have to show up. And it's no different to when you're selling a client's house,” he said.
“You've got to give everything regardless of what's going on in the background and how the business is operating, what troubles you're facing or whatever it looks like. You just have to be present.”
He also said it was up to parents to be role models for their children, taking responsibility for them no matter their situation.
“If you are getting into the real estate industry and you are a single parent, use that as fuel to fire a good lifestyle for you and your child,” he said.
“If you're going through a hard time or something's really affecting you, use that as fuel to have a really good career and drive yourself to become the best version of yourself," he concluded.
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