Why Most Business Plans Don’t Work

A well known trainer sent out a business plan template recently for agents to use in the coming year.

The first page was a budget of expenses to determine the correct income goal for each agent.  If you are like me, you are a classic sales person, which means you have no idea what the actual numbers are. I scanned the list and thought “I need to make a boatload of money next year”.

The next few pages broke down things like average price point, average commission dollars earned per transaction, how many listings versus buyers, number of prospects needed, etc.  My thought here was, “well, they always say you need more prospects that you plan to close, because they don’t always come together so I guess that I need a boatload x 2”.  Gotta love the precise math there!

Then it went on to cover where the business will come from. Oh my goodness, the options are endless!

Yes, I am making fun of this process, but my guess is that the above scenario is not too far off from what most agents experience each year when doing a business plan.

Either way, it is not overly helpful. The whole thing feels like it’s designed to overwhelm and intimidate.

Part of being able to succeed in achieving your goals is knowing how you are wired.  For me it does not work to break it down into number of buyers and number of sellers and average price points, etc.  There are too many opportunities to be off track, which only stresses me out and demotivates me.

I do much better to decide how much money I want to make and then focus on the actions needed to get me there.  The sales will come, some will be small and some will be large, but they all add up to the number I want if I just keep moving forward each day.

Focusing on actions vs. sales allows me to feel successful each day.

Here are my top 3 actions for achieving my goals each year:

• Make one phone call and write one note card to a past client each day
• Ask myself each day “what action can I take to move myself forward?”
• Preview one house  a day

It may not sound like much, but trust me, do this consistently and you will be well on your way to having your best year ever.