Every year thousands of real estate industry professionals take a look at their year end W-2 or 1099 statement and say “Wow, that sucked… I’ll try to do better next year!” Wouldn’t it be great to know BEFORE the end of the year what direction your business is taking and what you can do to get it back on track if it’s strayed? Well now you can, we call it the “Mid-Year Check Up.”
Being even just 1° off on their navigation can put a ship miles and miles off course if they don’t realize it and correct it early, just like in your business, so let’s take a few minutes and see where you’re off course and do some little corrections now.
Financial Situation: How are your finances compared to the goals you set for 2013? (or if you didn’t set goals, how are you in relation to last year at the halfway mark?) To dig into your financials, we need to look at both revenue and expenses. Revenue is going to be your gross dollars in the door from all sources. Is it where you want it to be? If not, why and what can you do about it?
Our expenses are the other side of the coin we’ll call “net income.” Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you spending 18 hours trying to figure out how to save 10¢, however I’ve found personally that I can rack up a ton of what I call “automatic expenses” which are all the little things you’ve signed up for automatic payment on that you’re not even using any more like websites, email programs, domain names, virtual tours, etc. Check your credit card bill and see if there are any that are not being used or are duplicates of other services or can be dropped to a lower cost category with fewer benefits. Also, it’s not a bad idea every 2 years ago to look at expenses like phone lines, insurance, websites and other expenses to make sure a lower cost comparable provider hasn’t entered the market.
I am in the process of switching my business phones to a new provider which is going to save me about $20 per month on our 3 lines. But the $20 isn’t the kicker (although $240/year can go towards something more important) what I really love is that we’re going to be getting a more powerful package of features that will allow us to work even better remotely and with a remote assistant (we’ll talk about that in a minute!)
Advertising & Marketing: Look at how much you’ve spent and where. Are you getting a return on your investment? Every penny you spend on advertising and marketing, including your time spent at networking events and with referral partners, should be giving you a positive return. If it’s not, rethink or renegotiate it.
Staffing: You fall into one of 2 groups:
- You have staff. But are they the RIGHT team? If you were to close your business today and reopen under a different name up the street tomorrow, which of your team would you take with you and which would you not give the forwarding address to? Then why are you keeping them? It’s hard, but your business will flourish when the right team is in place.
- You need staff. We all can be more productive with help, but the decision to add an employee means the decision to take that money out of your pocket each month (at least in the beginning). So let’s look at some alternatives:
- Virtual assistant (VA) can help with everything from marketing to website updates to data entry to even answering phones and emails. They are NOT in your office so don’t need desks, chairs, phones, etc. and they are typically independent contractors.
- Interns from your local college, high school, or adult trade business schools may sometimes work for free. Also, your local workforce office might have some job placement programs.
- Part-time assistant, would even 5 hours a week help your workload and get you more productive? Thought so! Look for someone that wants to work part time, or get together with some other small businesses and “share” an assistant so they get full time hours working for a few of you (maybe you each take one day of the week)
- Outsourcing can help you with quick tasks that are more or less a one time thing, check out Fiverr.com, Elance.com and other such sites, or ask for referrals from local businesses you know.
Economic Climate: Pay attention to legal and economic changes that affect the real estate industry as a whole, and be ready to adjust your business practices accordingly. As prices rise, there will be fewer investors, but as interest rates rise we will also have fewer first-time home buyers. If you’re in these niches what’s your plan B?
Google Yourself & your business: What are people saying, both good and bad?
What is my Competition Doing? Yes, you can Google them too! I am not suggesting that you go copy everything you see, in fact the opposite is true and you might find practices you don’t agree with and can use that in your marketing, however it’s never a bad idea to stay on top of trends (and it’s a good way to see how they’re using social media as well).
What do I need to do to prepare for Fall/Holidays: If you do any promotions, events, holiday cards or client gifts, you can usually save a significant amount of money by ordering and booking early. Also, if you need to adjust staffing or marketing for the holidays you might need to start early to coordinate everything.
Whew, that’s a lot to go over, and I’m glad you made it all the way to the bottom, it shows that you care about your business and want to transform it into a lean, profitable machine that gives you more free time to enjoy life! I’ve made a worksheet with these items that you can use as a planning tool when you set aside time to do your mid-year check up. Download it at www.CompassTrainingCenter.com/midyear