The most successful agents have an executable plan for their business. As leaders, we often overlook that an agent’s livelihood is a business inside a business or, in most cases, a brokerage. Just because we have a plan for the overall business and assist them in setting goals, that doesn’t mean that they know how to achieve those goals. 
By helping your agents to develop their own personal business plan it not only helps them take ownership of their work and efforts, it aids them in having clarity on exactly how to accomplish the goals they need to hit in order to reach their personal success and maintain the overall health of the team or brokerage. 
Set up a workshop with your agents with a clear outline on how to develop a business plan and watch them flourish as they achieve their goals with ease in the new year. 

Below is our guide to creating a business plan for your real estate business for you to add your own tools and inspiration to!

🎁 Step One: Use a goal calculator like this one from our pals at SISU to help you determine exactly the effort needed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in order to reach your goals. 

🎁 Step Two: Map out the specifics as to how you want to go about doing the things prescribed on the calculator and break it down by each month and week. Remember, there are many ways to achieve your goals and using a variety of tools will help you get there!

Questions to ask yourself to aid you in completing Step Two:

• How many hours do I need to set aside for prospecting each day? Each week?
• How much vacation time will I take this year? Factor this into your plan.
• How many open houses do I want to commit to doing each month?
• What is my social media strategy?
  • Where will I post my content and how often?
    • You can utilize a Social Media Calendar to pre-plan your posts
• How many listings vs buyers do I want to work with?
• What is my niche and what are the necessary steps to improve my visibility with this audience?
• What community events should I plan to attend or sponsor this year?
• What networking events do I need to attend?
• What promotional materials should I be utilizing?
  • How often do I send them and how much do I budget for them?
• Where are my boundaries going to be for my personal and family time?
• Where does my self-care fit into my business?
  • Exercise, rest, and play should all be factored in

🎁 Step Three: Put your plan down on paper by mapping out in writing what is necessary for you to do each quarter, month, and week in order for you to reach your goals.

Do this in such a way that your actions are specific and measurable so that you can hold yourself accountable and your mentor or coach can assist you.

Be sure to break everything down into as small of pieces as possible. We all know that quote about eating an elephant! (And where the heck did that come from?!) If you are just looking at “I need to sell 25 homes next year” without small steps in between, your plan will not motivate you or help hold you accountable for the items you need to accomplish.

🎁 Step Four: Don’t put this plan away! Creating the plan is to use it regularly, not to think about it once. Revisit this weekly to ensure that you are following the steps that you laid out in order to reach your goals. Add to your task lists and calendars the items that you have prescribed yourself so that you are setting yourself up for success in actually accomplishing them.

Below are additional resources that aid in making business plans for you to use. This is YOUR business and there’s not a one-size-fits-all recipe for success, so take the information above, from the links below, and anything else you can find and put together what works best for you and your real estate business. 

You’ve got this!

Follow Up Boss Goal Setting and Reporting
Tom Ferry’s Business Plan Writing Workbook
NAR’s Guidance on Writing Business Plans for Realtors
Brian Icenhower’s Real Estate Plan Template