Here we go again. It is officially fall, which means we start to focus on the turning of the calendar page to a new year. All across the country business owners are beginning their 2020 planning season.
I was recently invited by the Atlanta Realtors Association to lead a workshop with broker/owners on industry trends and planning for the upcoming year. We were sold out and the room was full of eager brokers running businesses of all sizes and most with deep industry experience.
Here are some of the take aways I shared with the group. I hope you’ll find them helpful in your own business planning.
- The strategies and tactics that got you here in your business, will not get you to the next level you are striving for.
- Plan in 90-day cycles. Review and refine along the way.
- Business and/or strategic planning is not a once a year exercise. It should be an ongoing part of your business.
- Set 2-3 priorities for every 90 days. Then track and monitor progress.
- Monitor your key performance metrics and develop a score card for your business that you review weekly, monthly and quarterly.
- Everyone on your team should know their critical 2-3 numbers. For agents they should know how many appointments they need to go on each week for example and each staff member should have a critical number they are responsible for. Numbers are the language of business. When you combine operational excellence with relationships the result is a successful outcome.
In Atlanta, I did a workshop with the group where they each answered 20 questions about their business to help identify areas of focus for improvement moving into 2020. I call this exercise an Organizational Review. I’ll share and write more about it in a future blog post. In the meantime, if you would like a copy let me know.
Action items after reading this blog:
- Download my KPI cheat sheet.
- Write your 2-3 high level goals for the next year and then the next quarter on one sheet of paper.
- Let me know if you would like a copy of my Organizational Review to kick off your planning season.
