Business Planning time!

2008 is almost 1/12th over and if you have not invested the time to write your real estate business plan you are already behind the 8-Ball.  I don't mean a few goals on a napkin or on the back of an envelope.  I mean a well thought out road map for 2008.  Set your goals.  Write them down.  Put them in a place that you can and will see them everyday!  After you set your goals, determine how you are going to get there.  If you wanted to drive from Orange, Massachusetts to Wake Forest, North Carolina and had never made that trip before, then you would plan your journey.  Your goals for 2008 should be treated the same.  Set deadlines on this roadmap as well.  Be sure to include the most important part of the plan....time for you and your family.  When I wrote my very first business plan in real estate I thought I was something let me tell you!  It was crisp, lean and mean!  Coming from a corporate background I thought I was the hottest real estate ticket to be had.  no one had ever written a better looking business plan.  I proudly handed it to my mentor who promptly turned to the last page and sighed.  He then took 3 additional sheets of blank paper and stapled to the back and handed it back to me without even reading the rest!  I was shocked.  He explained that I had a 1 year old and a beautiful wife at home.  That no where in my plan had I made time for them or ME!  This has stuck with me.  When I write my plans now, I begin with me and my family! 

It has been said that goals that are not written are not goals at all.  They are wishes.

Tiger Woods keeps a number "18" circled on his office wall.  Why?  Because he wants to be the best golfer ever.  Jack Nickolaus won 18 majors.  That has long been Tiger's goal.  I argue that "19" should be on his wall.  One more than Jack.  What is on your wall?