Time for review, refocus, reorganization

Now is the perfect time of year to wrap things up and began preparing for the next year. It starts by looking back:

What marketing was successful this year? What was a waste of time/money? Be honest with yourself. You may feel you need to have a billboard, or regular newspaper ads, or premium accounts with various webservices, but are they bringing in a solid return on investment? In this economy, this may be the year to come down hard on your underperforming marketing dollars.

For online marketing, hopefully you have some form of tracking in place that lets you see where visitors are coming from, how long they’re staying, and what they find most interesting. This gives you the kind of quality information to help refocus your online marketing even better for next year, by giving clients more of what they’re looking for.

What areas of your business were smooth and streamlined? Which were disorganized, time-consuming, or simply abandoned? This is a great time to look hard at your business, and decide once and for all on systems that will help you become more efficient and get things done. Find the areas that ran smoothly, figure out why this is, and see if you can find a way to replicate that system for other areas that need help.

If office disorganization is a problem, consider hiring a professional organizer. They’ll help you sort through what’s there, and set up systems that fit with the way you work so you’ll actually maintain them. If you have projects half-done, think about hiring a virtual assistant, a temp, or even a family member to help finish these projects.

This let’s you start the new year fresh, organized and with all the past projects done, so you can focus on new and better projects.

Finally, take a look at your business itself. Are you happy with what you accomplished this year? Did you enjoy the clients you worked with? What have you learned that has allowed you to offer more value to your clients? Honest answers to these questions can help you set new goals for next year. According to a Harvard study in 1979, only 3% of it’s graduates had clear, written goals. Ten years later, that 3% was earning ten times as much as the other 97% put together.

You may have heard this statistic, but have you done anything with it? If not, sit down now, and write up clear, concise goals for your business in 2009. Whether it’s an income goal, or certain number of closings, or increasing sales volume by a percentage, have them written down and measurable.

Define your perfect client. Where can you connect with them? Does your current marketing fit in with that?

Take some time to focus on this past year, and your goals for the future.

Real estate marketing tips - Time for review, refocus, reorganization