A yearly business plan is like a roadmap. It sets out specific goals, strategies and actionable steps that lead to further success. Without a plan, it’s easy to chase shiny, new opportunities, overspend and miss out on key opportunities. Having a yearly plan allows you to anticipate changes in the market, adapt to consumer trends. Business tends to get slower in November and December, and that makes it a great time to brush up on things like new regulations and economic trends from organizations, like the BCREA.
Keep it simple.
What’s the recipe for successful business planning? Skar says that in order to create a smart business plan, keeping it simple is important; 90% of the agents Skar coaches or engages with are in the top 1-10%. The patterns he notices? They all plan, execute and track their metrics. What gets measured gets managed.
The other things Skar recommends is reviewing goals daily, reaching out to at least five people per day and building checklists around your processes. These top performers know where their business comes from, how many sellers and how many buyers they served. They know what their gross commission income (GCI) was from the previous year and how much they want to make next year.
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Realtors fail when they don’t plan or track. The top agents stick to daily disciplines: wake up early, set goals, reach out and track every win so they know what works and what doesn’t. Keep it simple, make your goals visible and gamify the process to beat your best every day – that’s the path to a thriving business.
Kelley Skar
SUCCESS Certified Real Estate Coach
There’s always room for improvement.
No matter how successful a year has been, there are always areas for improvement. Did your leads dry up in a certain season? Was there a higher-than-expected expense in an area? Reviewing these elements allows you to adapt and adjust for the future. For example, if online marketing outperformed print marketing or bus bench ads, it might be wise to shift more resources toward digital channels, like REW’s Apex.
Analyzing your wins from the previous year helps you recognize what resonated with clients, which marketing channels were most effective and which strategies led to closed deals. By identifying and doubling down on these successful efforts, you can make strategic decisions on where to invest more resources in the coming year.
The benefits of budgeting.
Budgeting goes beyond tracking expenses; it's a strategic tool for maximizing resources and driving revenue. A clear budget enables you to plan your marketing spend, allocate resources to essential tools and platforms and ensure funds are available for unexpected expenses – or just like we saw in 2024, slower market periods.
Allocating funds to high-ROI marketing channels – such as digital advertising, like Marquee, client appreciation or relationship endeavors, social media campaigns, and events – directly impacts client acquisition and enhances brand exposure.
What to focus on.
Each agent will have different goals. When considering setting goals for the upcoming year, there are typically three buckets to focusses on:
- An increase in sales volume: Set a target for the number of transactions or sales volume you want to reach, informed by your past year’s performance.
- An increase in lead generation: Decide on the number of leads you want to acquire monthly and develop strategies specifically aimed at achieving that goal.
- Long term engagement in the form of client retention and referrals: Focus on customer relationship management to encourage more repeat business and referrals.
Keeping your goals visible and at the forefront of your daily schedule will help you stay on track. It’s one thing to say you’re going to do something, but it’s entirely another thing to actually do it. As my father would say, “anything worth doing, is worth doing right.”
What are you going to do in 2025?
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