“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
–Benjamin Franklin
Real estate is a tough enough career under the best of circumstances. Without a reasonable plan in place it can be overwhelming.
The average real estate agent needs a track to run on. Otherwise the sheer magnitude of the number of tasks that has to get done in order to generate future leads and move business through their pipeline can leave an agent paralyzed. With the constant demands on his or her time creating massive diffusion, the agent without a solid real estate business plan has no framework for prioritizing their time. Without a discipline to assign priorities, every new task seems critically urgent.
The result: The agent flits capriciously from task to task, perhaps getting lucky with an occasional deal, but never making serious lasting progress in establishing his or her personal brand or creating systems that lead to future business.
Don’t be that agent.
Everyone needs a plan. But it’s not enough for a real estate agent just to put some goals down on paper and stick it in a binder and be done with it.
A good real estate business plan has the following nine qualities:
1. A Mission
Why are you in business? What do you hope to accomplish? The business plan is the HOW, but you cannot answer the HOW until you first have a WHAT.
2. A SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.” Some people regard this as a separate document from their real estate business plan. I don’t think it makes a difference, as long as you do this before you write the other sections in your plan, because the SWOT analysis will go a long way to informing how you come up with the rest of your strategy. For more on SWOT analysis for real estate agents, see here.
3. Technology Planning
This wasn’t a standard ingredient in business plans for many years, and few off-the-shelf real estate business plan templates include it. But the seamless and effective leveraging and integration of technology is increasingly vital to any sales business (which is all of them), and real estate is no exception.
If you don’t integrate your technology from the get go, you risk painting yourself into a corner, hamstringing your efforts and consigning yourself to inefficiency for a long time to come. Your technology integration plan should address the following, as a minimum:
- Your personal website and web-based marketing
- Email communications
- Email marketing, including automated marketing plans
- Your contact management system
- Scheduling and alerts
- Mobile technology
- Data and document storage/paperless office issues
- Internet security
- Electronic signature capability
4. Simplicity
If it’s too complex, it will take too much time to screw around with. Concentrate on hitting key objectives along just a few axes. Don’t try to do everything, because by trying to do everything, you will wind up actually accomplishing nothing.
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Learn five more qualities every real estate business plan must possess on the Trulia Pro blog. Click the below image to read this article!
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