Before I was a land broker in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, I was an NFL football player.

As a player, I was used to working with people who had the same goal in mind. And being part of a team, getting to that goal was easier with the support of my fellow players.

When I started in real estate, my company was a one-man show. That was a foreign concept to someone used to working with others for a collective goal.

As I’ve grown my business over the years, I’ve been able to enjoy a team dynamic again — not only among the team members in my company, but also in the land industry with my peers.

Together, we have the power to make an impact on the buyers and sellers we do business with. And as individual businesses, we’re engaging in marketplace competition. That competition includes watching what other brokers are doing to see what’s working, and putting the best ideas to work in our own businesses.

For years, we’ve been emulating those ideas in our own ways. But now it’s becoming harder and harder to do that on our own. To borrow a football term, this is the time we have to be willing to make adjustments in our respective brokerages.

Our business is always changing.

It takes hard work, and a desire to keep finding and using the right tools out there to better our brokerages. I’m reminded of something an offensive line coach told me years ago that has stuck with me: “Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse. You never stay the same.”

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as my company — and yours, too, no doubt — has been working hard to differentiate itself in the online marketplace. As we’re constantly striving to make ourselves more visible to sellers in need of our services and buyers looking for our listings, I also keep coming back to another thought.

Sure, you can be the Baltimore Ravens, but if you don’t have a league to participate in, there’s no NFL. It’s the league that gives your team the power. But today, the face of the league is changing.

The operational and marketing costs associated with small business ownership are skyrocketing. That’s making it nearly impossible to remain competitive against larger, well-branded companies with established online presences and bigger marketing budgets.

Too many in our industry are faced with the inevitability of joining with larger brokerages or continuing to lose market position — or even worse, be forced out of business.

The power lies in the Internet.

The Internet has revolutionized how and where prospective buyers find the properties we’re offering for sale. A novelty five or six years ago, a real estate website is a must-have today for every broker and every brokerage.

Just look at the numbers. According to the National Association of Realtors, 92 percent of all real estate buyers start their search online. What’s more, consumers are doing more and more business with companies that can be found on page 1 or 2 of their Internet search results.

The Internet is the power in our business. It’s the portal through which our prospects and their money flow. It’s where you must be for clients to find you.

Unfortunately, it’s becoming too expensive and competitive to remain on your own without the support of your own affiliates — your own league.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Google, Yahoo, and Bing have solidified themselves as the Big 3 in general online searches. Similarly, when people search for land for sale on the Internet, they’ll inevitably end up on one of the powerhouse land marketing sites.

The four land sites that generate the most traffic — and therefore generate the highest rankings — are LandWatch.com, LandsofAmerica.com, LandandFarm.com and LANDFLIP.com.

Here’s the reality check: Ninety-nine percent of you aren’t going to have your listings show up in a “land for sale” search ahead of these leading national marketing sites. The cost — in dollars and time — to keep up with SEO and related technologies is prohibitive for most land brokers.

Keep in mind, too, that it’s one thing to put your listings on these national marketing sites. However, each of them is first and foremost an independent marketer — not a collective group of land professionals.

Their concern, and rightly so, is the quantity of listings on their sites, and not necessarily with the quality with which the listings are showcased, or the quality of the connection between you, the broker and your prospective buyers.

The real power, and the potential to survive and thrive in this business lies within us. As land professionals, we can join together to leverage our experience, absorb some of the escalating costs, and be recognized as a force on the Internet.