The day you received your license as a real estate agent is probably one of the most memorable days of your career. The thought of the things you could do with your license overwhelmed you, and off you went – into a world you’ve barely explored. Within a few weeks, you’re helping different kinds of buyers and sellers acquire and sell their properties. And it seems like you are well on your way to the financial status you’ve always wanted.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but did you create a business plan before your mighty real estate explorations?
No?
Well, don’t expect your excitement to last without a solid plan.
Your success in the real estate industry depends mainly on your capacity to plan and implement accurately. If you’ve been operating without a business plan, you can brace up for a little bit of confusion, reduced productivity, and income, at any point in your career.
With the many options now available for creating business plans, its relevance is gradually being played down –even in real estate. A good number of agents never go beyond a certain level in their career because their businesses lack the benefits of running on a well-prepared business plan.
So, beyond ensuring that your plans are in writing, here are three things a well-written business plan does for your real estate career:
Implementation and Clarity
Did you begin your real estate business with its end in mind? Do you know what your business is supposed to look like in five years, ten years, or at its peak? A business plan will help you with those. If you are running your real estate business with a valid well-thought-out plan, you will be able to implement your goals and bring them to reality.
With a business plan, you’ll also be able to channel your resources appropriately for optimum productivity. If your target customers are luxury property owners, a business plan will help you stay on course to offer the best real estate service to this category of people. How will you market? A business plan will help you with ideas from direct marketing to farming expired listings to holding open houses.
In addition to helping you focus on your target market, a business plan also helps you run your business intentionally. Having known your expectations, you’ll be able to act becomingly, and not leave your business’ success to chance.
It Saves Money
A well-written business plan has the potential to save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the course of your real estate career.
‘How?’ You’re wondering.
Let’s face it. As an agent, you’re properly spending more to get your target customers to make contact with you. Or you’re probably making less than you should because the competition is way more than you imagined. Your current market may also not be the most lucrative match for your target customers. And each of these setbacks is not without its price tags – billed from either your income or capital.
If you have a well-written plan from the very beginning, you’ll know how to deal with profit-eating circumstances. You’ll also know who your competitors are and how not to get swallowed in the race. You’ll equally know what strategies to put in place to reduce costs (both marketing and business expenses) for your real estate business.
Less Frustration, Greater Efficiency
By now, you should already know that real estate isn’t a piece of cake. Many things would be less frustrating with a business plan. There’d be no room to waste your funds and efforts towards procedures that will end up unproductive. Instead, you’ll have clarity as to how to render your services to consumers efficiently.
Defining your operating path in real estate also helps you to channel your professional development rightly. From the beginning, you’ll know the classes to take to improve your performance as an agent. You’ll also save yourself the frustration of being a ‘jack of all real estate trade, and master of none’.
In Conclusion
Creating a business plan can be exhausting and time-consuming – it’s a lot easier to get in and start making some money. But you’ll undoubtedly appreciate the ease and direction a business plan can and will afford your real estate career in the long run.
Not sure how to plan for your future business? Read ‘The Standout Agent’ book to find out more about planning for the future along with other great tips on building a real estate career that runs on autopilot.
Looking for More Tips?
Be sure to sign up for more tips on my website. Want to read more articles like this one? To ensure you don’t miss them, sign up here.