Welcome to the 5th edition of Inspire Your Story – Real Estate.
We often talk about the achievements that shape our careers: the promotions, the successful projects, new clients and the moments when everything seems to be moving in the right direction. What we don’t talk about nearly enough are the mistakes and difficult decisions that teach us our most valuable lessons, especially when we’re in senior positions and everyone assumes we already know what we’re doing.
One of the most important lessons of my career came during my time as a Director at a major international property firm. It wasn’t about selling homes, managing clients or winning new business. I understood those areas and I loved them. The lesson was about something far less exciting, but more important: understanding what it really means to run a profitable business.
Winning business doesn’t always mean you’re building a successful business.
At the time, I didn’t realise how much that experience would shape the way I run my own consultancy today.
When winning business becomes the wrong measure of success
As a Director, I was responsible for winning new instructions, managing a team, delivering sales results and contributing to the profitability of the business. I was ambitious, competitive and determined to succeed. I loved pitching for work and building client relationships.
But the market was competitive and we were regularly up against agencies offering much lower fees. Clients valued what we offered, but they also wanted the best deal. I became so focused on winning that sometimes I reduced our fees just to stay in the race.
On one scheme, I was so determined to beat a competitor that I agreed a fee which, once our costs were taken into account, delivered very little commercial return. We won the instruction, the team delivered and the client was happy, but financially it wasn’t the success I’d thought it would be.
I’m not going to pretend that was easy to admit.
I’d always believed that hard work, winning business and delivering results meant success. I wanted to prove myself as a Director. But I had to accept that being responsible for a profit and loss account meant much more than bringing in revenue. It meant understanding what it actually cost to deliver the work, and whether my decisions made commercial sense.
The problem wasn’t a lack of ambition. If anything, I was so determined to succeed that I was measuring the wrong thing. I was asking how we could win more business, when I should also have been asking whether the business we were winning was worth having.
That was when I learnt the difference between being good at my job and being responsible for running a business.
The financial lessons nobody really teaches you
We underestimate how much people are expected to learn when they step into senior leadership. You can spend years becoming excellent at your job, building relationships, developing teams and delivering great projects. Then you reach Director level and suddenly you’re responsible for budgets, overheads, margins, forecasts and the performance of an entire department.
Some organisations provide excellent commercial training. But for many of us, that understanding comes through experience, and sometimes through getting it wrong.
That was certainly true for me. I knew sales, customers and teams inside out. Looking at decisions through a commercial lens was something I had to learn.
It’s also something I think organisations should be talking about more openly. We spend years developing people to become excellent at their jobs, but are we doing enough to prepare them for the financial and commercial responsibilities that come with leadership?
Understanding how a business operates shouldn’t be something we only start learning once we’re responsible for running part of it.
So I changed how I approached new instructions. Before any pitch, I knew the numbers, how much staff time a scheme would need, the resources required to deliver it and the minimum fee that made it worthwhile.
I also became more confident explaining the value of our service, instead of cutting our fee the moment a competitor came in cheaper. There will always be someone prepared to charge less. That doesn’t mean they’re delivering better value.
There are times when a lower fee makes strategic sense, perhaps to build a long-term relationship or break into a new market. The difference is making that decision consciously, based on the numbers, not just because you want to win.
And sometimes the right commercial decision is to walk away.
Six years later, I’m still applying the business lessons learnt
When I left full-time employment and started working independently as a consultant, I took these lessons with me. Running your own business changes your perspective very quickly, because every decision has a direct impact on what you’re building.
The value of a contract is only one part of the picture. You also have to think about the people needed to deliver it, the time involved, your overheads and the opportunities you might have to turn down as a result.
Over the past six years, I’ve worked with housing associations, local authorities and developers, helping them improve their sales, marketing, customer experience and operational performance. It’s been incredibly rewarding. But I’ve also learnt that growing a consultancy isn’t about taking on more and more work. It’s about knowing where you can add real value, pricing your expertise properly and making sure you can deliver what you’ve promised.
I still love winning new clients. But today I’m far more conscious of whether a contract is financially sustainable, whether the fee reflects the expertise involved and whether the relationship is right for the business.
As Inspire Homes grows, these lessons matter even more. Growth brings opportunity, but it also brings responsibility. Sometimes that means saying no.
