In November and December, I’m featuring business planning in my blogs. Check out Management in a Minute, my blog for owners, leaders, and managers.

Do you have a business plan for next year? Is it in a format that I could actually follow if you delegated running your business o me? I doubt over 5% of the agents could answer that question ‘yes’. Yet, we all talk about the importance of a business plan. In my earlier blog, I discussed what needs to be in your plan–points 1-5. Here are next five of ten critical points you must have in your business plan to make it a plan that actually works for you, not just a thesis that looks important on the shelf!

6. Create a robust lead generating plan.

Create a lead generating plan that you can actually follow! Too often, our big goals don’t translate into what we’ll do every day and eery week to get us closer to our goals. So, be sure your lead generating plan is in place, and that it coordinates with your goals.

7. Prioritize your action plan as either business-producing or business supporting.

In Up and Running in 30 Days, the new agent’s start-up plan, I introduced the concept of dividing all activites into these two categories. Be sure you have your priorities right on your business plan! Otherwise, you will be drawn to support activities–safe, but not productive.

8. Put deadlines to all your action plans to hold yourself accountable.

Put deadline dates in your activities and put them on your calendar. It’s what you do every day that has a relationship to the results you said you wanted. A mistake agents make is that their daily schedules have no relationship to their stated goals! They’re too busy in taking care of the immediate and demanding that they don’t do the important things.

9. Assign people to carry out your plan.

You will get to the point where you know you need help. To prepare for that, put the names of the people who will carry out the activities, so you know to whom you will delegate.  It will save you so much time and clarify to your staff exactly what you want.

10. Use a proven system to write your plan.

Use an organized process and system to write your plan. The ‘plans’ I have seen aren’t really ‘plans’—they’re just a small portion of a plan. The most important part of planning is the thinking part. Find a great system that teaches you how to think through your plan. There’s nothing more important to your business than profitability—and thinking through your plan before you launch your actions assures profits.

As Dwight D. Eisenhower said,

Planning is everything. The plan is nothing.

How does your business plan compare to my 10 critical points?

Want to see more on business planning? Check out my online program Beyond the Basics of Business Planning. All the instructional webinars and documents are online, and very easy to complete and implement. This is a program created exclusively for real estate owners and managers. And, when you purchase the manager’s package, you also get access to all the agent’s planning videos and documents.

Complimentary Business Planning Webinars

I’ve recorded 2 webinars for you to help you get inspired to plan for next year–and to give you information on what I believe are the biggest success strategies for the coming year. One webinar is for agents and one is for leadership.

Click here to view them.

 

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2 Comments

  1. Plan for Marketing March 9, 2013 at 5:23 am

    Thanks for your excellent resource on business plan. Very helpful.

  2. Carla Cross March 9, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks, Alan. Glad these blogs are useful!

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