The Business Plan
Beginning a new career as a real estate agent is exciting and you'll want to hit the ground running. Your long-term success depends on many things, but starting out with a strong real estate business plan is one of the most important.
Every business professional needs a solid business plan to help focus strategy, manage milestones and metrics, assign and track responsibilities and performance, as well as manage money using projections for sales, costs, expenses, and cash. This doesn't require the big formal business plan document you fear like a term paper. It starts small and grows organically. It probably lives on your computer until you have to share it with somebody outside the team. The plan consists of asking what's supposed to happen and why, and how much, and when.
Most business plans start with creating vision and mission statements. They may seem trivial to the entrepreneur but as you go, you'll see how easy it can be to forget the "big picture". Remember to ask yourself WHY you're doing the daily tasks you are doing.
You can use the sample business plan in the worksheet section of this agent training program to complete your business plan as you follow through these sections.
Vision and Mission Statements
In most real businesses, a company decides "who they are" before they go into business. This is not typically the case with realtors. As a real estate agent, you should know you are indeed a business and there is a sense of power in treating your "business" like the real deal. A successful realtor will understand that it's equally as important to work "on" your business, as it is to work "in" your business. Having clearly defined your mission, vision, and beliefs are a vital part of growing your real estate career. It's important you're clear on this so that your potential clients can feel the energy of it throughout your website, your office, your business model, and your marketing. Once you understand these points yourself, so will everyone else.
Knowing your mission, vision, and beliefs now will help you continuously attract new clients as you grow beyond your initial stages, elevating your success as you continue to grow exponentially. For example, someday you'll probably hit a ceiling of achievement in your real estate career. You are human after all, and can only do so much. If you're lead generating, working with buyers and sellers, and doing all of the administrative work, you'll max out at a certain number of deals per year. So, your next step will be to grow and hire. That's where the solid foundation of your mission, vision, beliefs will fully come into focus and help you build your brand without effort or trouble. With 2% Realty, you have a BMS system already designed to help you manage your brand and handle your administrative needs so you won't need additional help until much further along in your career. Use the program as it's designed to maximize your time and efficiency.
Your Mission Statement will focus on the main objectives of your business. It's a statement that explains "why" you are in business. This can include a promise of some kind, or a commitment to overall satisfaction. It's about the quality and service that you provide.
Next comes the Vision Statement. The vision statement is about where you are going, what your business will be, and what it will look like after you've built it and completed your desired goals.
Now to your Beliefs. These tie in with your core values. What do YOU believe? How do YOU practice your business? A belief could be "Our number one goal is YOUR number one goal!" Or, it could be a list of beliefs such as your core values. It's your choice how you list your beliefs, whether through one statement or as a list. After all, it's your business, and your choice, so do it like YOU believe it!
Use the worksheet provided in the Resources part of this training to determine your core values and use these them as indicators when decision making. "Does this decision along with my Core Values?"
Once you have designed these statements, you should have them framed and hung somewhere where you can reaffirm to yourself where you are headed. You'll have a much better understanding of who you are and where you're going as a business.
2% Realty Sample Mission Statement
To constantly go above and beyond our client's expectations in everything we do while continuously growing a fun, top producing Real Estate Company throughout Canada that REALTORs® are proud to work for.
2% Realty Sample Vision
Our vision is to be the best real estate services company, providing the best service in the industry, while saving our clients' money.
2% Realty Sample Beliefs
Our Beliefs:
- Teamwork - To value each other as individuals as well as partners.
- Synergy - The collaborative effort of our energies to create the power of unity.
- Unity - To always remember that the whole is greater than any individual part.
- Self-Mastery - Never stop seeking knowledge.
- Growth - Busting Through!!!! Where Ceilings become Floors
- Exceeding Expectations - Never stop growing and expanding.
- Purposeful - Intense Sense of Direction.
- Big Why - Knowing what's important so you achieve what matters.
- Discovery - Discovering who we are so we know what drives us.
Next, the business plan outlines the marketing actions you'll have to implement in order to generate the leads and prospects necessary to begin and grow your business. If you have an existing real estate business, you can use the metrics you've already collected (approaches to prospects ratio, prospects to client conversion ratio, client to deal ratio) to determine how many people your marketing must reach to attain a given sales goal.
Step 1 - Awareness and Preparation (Lead Generation)
During step 1 of the business process, you'll implement the strategies and action plans outlined in your business plan. This is the first of seven steps in the business process that should ultimately result in sound solutions for your clients and success for you as their realtor.
Getting it right from the beginning is vital to building your business. In step 1, you'll focus primarily on preparing the scripts and utilizing other resources needed to make first contact with your prospects, whether face-to-face, telephone, door knocking, or social media. In doing so, you'll be raising their awareness of you and the 2% Realty solutions you offer.
Implement Business Plan
Business Plan - it's vital for any business owner or sales person to create a business plan that outlines not only your goals and objectives, but how you are going to accomplish them. 2% Realty has created a business plan template for you to complete to create your own business plan. Take the time to go through this with a member of your management team to create an achievable plan that you can follow in your first year in real estate.
In the business plan section, you'll prepare lists of potential prospects where you'll start to promote yourself, your services, and look for potential new clients. In step 1 of the business process, you'll use scripts to make a first-contact introduction whether you are prospecting over the phone or going door-to-door.
Sales Ratios - keeping track of your ratios will help you meet your business objectives. It will outline what levels of contacts you need to make and whether you are meeting your targets. It will also tell you where you are strong and where you need to work on your steps of the business cycle.