During my short time that I've been involved in Real Estate, I've met some wonderful people throughout the entire industry. My background is from Military Special Operations as a Scout/Sniper and Corporate America. I started and founded my own hugely successful company from an idea written down on a piece of paper. The road map to that success though all started with a business plan. So why do over 95% of Realtors not have a business plan?
Google "number one reason businesses fail," and you'll see the top answer is poorly written or no business plan at all over and over again.
DO BUSINESS PLANS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY?
Take a look at the box and comment on what word you first saw, I'll tell you what word I saw first at the end? What did you notice your eyes and brain doing as you were looking? You were frantically searching every which way and you felt like you were all over the place right? Then you found your word. In the immortal words of Kraemer on Seinfeld, serenity now, serenity now!
This is how your real estate career is and will continue until you either quit or die a slow death on the vine, when you don't have a business plan. You're frantically searching all over the place, looking every-which way, chasing every new idea or service thrown your way and you begin feeling like your chasing your tail, or is the tail chasing you? Where are my results? Why is nothing working? Am I focusing on high end, commercial or business real estate?
FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL AND YOU WILL FAIL IN REAL ESTATE WITHOUT A BUSINESS PLAN
Most small businesses and self employed businesses fail because of weak general management or weak marketing capabilities. Remember my blog about Agents who make six figures plus, spend 6 times more on technology, trust me they all had a plan. So even if you start tomorrow with your business plan, you need to write one out, a great template by our very own Market Leader is available here. Remember a business plan is a road map of where you want to go, how you're going to get there and then it's a gauge of what worked and didn't once you do get there. Keep in mind, a business plan should be updated every 6 months or so, its a living breathing document that changes and evolves just as your real estate career does.
Planning for the future.
Whether your business plan is long, short, elaborate or simple it should possess the basic elements all business plans have:
- Executive summary
- Marketing plan
- Management team description (as a single Realtor, I like to list people and companies that assist me in my growth and success)
- Financial's
- SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Here's an example of one from my company.
Planning trends
I'm a firm believer in KISS and shorter is better. Your business plan doesn't need to be over 100 pages long like mine was for my former company, that puppy took me over a year to write. It doesn't even need to be 20-40 pages as most traditionalists believe. The shorter it is, the better chance it has of being read, understood and followed. DO NOT have any numbers you can't explain instantaneously i.e. How much do I project to make, what's my marketing budget, how many open houses do I need to sit to capture "X" amount of leads that translate into closed sales, you get the idea.
Recent studies are hard to ignore because they're based on reasonable samples and were conducted by reputable researches from some of the best business schools. Remember how I spent almost 10 years in Marine Special Operations. We NEVER would have gone on mission without a plan, we rehearsed, planned and planned some more for every conceivable contingency. Why would you as a Realtor embark on a Real Estate mission without a plan? You're asking to get ambushed and your competitors will......trust me!
HERE ARE YOUR 7 EASY STEPS TO WRITING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PLAN
- Define your mission and your vision
- SWOT analysis
- Setting goals
- Marketing plan
- Forming a team
- Implementation and follow up (THE MOST IMPORTANT)
- Additional elements (Non-Disclosure Agreements, Executive summary etc)
I saw the word "Money" and I saw it immediately. Which word did you see, please tell me in a comment?
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