Setting Yourself Up For Success With A Plan

by | Jan 4, 2017 | Business Planning, Featured, Goals, Grow to Greatness, Grow to Greatness in Real Estate, Real Estate | 0 comments

If you are reading this blog, it is because you want more from your Real Estate Business. You want to Revamp your Real Estate Business! You want more than you have right now. You want more from your business, you want more in life. Let’s face it, you know you are capable of producing better results than you are currently producing, but you are just so busy with the day to day of real estate, that you are not even sure where to start.
Setting Yourself Up For Success With A Plan
This is where you start. Right here at the very beginning.
You start with making a decision.
A decision that you are tired of putting in lots of hours and not getting the results you want.
The decision that you are ready to refocus, regroup and revamp your Real Estate Business.
The decision that you are sick of playing small in life.
The decision that you are ready to go after everything you have dreamed of and desired.
The decision that NOW is that time for you.
Think back to a time in your life where you have accomplished something great. What did you do? How did you achieve that accomplishment? If you analyze your process, I will bet you followed this 3-step success formula:
1. You decided what you wanted exactly
2. You looked at where you were at the time, and then
3. You created a plan to bridge the gap.
That’s it! It sounds so easy. Now, let’s apply this same formula to your business.
What exactly do you want?
It sounds easy on the surface, but you want to create a goal that is going to be worth it. You want it to give you the outcome you are looking for. However, you don’t want it to be so big that it’s unrealistic.
You want to stretch yourself to live up to your full potential, but you need to believe you will get there as well. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. We have all heard that we should set goals, but how?
Well, whether you realize it or not, the next five years will be a blur…. and when you get there you will either be asking yourself where the time went and bemoaning that you just didn’t have the time to accomplish anything, or you can smile into the mirror with the realization that you took the time to plan out where you want to be and not only arrive there, but far surpass your wildest imagination.
It can be done!
The power of this process is incredible. It all starts with a far-out goal, followed by a detailed plan of action. Then simply add in the baby steps it will take along the way and you’re almost there.
I’ve designed a 17 part-planning workbook in response to the needs of many Real Estate Agents who have been awed by what they perceive as a near impossible task that goes into great detail on how to do this. As a bonus to your purchase of this Agent Revamp book, I have provided a link in the back of this book that will take you to a website where you can request the downloadable Business Planning Guide as well as access to three live recordings where I was walking a group of agents through the process. Let me summarize the process for you here.
It is important to set goals that are meaningful to you; goals that are really YOUR goals, not goals that are set for you by your broker or spouse. You also want to set goals that are the right size goals. Not too big, not too small, goals that stretch you out of your comfort zone, but not so big your subconscious mind doesn’t believe you.
You must first figure out your WHY.
What do I mean by your WHY? Your WHY is the driving force behind your goals. Your WHY may be your family, or your kids. Maybe you want to provide a great lifestyle for your kids, you want to put them in private school, pay for the best colleges, or provide five star family vacations.
What is your purpose?
Purpose provides the foundation of our values, vision and goals. Purpose gives meaning to everything we do in our personal and professional lives, yet not all of us recognize our purpose or can articulate it. The following questions will help you uncover your purpose.
Let’s first talk about your life in general. What are the things that give you the most joy in your life? What are you most proud of having accomplished at this point in your life?
A “Purpose Statement” for your life is a few sentences that summarize your “WHY” for life. What really matters for YOU? What are YOU all about? What is your “Life Purpose Statement”?
Then we can focus in on your Real Estate Business. Have you had a time, professionally, in the past year when you have said, “This is why I do what I do everyday”? Describe that experience.
What do you offer that is unique or excites you?
A “Purpose Statement” for your business is a few sentences that describe the “WHY” you have a business in the real estate industry. If you are a real estate agent, you do have your own business in this industry. What is your purpose statement for your business?
Business and Life Purpose Statements can provide a basis for creating a vision and goals that are truly meaningful. They can also help drive us on a daily basis to do the things we need to do to reach our goals.
What are your values?
Your values are at the core of your personality and influence the way you respond to people and events. Your core values dictate what is important in both life and business: how business should be conducted, your view of humanity, and your role in society. Your core values are always at work in the background and are always present as a shaping force. They come from inside you and are an authentic extension of what you hold in your gut. Values direct and motivate us towards certain goals.
The first step in planning goals is figuring out who you really are, what is in your gut, so you can come up with goals that are in alignment with your core values. Not just regurgitate someone else’s goals.
We want goals that FIT!
Next, we will explore the process of creating the vision.
