In continuing our series about the seven components of a business plan, today we are discussing why you need a time frame for your goals. We have already discussed specific and strategic goals, but what we have not touched on is that these goals have to be time-bound.
Years ago, I took a training course that was called “SMART” training. “SMART” stands for specific, measurable, accurate, realistic, and time-bound. This idea is still relative today.
If you say that you want to sell 20 houses or make 100 phone calls, you have to have a clear idea of when you are going to finish this task. Are you going to do it today, this week, this month, of five years from now? Whatever the time frame is, it needs to be set.
Every goal needs to be time-bound and at the end of that time frame, you either hit your goal or you don’t. If you don’t hit it, first you need to look at why and adjust. Also, you need to look at whether you really worked to hit that goal. If not, you need to step it up a bit.
“Real estate agents are entrepreneurs who by nature are squirrel chasers.”
I often tell my agents that if they want to make, say, $25 to $30 per hour (the average in real estate), they need to look at their morning and decide if they worked efficiently and diligently enough that if they were to write a paycheck to someone else for doing the same thing, would they pay them that amount? If the answer is no, then you have to step up your game.
Real estate agents are entrepreneurs who by nature are squirrel chasers. What I mean by this is that they will go into the office and work their butts off only to be distracted easily.
So, when you set a task for yourself, you have to hold yourself accountable. Since there is nobody else there to hold you accountable, it makes real estate one of the hardest industries to be a part of. There is always something else we could do besides making phone calls, knocking on doors, or doing open houses, but those are the things that help us make the money.
If you have any questions about making your goals time-bound, please feel free to call or email me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.
