This is the second in my series on business planning. The first dealt with basic real estate business planning math. It also mentioned the importance of writing out a business plan, so if you haven't watched the video, spoken to me personally, or read the basics on my blog, please take a minute to do that now.
Back? Good.
Math class is over and now that we know how much we need to get done to get what we want, let's work on our focus. Anybody can figure out that they need to sell 60 homes a year to make $100,000, it's like buying a gun. Very few agents take the next step of completing a S.W.O.T list of themselves and their businesses, which is kinda like loading the gun. And even fewer complete the analysis part which is the aiming of the gun.
Must be deer season, lots of gun talk.
SWOT stands for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats". Simple, huh.
The first two, S. and W. are about YOU and only YOU and the second two, O. and T., are not about YOU (why is everything about you?)
Strengths are those things that you are good at. Make a list of all of them. If you are a real estate agent, I sure hope that you have included, "I am good at letting everyone know that I am a real estate agent.
Your list for this category should be comprehensive and long. I hope you use 5 full pages to list all your strengths! Build a great list of strengths and refer to it often. We are real estate agents, we are used to getting stepped on and our egos take a sever beating on a daily basis. Use your strengths list to confirm to yourself just how great you are!
Get more paper because now we need to list out all of our weaknesses. This is a list of those things about ourselves that we have working against the achievement of our goals. Most of us egomaniacs (those with 5 pages of strengths) think we could fit this list on the back of a stamp. It might be necessary to get with your friends, broker, manager, coach, or me to help fill out a true list of weaknesses. Unrecognized weaknesses are a bane to growth!
Outside of our personal strengths and weaknesses, we have Opportunities. These are the happenings "out there" that present chances for you to capture more business or income. For instance: I just read the national home builders housing forecast for 2013 is that there will only be enough new units built to handle about half of the expected surge in demand - THEREFORE, there is an opportunity NOW to get involved with new homes builders and buyers.
Opportunities don't need to be unique to you. If the local hospital is expanding, don't shun the opportunity of representing doctors because you know of 20 other agents who already work with doctors. Write down this on your list and we'll look at it later to see if there is a way for you to capitalize on it.
A list of Threats is next. No, not your threats against others (you really shouldn't have such a list), but a list of those things happening now, or in the near future that will affect your business or goals negatively. An example of a threat would be a headline, "Unemployment Rises." No jobs, no money, no credit, no sales = no income for you.
Threats to your business can also come disguised so take your time to study every aspect of your business. For instance, if your broker demands triple signed copies of 5000 documents for every transaction and you see that other brokerages allow electronic signatures and store everything on the cloud - then there just might be a threat to your future business.
Take a lot of time making your lists. A few hours a week over about a month should do it. Include everything you can and don't judge, just write. I'll return soon to discuss how to interpret your lists to help you set accurate goals for next year!
Skeet anyone?
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