My real estate business is still in its infancy. Unfortunately I am not. I turned more than 636 months
old this year. I guess I should stop counting my age in months but more than half a century sounds worse to me. But I digress.
My top goal for 2014 is to increase revenue. Well my two top goals are to increase revenue and market share. Hmmm…among my top goals are to increase revenue, market share, client satisfaction (never can be too high) and find time for the things I love to do outside my business. What can I do to make these things happen?
Revenue is easy-sell more, but how? If I sell more I increase market share. What can I do? My sales come from my sphere of influence, referrals and new contacts. I think I will work these in reverse order. How do I get new contacts – networking, blogging, volunteering, and advertising. All of these require time so I need to ensure I time block. Since I am not where I want to be today I will increase my time on these activities.
My work week, for now, consists of 50 hours. I try not to work more than that but when your business is an infant, you sometimes have to do 3 AM feedings. I currently attend 1 networking group that meets every week. One of my tasks then will be to find another good networking opportunity. I recently found ActiveRain so now I have a great outlet for blogging. My goal is 3-4 blogs per week top start. For volunteering I already belong to the Rotary and I am the President of my HOA. I think I will leave that alone for now. With a new website in process, it is time to increase traditional methods of print and mail to push traffic to my website as will my blogging. Summary: find another good networking group, increase blogging to 3-4 times per week, remain with my current volunteer commitments, increase traditional advertising.
These increases will take more time in my week. I will have to evaluate where I am spending my time and see what I can move around in order to allow for these additional responsibilities. That means I should be writing down what I am doing throughout each day. While my calendar may say one thing, I really need to know where my time is being spent. Summary: detail where I am currently spending my time, schedule my new time blocking
Increasing client satisfaction is a tough one. My clients seem to really enjoy working with me. One thing I think I can do is learn more about what other successful agents are doing. That may mean more time at my office, reading more on AR, and taking additional classes. These things can help me learn more about current methods of customer service and extend my expertise so I can better serve my clients. Summary: Spend time at the office, on AR and take additional classes.
There are several things I really enjoy doing: cooking (and unfortunately eating,) woodworking, photography, fishing, etc… One thing I am going to do, since I used to be a professional cook, is to offer cooking lessons. I could use that as another method to increase my contacts and get in one of the things I enjoy. Making more wood pens and cutting boards could be a new challenge. My current contacts would receive a nice personalize gift that lets them know I think about them even when not involved in a sale or purchase. It could also be a nice closing gift. I am already using my pictures on my future website but I could also use those on Pinterest to help with my presence on the web. I could go fishing more often and give everyone a break from me (well, let’s just put this under personal health and wellbeing.) Summary: integrate personal hobbies into business advantages, remember to take care of my own health and wellbeing.
Wow re-reading this many might ask where do I start? If you have a list like this for your business, here are some things I keep in mind when trying to implement them:
1. Do not try and implement these all at once. Take the ones that are most important to you and that you can start, and begin there. Some of these will take more time to see results than others.
2. Make these goals achievable. Have a base target and a stretch target.
3. Attach a timeframe to each one. This means at least having a start date for each one. It may be you are not going to start doing some of these until June or August but get it on your calendar now.
4. Make these goals written and review them every day.
5. Remember that failure does not define you. It is not something you become. It is simply an event where you did not achieve something by the time you set out. Learn from your mistake. Brush the dirt off your knees and get back to it.
Summary: Do your best, don’t beat yourself up and don’t give up.
I wish you all great business success in the future year.
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