We tend to overestimate what we can do in 1 year and underestimate what we can do in 5.

To continue our discussion on planning for profit from my last blog, I want to reemphasize how successful people are planners who set goals and then design and implement tactics to reach those goals.  

If you want to have a thriving business practice, you must first build a business plan. It means being focused on the big picture. Once you've got your big picture, you can then itemize the steps that will enable you to achieve your goals.

Having a plan provides a gauge for you to measure your activities against what you want to achieve for the year.  You need to have a roadmap and feel like you’re moving towards your goals.  But how can you do that if you don’t have any goals in the first place?  Or if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want?

You have to start out by writing it out.  Having it 'in your head' is overrated and will get you nowhere.

I want to encourage you to put pen to paper and write out your goals with timelines and action items attached.  

What to Include In Your Plan

Let’s talk about what you should be thinking about in addition to just saying ‘I want to gross $400k this year (as an example)

PLANNING FOR PROFIT

Continuing with our series on 'Attributes of a Successful Real Estate Agent", one of the most important attributes of successful real estate agents is that they are planners.

Let’s start off with a discussion on planning for profit.

I firmly believe that planning is the most important first step to operating a successful real estate business. How do you know where to go unless you have a roadmap of sorts to follow? What is your vision? What does your business look like? What are your goals? If you don’t have the answers to those questions, then you are just haphazardly winging it and hoping for the best.

As my friend, Ben Franklin says, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

We all want to be great salespeople, but we also should want to be great business people. It all starts with having a plan.

Maintain a Positive Attitude

Failure is Not an Option

Have you heard of the saying ‘we all fall down, but we only fail when we don’t get back up’?  It’s so true!  

Welcome to the human race.  Nobody does everything, all the time, perfectly and successfully.  We learn through trial and error and having the willingness to try.  

It's been my life story to try different ideas and ways of doing things even at the expense of the naysayers that criticize and put me down for daring to do something different.  Wanna know what kept me going?  Someone told me once that those that don’t do anything, never fail!  Wow!  That gave me the courage to ignore people that aren’t supportive.  Leave them in the dust.  In fact, I feel sorry for them.  Why?  Because they play it safe, and never venture out to try and discover new things.

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself “Am I Successful”?  What does success look like to you?  How far have you come since starting your career in real estate?  Do you feel good about where you are right now?

Today, I'm going to focus on professional success and everyone has a different definition of what that looks like — including real estate professionals.  Whether it’s earning more money, gaining more exposure, or having fulfilling client relationships, how success is defined varies from agent to agent and can be interpreted in different ways for different people. 

It begs the question, is there a way to quantify success?  I think there is and that’s what this series is all about.  It’s about the various traits and habits successful people do on a consistent basis that get them to the place they want to be.

Our job is to see how we measure up against these traits that are so commonly present and shared amongst people that are considered to be successful.

One thing that is true; there is always work you can do to become more “successful”, we should always try to be better than we were yesterday.  Don’t you agree?