Benjamin Franklin reportedly made that comment hundreds of years ago and it still applies today. If you have a goal or desire, whether it is personal like running a marathon, or professional like writing $1 million in gross commission, without a plan or ‘road map’ you won’t get there.
Where do you want your business to go? Do you want to build a bigger rent roll, get more sales staff, open a second office, have more time off, win industry awards? Are these things you’ve talked about for years but still haven’t achieved?
A plan can make these dreams reality. Planning gives you direction and keeps you on the path to success. It helps you focus on those things that are important, prioritize activities, deal with crises and manage your time and resources.
So where to start, how are you going to get from A to B? The first step is to know where your business is now and this is where another old saying – “what gets measured gets done” – comes into play.
As business owners we need to know what our numbers are so that we can track, manage and improve performance. My blog Know Your Numbers looks at some of Key Performance Indicators you need to consider for sales. You also need to review property management and admin, and look at how many staff you have and what they do.
Then you need to set goals. To get you started I’ll share Brian Tracy’s seven step process in achieving a goal. It sounds simple, but it works whether you are an agent or a business owner.
- Decide exactly what you want. The goal must be very simple.
- Write it down.
- Set a deadline.
- Make a list of everything you can think of to do to achieve this goal. Keep adding to the list.
- Organize the list by priority, what do you need to do first, second etc.
- Take action on your list. Start with number 1 and complete that step. Task completion is important.
- Do something every day that moves you one step towards your goal.
Then you need to put systems in place (link to the blog on systems for principals) to help you achieve your goals. Systems will help your staff understand your goals, know their role in achieving them and keep them accountable and on track.
It sounds hard, but it’s not.
Once upon a time, when you wanted to go somewhere you got out a road map, usually the good old UBD, looked up the address and figured out the best way to get there. These days you can put the address into your smartphone and Siri or similar can give you directions. Think of us as Siri for real estate, you don’t have to figure it out the best route to take by yourself, we can show you how to take reach your destination. Find out more at my upcoming FREE half-day Real Estate Brilliance webinar.
