Should Real Estate Agents Start a Business?

[Ryan Moye]

Hello everyone, I'm coming close to being licensed as an agent and I've been thinking a lot about establishing my brand in my local market. I've been considering establishing a business and creating a website around that brand to funnel my leads. However, when I look at other agents in my area these are the trends I'm seeing:

Don't seem to have an established brand - most of them don't seem to have their own website. Many of them seem to just use their profile page on their brokers website as their "website". To me this just seems lazy and makes it hard to establish a solid brand around yourself. Again I'm new to the business so I'm just wondering how higher performing agents go about this.

Don't seem to have a solid business - I don't know the legalities of establishing a business as an agent, but to me this just seems like a no brainer. Other agents in my area don't seem to be doing this (but it is a small town). How should agents do this? The few I seeing doing it just make their business their name. For example: if Jon Doe in my area had a brand and a business website it would look something like:

Business name: Jon Doe LLC

Website: JonDoe.com

I'm wondering if this is sufficient. Some people just use their name as their brand, but would it also be expectable to operate under a brand name like example "Elite Realty". What do you think works best for establishing your brand and marketing your business?

Excuse me if anything I say seems very misinformed, because I'm just getting into this myself. However I do come from a marketing background and I know that establishing brands and authority in markets is very valuable. I'm just wondering how the best way to do this as an agent would be. I appreciate any advice someone could offer me on this matter.