How and why this home stager wrote a reality check - then cashed it.

It is just after 1pm on December 31st, 2010 and I'm pondering next year..... I like lists and goals.  I regularly update my business plans.... I'm ready for the next year to come and start plotting it off like a well laid book outline.  Still... no matter how well I lay it out there are always surprises....

Last year I created my 2010 business plan, set my goals and set to working the plan... Pondering about where it began, what I wanted my business to be in 2009 looking forward to 2010 I just could not have forseen the incredible alterations of path. 

I know I write a lot about business plans.  I've often said that you don't have a business without one.  That said, I also want to go on record to say that you have to keep your eyes open for opportunity - especially when you didn't see it coming.  You have to be willing to take stock of what is going well and what isn't. 

Last December I wrote a huge list of things that I wanted to accomplish in 2010.  I'm the first to say that I accomplished almost nothing on that list.  Acually the list was practically shredded by the end of January.  By February I had changed gears and written a new list.... by summer that list too was becoming in jeapary of being shredded.  By July - it was official.  Everything I had worked all year for was clearly not going to happen and it was time for a new list. 

You see... As much as I love lists, as much as I love crossing things off of them, I'm also a constant assessor.  I'm also not afraid to change paths completely if I think the other path is better for me AND I have evidence to back it up.  I'm often accused of thinking too much.  I have a ton of ideas and I'm quite willing to put them out there.  Some are really awful, some are pretty good and just a few are downright fantastic - at least they've turned out that way.  The trick to knowing which is working for you is to take a reality check of the situation. 

Take inventory.... I often wonder how many people actually do that?  I see so many that continue to do what they've always done - even long after it stopped working for them.  Just because it used to work, doesn't mean it still does.  Why not try something new?

I was told something years ago.  I don't even remember who told it to me or why, but still it has stuck. "If you aren't moving forward, then you are moving backwards." In business, I always find this to be true.  The old addage, "if all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get, is all you ever got".... (sound the very loud WRONG buzzer please!)... is DEAD WRONG.  That methodology today will get you diminishing returns. 

So this past summer, I wrote myself a reality check.  I completely rewrote and transformed my business plan.  December 31st - only a few months later, looking back at the business this year I realize that I've done more business, made more money, created more personal satisfaction and feel so much more energized than I had before changing gears.  Of course last December I did not fail to plan and I did not plan to fail..... but had I not decided to right my course (or rewrite my course as the case may be) this summer; I would have.

With only a few hours left of 2010, I'm excited about bringing in the New Year.  I don't know what is waiting.... but I'm sure it will be an interesting ride....

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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry.  In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance.  With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities.  She now operates as the CEO of First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign as well as an instructor for Staging And Resign and regularly speaks at the StagerList Expos and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.

For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.822.2622 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com

If you would like Marro's team to provide information on staging a property in the state of South Carolina, or the Greater Charleston Area, please visit www.WeStageSC.com, email marro.melissa@gmail.com or call 843.822.2622.