In my previous blog, I introduced you to ROAR (Register of Attack Regimen), a different kind of business planning tool for Realtors that takes a more holistic approach. ROAR incorporates your life and business goals, helping you visualize your dream life and plan the steps to achieve it.
A key component of ROAR is reviewing your successes and failures in your professional and personal life and then taking a hard, realistic look at the things that went wrong and the things that went right. This helps you decide which behaviors to continue and which to change so you can create a clear vision for your business. The process is not a quick fix and requires you to review and revise regularly.
In this second part of the series, we’ll take a look at how quarterly business planning can you become a more successful Realtor.
Quarterly Reviews Are Essential
The most successful business plans are those that are fluid and change with the changing needs of the business. When you use ROAR faithfully, you will find yourself reviewing and revising the plan regularly.
How do you know if it’s time to adjust your strategies or change your entire plan?
The simplest answer is by completing quarterly reviews. Some realtors feel that once a year is often enough to review their plans, while some do this monthly. However, at minimum, a quarterly review can be effective in helping you keep on track.
The quarterly business planning process for realtors can be overwhelming, but it’s important to stay on top of your game. You will need to track data such as profit margins, listings, buyers, sellers, open houses, and advertising tactics that worked (or didn’t work) to make informed decisions about how you operate going forward. Reviewing monthly may not be feasible with time constraints and reviewing annually can give you an overwhelming amount of data. Quarterly reviews break your year into three-month segments, making the data you collect much easier to manage.
For a more concrete example, let’s say you’ve had 10 closings this quarter. Of those 10, 8 were your listings, and 2 were represented by another agent. That means that 80% of your time was spent selling your listings, and only 20% was co-brokering other properties. If you planned to focus on buyers, then you would likely shift your plan to work with and target more potential buying clients. However, if you planned to work solely on listings, then you might want to adjust your plan to focus on getting in front of more potential sellers.
Why use ROAR?
ROAR isn’t your standard tool for budget planning for realtors. Traditional business planning tools for Realtors only focus on the numbers and don’t focus on work-life balance, but as a Realtor, your life and your business are intertwined. The tools that are available with ROAR look at your entire life and all your personal and professional goals.
When you download the tools, you will find that they cover all aspects of your world. From fitness to finances, from your spiritual life to your relationships, you will find assessment tools in the ROAR packet. This is an important aspect because your business can thrive if you treat it as part of the whole of your life rather than as only a part of your life.
Quarterly business planning for Realtors in the ROAR tool involves self-assessment so you can review and revise your plan. These tools are valuable for the initial creative process of solidifying your vision for your business as well as formulating your plan to achieve your vision. You can use the assessment tools to help you and your network of associates work together more efficiently. When you are performing more efficiently, it has a trickle-down effect on those who work alongside you.
Why Look at Life Events in your Quarterly Business Planning?
When you review quarterly, you have the chance to assess life changes beyond the workplace as well to determine how they affect your business. It’s been said that your life changes every 90 days, so reviewing quarterly can help you see these changes and control the good and the bad before it’s too late to correct.
Do your profit margins indicate you need to spend more time showing homes? Do you need to spend more time on fitness, so you have more energy for your day? Are you missing key events in your family’s lives?
You may be wondering why life events matter to your business planning, but as we said earlier, your business and life are intertwined. The effects of your personal life are reflected in your business practices. If you are unusually stressed outside the office, then you will have a more difficult time concentrating inside the office.
Conversely, if things are going poorly at the office, it will affect other aspects of your life. This is why it’s best to look at business as a part of the whole rather than as the whole. The effects of a bad day, week, month, or quarter will not recognize imaginary lines between work and home life. So, does it benefit you to keep those lines in place?
Final Thoughts
ROAR is a different kind of business planning tool for Realtors that takes an innovative approach, incorporating your personal and professional life into your plan. However, the process is not a quick fix and requires you to review and revise regularly. We recommend at least a quarterly review, since monthly may not be feasible and annually can come with an insurmountable amount of data. When used regularly, the ROAR tools can help you to become successful in life and business.
Download the ROAR tools to get prepared for your quarterly business planning review today!
