The summer seemingly stretched a long way ahead of me, but here we are at the end of it and I am finding myself making plans for the next few months and beyond. Really, now is the time to start thinking not only of my marketing for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season but beyond.
Even though there are still three months between now and the Holiday Season, it would be short sighted of me not to look at my longer term goals. Although it is prudent for me to think about what to do about the Holiday Season, that will come and go so fast, and it may or may not be as productive for me as this summer has been. The dye is already cast, so to speak!
2015 for me starts now.
It's important to have my longer term plans and budget set way ahead of time. Whatever marketing I did or transactions that I have in the pipeline will be done during the next month or two. This summer has been terrific but there is no counting on this in the longer term.
So what to do?
1. Decide what my long term goals are.
2. Then make a plan how to accomplish that.
Just two little things, right? But it will take me another month to flesh out the specifics, and this weekend I will start to draft out:
Budget and what it needs to include: With me, I always start out with this, even though the numbers might change here and there.
1. Operating budget: Here I put all the expenses that I can't get around, such as NAR, CAR, local real estate associations, MLSs, office rent, insurance, all things electronic such as phones, computer, etc.
2. Marketing: This is vitally important, and each year I try some new things, which means evaluating old ones. What has worked for me that I can't do without? What can I do that is new and that might have a big impact on my business?
3. Expansion of my business: I'm an expansion junkie, even though they are seemingly small steps each year, it is adding up to where I have to make some big decisions by the end of this year. If you have read my blogs (both for California and Hawaii), you know what I'm talking about.
LEARNING FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE SIMILAR BUSINESS MODELS
During the past several years, I have been avidly reading Active Rain blogs to glean how others who are successful in their business have done it. So, once again, I look to you to see what has been successful for you this year.
Yes, this is a very open ended question: What have you done differently in 2014 that really works for you?
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