It’s that time of year again. The time of year when we all consider our goals for the upcoming year. Goal setting classes, meetings, workshops, and webinars abound as agents set out to hatch a plan for generating more money and closing more deals in 2015.
I would never, ever knock anyone who is doing some good business planning—no matter the time of year. In fact, did you know 90% of people who feel that they fail do not have a business plan? So, the first and biggest business-planning mistake ever made is NOT creating a plan. The second one—the more interesting one—is when you start making your business plans for the following year in the month of December.
Start Your Business Planning in October
If you are a real estate professional and you want to make real money next year (in 2015), the way to do that is by the execution of a new and improved business plan at the start of Q4. In this way, you can begin to see the results of your labor in January of 2015—which is when you wanted to start to see more closings and more money.
Put simply, it takes a minimum of 6-12 weeks to get a buyer into a home. That means that if you want to see those closings at the beginning of the year, you must start working your plan prior January 1.
Didn’t do that? Now, what?
If you didn’t start planning in October, that’s okay. Now you know that you need to do next October. But, you must start now! Do not put off for tomorrow what you can do today.
15 Ways to Generate Business in 2015
Here are some things that you can do to start to generate business immediately and hopefully see an increase in closings fast:
- Make cold calls.
- Make warm calls.
- Send New Year’s Cards to everyone in your database.
- Send just listed cards for your new listings.
- Send just sold cards for your recent closings.
- Send a free offer for a home valuation to your geographic farm.
- Hold an open house.
- Hold another open house.
- Knock on some doors.
- Drop off poinsettias or other plants at the homes or offices of your top 25 referral sources.
- Take someone to lunch.
- Set appointments for coffee with loan officers, title and settlement officers, inspectors and anyone else you know that might be able help you with co-marketing.
- Be active on social media.
- Add every new person you meet to your database.
- Rinse and repeat.
Do not stop doing these things when you start putting deals together. Remember that the first biggest mistake is not having a plan and the second is not planning in advance. What’s the third? It’s when you abandon the plan when the checks start rolling in.
Best wishes to you for a Happy New Year!
