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56
Education
StreetSmarts SM
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New year, new plan
By Jon Perry and Vanessa Lang
888QuikRate.com
With the end of the holiday season and the
return of daily routines, it is important to
make sure to set aside time for strategic
planning. The challenges of 2009 fostered
many pearls of wisdom that are waiting to be capitalized
on. Yet, people often skip the step of formally committing
to implementing all of the great lessons learned from a
trying year.
We recently finished a week-long strategic planning session
that included not just reviewing our own business
but also our key sources of referrals, vendors and prospective
partners. At the end of the session, we had a road
map for 2010 that will take us to the next level and keep
us from making costly mistakes.
We asked GS Online's MLS Forum participants if strategic
planning was important in 2010. Coach Bob believes so.
"This is a time where everyone in this business needs to
open their eyes, ears and minds to change," he wrote.
Steps in strategic planning
Having a vision of where you will be next year at this time
puts you ahead of the competition and focuses attention
on your goals and desires. To create your roadmap, try
the following:
1. Set aside time to actually do it. Find a location free
of distractions. Shut off the phones and close your
e-mail program. Focus solely on the task at hand.
2. Break out your business plan. If you don't have one,
create a simple two- or three-page plan that lists
your differentiators, the market you are trying to
reach and how you are going to reach prospects in
Education index
Daniel Wadleigh ...............................................61
Peggy Bekavac Olson ......................................62
Tim Cranny ........................................................66
that market. A simple business plan lists three key
elements:
• Strategic objectives: Where do you want your
business to go?
• Tactics: How are you going to get there?
• Budget: What will it cost?
Strategic objectives
Strategic planning provides a look ahead to the next three
to five years. Five years down the road might be a bit
fuzzy, but the next 12 months should be reasonably clear.
Strategic planning is at the 60,000-foot level; it's the broad
strokes of where you want your business to be.
Tactics
Tactics support the strategy. Your tactical objectives should
be specific and measurable. For example, "increase top
line revenue 15 percent" and "decrease customer attrition
to below 3 percent" are specific and measurable.
Strategic objectives outline your plan of where you want
to go. Your tactics are precise and tangible; they detail
how you will achieve that strategy. Tactics often have to
be flexible. As we experienced with the economic downturn,
conditions change and tactics must be adapted
accordingly. If you know where you want to go, your
tactics involve working out the most practical, simplest
or cost-effective route.