OK...time to take a breather and plan your business for 2008, if you haven't already.  From my perspective, here are two top steps you can take to a more prosperous (and happy) New Year for you and your business.

Take A 2-Day CRS Course

The CRS (Council of Residential Specialists) offers the absolute best courses in our industry.  Their length, the quality of the instructors and the quality of the materials you are presented with combine to insure that each course will help you build a better business...and have a better life!  Check out the list of courses on the Council's site, choose one and register.  It's an action step you won't regret!

 

Spend an Hour A Day Working On Your Business

I know...you're busy and you don't have an hour a day for business planning and learning.  You've got email to answer, fires to put out, messages to return, etc.  My point is this: if you don't spend time each day planning your business, you'll be right where you are today at this time next year.  In other words, if you fail to plan your business, it will control you for the rest of your career.

Let me present proof that this idea is worth considering.  I was giving a 3 hour seminar at a major franchise's convention.  My topic was how using the right technology can make you more money, save you more money and save you more time.  At the end of the session, I brought onstage one of my CyberStars(r) to give her views on what works.  I asked her, at the end of her segment, to share with the audience the single most important tip she could give them re. building their business.  Without hesitation, she said, "Spend 2 hours a day learning how to use today's technology."

One audience member came to the microphone with his comment.  He thought it unrealistic, given the fact that he had a business to run (email to answer, fires to put out, messages to return, etc.).  Without hesitating, my CyberStar(r) said to him, "John, no offense, but I know you, since you are in my general area.  I make about 3 times as much as you do, and I work about 1/3 less time than you do because I've taking the time to learn technology.  Who's right?"

We who are on ActiveRain wouldn't be here if we did not spend time learning some of the technology of the Web...and it has paid off.  Expand this concept: spend one hour a day working on learning more about technology that will help your business: no phone, no email, no interruptions during that hour.  Just learning.  I talked about ExpertVillage in my previous post: thousands of excellent videos to help you learn about anything...for free.  Well, you'll find video tutorials there on many of the tools and programs we use to build our business: Outlook, doing videos and posting them on YouTube, PowerPoint, taking digital photos, Photoshop, etc.  I guarantee that spending an hour a day learning from their videos will bring in more business!

So, at least give these two ideas some consideration.  Take it from me, if you act on them, your business will grow, and you will have more time to spend on what really counts: life.

It's a beautiful day here on the lake in Reston...hope it's a beautiful day wherever you are, too!