The clock is ticking toward the start of a brand new year. Meanwhile, there’s still work to do! How will you end this year? Will you look back and be proud of what you were able to accomplish? Were you able to move the needle on your goals or will you be saying to yourself a lot of ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’ words?

At this point, you are either on track, ahead, or behind where you should be based on the goals you set for this year. If you are goalless, it’s not too late for you! This will help you work on your personalized business and life plan. Focus on what it is you want out of your real estate career and give you a specific, step-by-step plan to follow so you can actually achieve those goals.

Here are some strategies:

Start with how many ‘work’ days you have left this year. From today until New Year’s Day, you have 83 calendar days. That may sound like a lot, but let’s take a closer look at the calendar. You can adjust accordingly, based on your own plans. When you’re done with this exercise, put a dollar sign on every ‘work day’ and cross out your non-work days.

There are 83 actual days until next year. Subtract 12 weekend days, 2 days for Halloween, 7 days for holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc, and 7 days leading up until New Year’s Eve and Day, and you have about 43 work days left this year. Again, adjust according to your own schedule, but this is a pretty realistic drill down. What will you accomplish in those days?

There are 44 days until Thanksgiving, 76 until Christmas, 69 until the first day of Hanukkah, and 82 until New Year’s Eve. That’s plenty of time off, family time, travel time, and re-fill the cup time for you. This means it’s time to commit to being productive and profitable on the days you actually ARE working. That’s why this is called the:

Make Money Every Day Until New Year’s Eve Plan

Mindset first: It’s December 31, 2022. You’re looking back on the year. What three things are you most proud of accomplishing in your business? What three things are you most proud of in your personal life?

If today were December 31, and you’re looking back now, what’s on your your ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda list’? In other words, what are you currently regretting that you need to hold yourself accountable to before it’s too late?

What steps must you immediately implement to have a grateful December 31? What must you stop doing and what must you START doing? Are you running your business on luck or on pro-active lead generation producing predictable and duplicatable results?

What are your specific SMART goals for the rest of this year? The difference between a dream and a goal is that a dream is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. It is written down and has a plan attached to it — ‘SMART’ goals.

Revisit or create new goals in five areas of life for the rest of 4th quarter, using your Real Estate Treasure Map:

Physical | Financial | Family | Spiritual | Educational

Example: (using the SMART rules):

Financial goal: Save six months of personal overhead and pay cash for an amazing Christmas. First, be specific. How much is that? Maybe your monthly personal overhead is $5,000/month, and you want to spend $2,500 on Christmas. (Adjust accordingly). So you need $7,500 in addition to paying your bills, etc. How many transactions is that for you? If your average net commission to you is $9,192, based on an average sale price of $385k x 3% minus 20% in fees and expenses, then you should be able to meet or exceed this goal.

Challenge yourself to think bigger: Maybe your goal is to pay off $50,000 in credit card, student loan, or other consumer debt. If you do this with a net of $9,192, you’ll need 5.5 extra deals to accomplish this goal.

What production goals are necessary to support your goals in your five areas of life, in addition to paying your normal personal and business overhead and having an amazing holiday coming up?

How many new listings must you take before the new year?

How many closings are already scheduled? Are you confident they will close? How many new pending sales must you create?

How many price reductions are needed to actually sell your listings?

How many leads must you connect to and set appointments within the next 7 days so they will still transact this year?

• Know Your magic number and increase it by 20% to account for the shifting market and the holidays. To simplify your production goals, focus on listings. Your magic number is the number of Active Listings you must have at all times to meet or exceed your unit goals per month. If you need 3 consistent closings per month, you probably need five active listings at all times to produce those predictable results.

• Daily Schedule. What daily schedule must you follow to achieve the results your goals require of you? How do you figure this out? Start with the following rule: Your daily contacts must equal the number of transactions you need yearly. For example, 24 deals = 24 contacts. A contact is a conversation with a decision-making adult about real estate. As your skills improve, the number of contacts required shrinks. For example, if you’re great at Expireds, and you know you set an appointment for every 10 contacts, you no longer have to do 24 contacts daily.

• Upgrade your skills. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Take this assessment to find out what needs the most work:

Are you proactive about generating new leads? This means you know how to create pre-qualified appointments without buying them. Are you focused on setting new listing appointments every week, or are you relying on luck, repeat, and referral leads?

Do you follow up on your leads ‘furiously fast’, using lead follow-up scripts? Do you answer your phone when it rings or do you send people to voicemail, QR codes and double opt-in drip systems?

Do you prequalify 100% of your leads, both buyer and seller, before you meet with them, or are you a ‘pop-tart’ Realtor who meets with everyone and hopes they sort themselves out?

Do you have a unique, proven pre-listing package, which you use 100% of the time, netting you predictable and duplicatable results?

Do you understand, maintain and monitor your magic number of Listings?

Do you list 90% of the listing appointments you go on and at least 50% of them are with people who are not ‘luck-based’ repeat and referral listings?

Are you involved in coaching so you can have your questions answered daily, keep yourself motivated and be held accountable to your goals?

Here’s your homework:

• Review your answers to all eight points and create your specific, end-of-year plan.

• Figure out your work days versus non-work days and post your end-of-year calendar where you can see it. Commit to setting appointments and going to appointments every workday, so you can make money every day.

• Start and end your day meditating about what you’ll feel like when it’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve accomplished your specific goals set as a result of this plan.

• Go to Premier Coaching daily sessions every weekday and share your challenges and victories with our Harris Certified Coaches and your colleagues who are focused like you are.
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Tim and Julie Harris host a podcast for Realtors called Real Estate Coaching Radio. They’ve been professional real estate coaches for more than 20 years, helping agents succeed in many different market conditions.