Benjamin Franklin is known to have said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This is the essence of why planning ahead matters. Many argue that plans do not normally work especially in this fast-paced world where everything is changing so quickly. When it comes to your real estate business, proper plans—when they are formulated ahead of time—help to execute projects, reach goals, and fulfill visions. Here are 6 reasons why it is best to plan ahead:
- Assessing risks and opportunities
Taking risks is necessary for growth, expanding the comfort zone, and achieving success. By planning ahead, we can identify the associated risks, weigh and categorize them, prioritize and create a response plan. In this way, real estate pros can transform risks to opportunities and experience the rewards of taking them. Unfortunately, many agents do not succeed, especially during hard times, because they don’t anticipate risks or, if they do, they do not plan how to respond to them. Case in point: now is an excellent time to consider how the pandemic is going to factor into your 2021 and 2022 real estate plans.
- Becoming proactive
Without proper planning, we would not be ready to respond to challenges. Hence, we become reactive as opposed to proactive. Planning ahead helps you become proactive. By becoming proactive, you will be able to take the right action in the face of challenge and adversity. As a result, you welcome change because you are ready for any type of challenge. When you are proactive, you respond to situations rather than reacting to them.
- Improving performance
Planning ahead helps to improve your performance and that of your organization. By improving your performance through good planning and preparation, you will be clearer about what to do next. You will also experience less stress, be more productive, provide better service, deliver higher quality products, create a more joyful environment to work in, and become a more effective and influential leader.
- Enough time to develop teams
Team development is vital to success, projects, and your real estate business as a whole. (Remember that a team doesn’t have to mean that you work with a team of agents, but your team includes lenders, settlement officers, and inspectors among others). Teams suffer without plans. Unfortunately, many real estate agents do not plan for team development. When the right plan is designed for the right team, assigning tasks to the team members can be done quickly and efficiently
- Time for revising and updating the plan
Effective plans are revised and updated regularly. In fact, our original plans can and should evolve over time so we can stay on the right track and get to the destination; for example, your pre-pandemic business plan may not work in 2021. By planning ahead we give ourselves time to revise our plans based on updated information on risk, quality, resources, stakeholders, assumptions, and constraints.
- Rewarding
By planning ahead we plan for success. As explained earlier, remarkable plans lead to remarkable performances, which lead to remarkable rewards. Therefore, spending enough time in making remarkable business plans and preparing for a remarkable real estate performance will pay off with extraordinary rewards.
That being said, do allow for a little spontaneity in your life and in your business. It is just important to consider when to be spontaneous and when to stick to the plan. The Pipeline Planner can help you do just that. So, if you haven’t ordered one for the year, now might be the time!
