Kim Woods

Kim Woods is a wife, a mother, a grandmother to four-year-old Hudson and has two very special grandbabies on the way soon.

Kim is fortunate enough to work with her son, Craig, who co-owns the business with her. She also has the unique opportunity of working with her daughter, Lauren, and the most phenomenal team. Tyson Properties Durban operates in all aspects of property, including buying, selling, and leasing of residential and commercial property from the M7 in the south right through to the Umhlanga river in the north.

Kim believes that she got to where she is today through sheer hard work, commitment and wanting to always be the best that she could be. Unsurprisingly, Kim has won numerous awards. The first accolade that she received as a businessperson was as a real estate agent. Kim said, “I think winning the branch agent of the year, was an amazing thing, and it gives you such confidence to know that you can do this.” Kim received that accolade several times and when she went onto to a manager’s role, received manager awards, and has now received awards as a franchisee. Tyson Properties Durban has achieved recognition for “the highest number of registrations in a year” consistently over the past few years.

Internship programme

For the past two years, the branch has been running an internship programme to train up youngsters and equip them with everything they need to know to become estate agents. “Once they have completed the training programme successfully, the interns are offered jobs in our business where they can become real estate brokers. Some of the agents who have come through our internship programme are currently among our top agents and it’s wonderful to watch them grow to be the best that they can be and actually run their own businesses,” explained Kim.

In the future, Kim intends to continue to offer the internship programme so that they can keep upskilling youngsters. “We want to give them the opportunity to build careers, support themselves and their families and be optimistic about their futures. I have always had a bit of a heart for teaching, so I do love teaching them and sharing my knowledge,” added Kim.

Keep learning

Kim started out as an agent selling property because she wanted to try and make some money for her family when they were going through some challenging times. “I discovered that I had a real passion for property. And once you find a job that you love, it never really feels like work. I loved being able to do something I really enjoyed every single day and to provide for the people who I loved the most – that has always felt like the greatest reward to me.”

Kim added that she fell in love with people and the fact that every day is different. “You keep learning every single day and you keep finding out new things about people, about yourself and about your team; and it’s just about applying that to everyday life.”

A real challenge that Kim has faced is that working in property means that you work on a commission-based salary. As such learning to budget and be disciplined with an inconsistent salary is a tough field to navigate. In the last ten years, the industry has seen new legislation and new regulations been brought in. “You have to continually try to navigate the way that you deal with those things, so I think those challenges have been really hard. The property market has also changed from being really bad to being really good, and then again, being really bad. Consequently, says Kim, “Tying to keep your team motivated is tough and you’ve got to keep your head in a space of always looking for the positives. I have this rule in my office that everybody is allowed to have one bad day. After that, you have to get back up on top and find the way to face all the challenges.”

A great experience

Kim and her son try to get involved with every transaction and get to know the people. However, she says that in order to succeed you have to surround yourself with a team that you trust; employees that you know will provide excellent service to your clients. “And you need to treat your team well so that they can treat your clients well. In a world of service, feedback and communication is the key to everything. We try to make sure that every client that comes through our ranks, ends up having a great experience where they walk away saying it was awesome to deal with Tyson’s.”

For young women coming into the industry, Kim’s advice would be to keep your head in the space and believe that you can. “Make sure of the fact that women are just as important as men. We can do better than they can because we can multi-task. We are able to get out there and be positive. Do things in a nice way while you also manage to be the wife, the mom, the daughter, the sister, the girlfriend, or anything else. You can do all of those things and you can still be successful. And you can be kind, compassionate, caring, and help others.”

In conclusion, Kim says, “Find out what it is that you love. Work really hard. Treat it like a full-time job. Put your heart into everything you do. Don’t be afraid of the grind – you need to put in the hard work and never give up. Even if you don’t see results immediately–keep at it. Hard work will pay off.”