Reaching Your Millionaire Goal in 2006

Business Planning: Simplified, Profitable and Essential

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., December 6th, 2005 – Do you have your sights set on becoming one of the millionaire real estate agents you keep hearing about?  Would you like to reach that goal some time soon, maybe during the year 2006?  Business advisors and experienced entrepreneurs generally agree that you should develop a business plan before you start any business… and this is especially true if you want to become a millionaire.  But what about the Real Estate Professional – are you exempt from business planning – especially those of you who have been in the business for many years and feel like you already know all the ropes?  Isn’t a business plan for a real estate agent an overkill of effort?  According to real estate industry research it is not, and it is in fact one of the leading tools that separates a winning, productive, multimillion dollar real estate business from one that just hobbles along or dies midstream. 

The Facts Are In
Let’s look at the facts.  A business plan can help you move forward, make decisions, and make your business successful. You might develop a fairly simple plan at first and then elaborate as you advance.  While including the necessary items in a business plan is important, you also want to make sure you don’t commit any of the common business plan deadly sins: 1. Putting business planning off, 2. Being too casual about cash flow, 3. Underestimating your own good ideas, 4. Allowing fear and dread to paralyze your progress, 5. Creating vague goals without steps to get there, 6. Including too many priority activities, 7. Inflating expected financial results with unrealistic numbers.

What is A Real Estate Business Plan
A business plan is a written summary of everything you already know about your business and the industry it is in, and the future you expect to create with that business.  A well-done business plan is realistic, but conveys the energy and optimism you feel about your business's future. It is an opportunity to convince the world that your idea is worth the time, energy and money it will take to make it a reality.

When Using a Business Plan

• Use a business plan to set concrete goals, step-by-step action plans, responsibilities, and deadlines to guide your business.
• A good business plan assigns tasks and sets milestones and deadlines for tracking implementation.
• A practical business plan includes 5 parts of how to do something, for every one part of what to do.
• As part of the implementation of a business plan, it should provide a forum for regular review and course corrections.
• Good business plans are practical.  How do I get from point A to point B?

Business Plan "Don'ts"

• Don't use a business plan to show how much you know about your business.
• Don’t write a long-winded business plan no one enjoys reading them..
• Don’t write unrealistic plans, you will only be setting yourself up for failure.

Contents of A Standard Business Plan
There are conventional contents of any standard business plan. For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation and Financial Analysis.  Here’s the order I suggest.

1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
3. Product or Service: Describe what real estate niche you’re selling into or from. Focus on customer benefits that distinguish you from your competition.
4. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
5. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results.
6. Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of websites, development costs, operations, sales and marketing strategies.
7. Management Team: Describe the organization and the key team members.
8. Financial Analysis: Make sure to include your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow.

When do I Need a Business Plan
If you want to be a millionaire in 2006, then you’ll need to start working on it today.  Remember that if you are writing a business plan for real estate sales planning purposes, be specific about what goals you wish to achieve and how you are going to achieve them. Other business planning  possibilities are for those who want to grow their existing business, create an exit strategy, or develop a new marketing niche?  Effective business planning will show you how to reach the particular level of income you need by doing certain daily tasks and closing a specified number of listings and buyers/sellers.  A good business plan will account for overhead and transaction costs, and enable even the newest rookie to make better business decisions.  You can also add an assistant or a new marketing campaign’s projected expenses and business planning will show you how many extra deals you must do to cover your new expenses.  You then can determine if the expenses are worth the cost and if it is a realistic goal. Out of all the business planning tools available to real estate professionals, a company called CreateAPlan (www.createaplan.com) is