Sometimes life seems to get so busy and you are constantly working on the list of to-dos that you don’t take the time to stop and evaluate your life. It is important to recognize everything you have done this year, celebrate the accomplishments and also look at what may have stopped you short of reaching a goal. This process will help you to learn from your successes and shortcomings and apply these lessons to achieving your long-term goals. What did you accomplish this year? What was challenging in this past year? What did you learn from going through these experiences of the past year?
Is your Life in Balance? Sometimes we focus our energies so much on a few areas of our life that we forget that other areas are also important. Which areas have you neglected recently? The Wheel of Life, sometimes called the Balance Wheel, will help you visualize your current situation. It will provide a snapshot of how you see your life today. Each spoke in the Balance Wheel represents an area in
your life that can contribute to your feeling of happiness and satisfaction.
Now, you will NEVER be in total balance, however, it is important to acknowledge the areas of your life you may have been neglecting in pursuit of your other goals. If you wish, you can make the wheel more meaningful by changing any of the eight aspects given here. Give yourself a score based on your current level of satisfaction with each. This does not mean you are to grade yourself compared to others success based on society’s ideals. This is about you and how you feel right now about your life. Rank the eight areas in the Wheel of Life on a scale of 1-10 (1 being completely dissatisfied and 10 being completely fulfilled)
1. Career/Business/Work _____ (1-10)
2. Social/Friendships _____ (1-10)
3. Community/Service/Charity _____ (1-10)
4. Financial/Money/Lifestyle _____ (1-10)
5. Physical/Fitness/Health _____ (1-10)
6. Spiritual Growth _____ (1-10)
7. Family/Love/Relationships _____ (1-10)
8. Mental/Personal Growth _____ (1-10)
If theses 8 areas were sections on a circular graph, or “wheel” and each was filled in on this graph based on your score, you would get a visual representation of how your life is balanced. How would your car travel if the wheels were in this shape? If half of the wheel is flat or if it is an odd shape and not round you will have problems gaining momentum in all areas of your life.
What would you need to do in each of the 8 areas to raise the number in the next year? What are the 2-3 areas that if you improved, would make the biggest impact on your overall life? This exercise should be repeated at least quarterly to once again get this mental snapshot of which areas you may be neglecting and why you may be having trouble gaining momentum.
Next, we will begin to review what happened in your business this past year. Is Your Business Running Smoothly? Let’s take that same overall process and break it down to your business. Just like in the previous exercise where we looked at your life overall, let’s take some time to break down that first section call Career/Business/Work into 8 segments so we can really analyze how smoothly your business is running currently.
What is the shape?
What one, two or 3 areas could you concentrate on and make the biggest impact in your business?
Then it is time to begin Goal Setting! Write down every goal you hope to accomplish in the next year. Don’t hold back, dream LARGE, think BIG, aim HIGH. Write out personal and Real Estate Goals.
Writing them down is crucial. Your goals can’t just be in your head. After you have done that, star the top 20%. 80% of your results will come from these top goals! Rewrite the goal in present tense as if you have already achieved it. Then write how you will feel when this goal is a reality.
Next, we will be looking specifically at your production goals in your business. We will work the numbers to find out how many clients you need to work with in order to reach not only your business goals,
but the personal goals listed here as well. In order to hit the personal and general business goals, how does that break down into specific number goals for the next one to five years?
Once you have specific production goals set for the next 1-5 years you will begin creating the business and marketing plan to hit those goals.
Next we will be taking a closer look at your target market and how you are going to attract business from that niche.
Sometimes you choose your niche and it works out from the beginning. Other times, your niche evolves as you and your business change and grow. Remember, mass appeal equals no appeal. You can’t be
everything to everyone. Specialization gives people a reason to choose you. Specialization builds perceived value and being a specialist is also easier because you know your clients you can create systems
so you can be more effective. Describe in detail your current niche: “Who” do you best relate to? And why? Who is your “ideal client”?
The money you make is in direct proportion to the Value you provide to the marketplace. When you are clear on your Value Proposition, your confidence will come across to every client and prospect you communication with.
Why should a prospect choose you as their agent?
What is your value proposition to buyers?
What is your value proposition to sellers?
I really want to stress the importance of doing this exercise. Be able to articulate your Unique Selling Proposition. This one thing alone can drastically change your business next year!
In order to attract your ideal clients to you, you must have an effective lead generation system and marketing plan in place. Earlier we looked at where you anticipated the leads for the sales you are projecting would come from. You need to create a marketing plan that will work in generating the leads from the sources you are projecting. It is important to recognize what specific changes to your current plans are necessary to make in order to reach your goals.
