Now is the time to complete your plan for 2010. This will allow you to get a jump start on the agents who will wait until Jan to begin to plan.  It will also allow you to create a mind-set for success.  While other agents are getting ready for the holidays, shopping and cutting back on their real estate activity, you can prosper.  This is the time of year that the top agents: finish their plan, write transactions that will close before the end of the year and begin to generate business that will close in 2010.

I mentioned in my last blog that I would share planning tips from Ray and Nimi Singhal, one of THE top teams in the Minneapolis area.

Here is what they have to say about the importance of creating a business plan, from "Make the Move."

The Singhal's believe planning is a continuous process.

"We plan every October through November for the following 12 months.  We analyze what we achieved for last 12 months we set ambitious goals and believe if we have accomplished 85 percent of our goals we have done very well. Then we look at areas where we didn't do as well as we anticipated. We also evaluate areas that we exceeded our expectations."

 Ray says that there are additional keys that have propelled him and Nimi to success: Being flexible and adapting to the market conditions; educating themselves to be able to help consumers regardless of market conditions, and building a large database.

Ray points out that lead generation became a very important part of their business. 

"We recognized early on that collecting emails and marketing online would be very important to our business," he said.  "Many people now collect email, but when we started not many people did.  We saw the value of building our database online and staying in touch by email is the most effective way to grow our business." 

Ray is matter of fact about the value of his database:  "If you have a large database, in a down market it is your bank.  If you continually stay in front of clients and prospects in good times, when the market shifts or the need arises, you will become their agent."

So - how much money do YOU want to make? How many transactions do YOU need?

How many prospects do YOU need in your database to achieve your goals?

Next blog, I'll prove some tips to grow a database so you can create YOUR "bank" and prosper regardless of market conditions.