Remember Excel?  Many have Microsoft's Excel and find it useful for keeping a database (setting up a mailing list) and number crunching. 

I'm suggesting an easy Excel spreadsheet that can be used on a weekly basis to let you know what you need to do "short term" to reach your yearly financial goals.

By now, you've probably submitted your 2008 business plan to your company and are all set to charge ahead for the New Year. Please note that I'm not trying to minimize the use of a detailed plan that you may already have. 

I've developed a SIMPLE one page business plan (again, not a substitute for a full size one) that you might consider, particularly because it uses the "what if" features of Excel.  Let's face it, your year end profit all comes down to the number of buyers and sellers you convert to sales.  To keep it simple, you need to estimate the following variables:

1.  Average transaction sale price.

2.  Conversion rate for buyers and sellers leads.

3.  Conversion rate for buyers and sellers appointments

4.  Commission split percentage.

5.  Estimated Expenses as a % of your total commission.

Since there is a conversion percentage for each type of client, making an educated guess on this and the average sale price and you can easily find out how many appointments you need to make on a monthly basis to generate a certain commission.

Oh I know, it's not all that simple.  But I've found that most real estate agents complain that they can't predict their sales volume because it might not be a good year or there's too much negative news so it's a throw of the dice.  Well, here is a simple plan that gives you a clear picture of the number of buyer/seller appointments you need to get the get the sales you need.  Once you have set up the spreadsheet, all you need to do is to put in the number of appointments each month and watch the numbers crank out the final amounts.  I'm assuming that you already know simple Excel formulas to calculate the necessary numbers in the spreadsheet below:

Why not give it a try - it should only take about 20 minutes (or less) to set up the spreadsheet and you've got a plan for the coming year!