Describe your current lead generation system.
Describe your current Marketing Plan.
Create next year’s Marketing Plan that can be broken down to a more specific “Editorial Calendar” Spreadsheet.
What changes are you going to have to make for next year in order to reach your goals? Be specific.
It is important to understand the Organizational Structure of your team. This includes team job descriptions and anticipated changes in the next few years.
Who is on your team?
Summarize their job descriptions.
Describe the compensation plans with those positions.
What changes do you expect to make in the next year?
In order to reach your goals next year, what changes do you need to make in specific areas of your business?
● A Development Plan will list the projects you will be working on throughout the year. This is the place to capture all of those things you have wanted to research, create, do, perfect, delegate and
implement in your business. You may not have something for every area.
● Marketing and Lead Generation Systems (What kinds of systems do you need to bring in the leads, lead capture, database, social media, video, special reports, lead magnets, Referral of a Lifetime Plan, Relationship Marketing Plan)
● Sales and Servicing Systems (What kinds of systems do you need to convert and keep the leads, CRM, Top Producer, Auto responder, CardsForRealEstate.com)
● Equipment (i.e. Computers, printers, camera, Tablets, Smart Phones, Desks)
● Technology (i.e. Computer Programs, Websites, Internet Marketing, Social Media, HootSuite, Apps, SEO)
● People and Staffing (i.e. Assistant, Lead Buyer Agent, Transaction Coordinator, Marketing Manager)
● Support Systems (Coaching, Legal, Mentor, Social Media Management)
● Training – Self (i.e. NAR Conference, GRI, Real Estate Training Seminar, Personal Growth Seminar, Script Writing, Social Media Training, Internet Marketing)
● Training – Staff (i.e. Real Estate Training Seminar, Software Training, Team Retreat, Sales Training, Script Writing)
● Policies (i.e. Bonus Structures, Vacation Coverage, Policies for Buyer Agent Team or Administrative Staff)
● Procedures (i.e. Initial Lead Contact Procedure, File Coordination, Consistent Incoming Phone Answering Procedure, Documentation of Procedures)
● Team Development (i.e. Adding positions, moving people within your team, increasing or setting minimum standards)
● Other (Anything else that you have wanted to do in your business, but have not implemented yet.)
Next, we will discuss budgeting and creating an Expenses Worksheet for next year. You will want to review your expenses for the current year and include any new marketing and development changes from the previous section.
Most budgeting and account software, such as QuickBooks, will provide reports for you to analyze your current business expenses and will assist you in creating a budget. If you do not have that type of system in place yet, you can use these charts in my Business Planning Guide to help you get started.
If you are not happy with these numbers, you may need to rework your development plan, marketing plan or production goals from previous sections. After you have total expenses, break them down to monthly expenses. This will be how you will use to monitor your expenses throughout the year.
Next we will break down your production goals even further.
In order to hit your business goals, you will need to break down a few of the key numbers down to quarterly and monthly goals: Number of Closed Transactions, Number of Buyer Sales, Number of Listing Sales and Number of New Listings for next year.
Break them down to Quarterly Goals and then Monthly based on your past sales trends. These Monthly Goals are what you will have to do and monitor on a monthly basis in order to hit your production goals next year.
This concept seems simple, but tracking these four numbers is KEY to a successful real estate business in the next year!
The final section of the Business Planning Guide will be to take everything and put it into a Master Project List that will break down all of your goals to specific next steps, breaking down goals and projects
down to quarterly or monthly items that can be implemented and you can be held accountable to.
The Master Project List must be reviewed weekly with each action step actually scheduled into your calendar. Each week you will have new “next steps” that will need to be scheduled as well. As a result,
your Master Project List will be a living document that will change, grow and evolve on a weekly basis.
Just completing this process does not complete your journey. You will need to constantly review and analyze your numbers, break down your next steps, schedule them and then do the things you know you
need to do. This will be an ongoing process you will review and add to throughout the year as you hone in on completing each task on the road to achieving your goals.
The most important thing that you can do to reach these important life goals is to have an accountability partner or coach to help keep you focused and on-track so that “everyday life” doesn’t creep up on
you and rob you of this focus. Your old ways can distract you from the steps you need to take to propel you forward.
Big goals, when looked at in their entirety, can tend to be overwhelming. When whittled down into smaller, easy-to-digest steps, you will find yourself able to, bit by bit, finish up each individual project. By
being consistent with following this plan, I have no doubt you will hit your goals, achieve your dreams and create an amazing year and life for yourself.
To find out more download our book Agent Revamp for only $0.99 from Amazon