You don’t have to be a Director to think like one
One thing I wish I’d understood earlier is that commercial awareness isn’t something you should only start developing when you reach a senior position.
Whether you work in sales, marketing, customer service, aftercare, operations or finance, the decisions you make every day have an impact on the wider organisation. The time spent fixing a recurring problem, the money spent on a campaign, the delays nobody takes ownership of: they all have a cost.
In housing, this matters even more. Organisations are balancing financial pressure with the responsibility to deliver good homes, great customer service and positive social outcomes.
Being commercially aware doesn’t mean only caring about profit. It means understanding how time, money and resources are being used, and asking whether there’s a better way.
You don’t need to manage a budget to spot waste. You don’t need to lead a department to question a process. And building that mindset early can make a real difference when the opportunity to step up comes along.
The Inspire Challenge: Look beyond the headline numbers
Here’s a simple example of why looking beyond the headline numbers matters.
Imagine you’re responsible for a department generating £500,000 in annual revenue, with staffing and operating costs of £440,000. That leaves £60,000 in operating profit.
Now imagine fees are cut by 10% to stay competitive, but the work and the cost of delivering it stay exactly the same.
Your revenue falls to £450,000. Your costs stay at £440,000. Your profit drops from £60,000 to just £10,000.
That’s an 83% fall in profit from a 10% cut in revenue.
The team is still busy, the work is still being delivered and the client may still be happy. But the financial picture has completely changed. It’s a simple example, but it shows why pricing decisions should never be made in isolation.
And even if you don’t generate revenue, the principle is the same. Every organisation has limited time, money and resources, and knowing how to use them well is a skill worth building at any stage of your career.
So here’s my challenge this month. Whatever your role, think about three things:
- What does your work actually cost? Look beyond the obvious spend and consider the time, people and resources involved.
- What value does it create? That might be revenue, profit, better customer outcomes, efficiency or savings for the organisation.
- What would you change if it were your own business? Pick one practical improvement you could make or suggest, however small.
You might be surprised how differently you start to see your work 💡
Not every setback is a step backwards
I sometimes wonder whether I’d run my consultancy the same way if I hadn’t learnt this lesson earlier in my career. Perhaps I’d have made the same mistakes, only this time with my own money at stake.
Being a good leader isn’t about getting every decision right. It’s about owning it when you don’t, understanding what needs to change and doing better next time.
I also think we need to be more honest about these moments, especially as senior leaders. There’s an expectation that the further you progress, the more answers you should have. The truth is, we’re all still learning, whatever our job title.
If sharing one of my mistakes helps someone approach their next pitch differently, question a commercial decision or feel more ready for a leadership role, then it’s worth sharing.
Not every setback is a step backwards. Sometimes it’s preparing you for something you haven’t even considered yet.
So I’ll leave you with a question this month:
What’s one career lesson you’ve learnt the hard way that you wish someone had taught you earlier?
I’d love to hear your experiences, whether that’s around commercial decisions, leadership, negotiating, knowing when to walk away or something completely different.
If you’re enjoying this newsletter series, then please do share it with colleagues and peers you feel could benefit from it and follow me for more updates.
See you next month.
Founder, Inspire Homes
Coming Next Month…
The Sales Skills Every Career Needs
Whether you work in sales or not, you’re selling every day. Your ideas, your value, your next promotion. Next month, I’ll share the sales techniques that shaped my career, and how you can use them to influence, negotiate and get noticed, whatever your role.
About the Author
Asha Agarwal is the Founder of Inspire Homes, a property consultancy advising local authorities, housing associations and developers on sales, marketing, lettings and customer strategy. With over 20 years in real estate, including senior roles at Hyde and Savills, Asha has built a career turning complex housing challenges into commercial results, supporting the delivery and sale of over £250m GDV and helping more than 1,000 first-time buyers into home ownership.
She sits on the board of Women in Social Housing (WISH) London, judges leading property industry awards and regularly speaks at industry events on leadership, diversity, career progression and the future of real estate. The part of her career that matters most to her is what comes next: helping the next generation find their place in the industry. Asha is particularly passionate about opening doors for young people and women who don’t always see people who look like them represented at senior level, helping them build confidence, navigate their careers and see a path to leadership.
Inspire Your Story – Real Estate is where Asha shares the lessons, conversations and career advice that aren’t always talked about openly, so the next generation can navigate their careers with more confidence, clarity and intention.
