Rob Reuter

By Rob Reuter, YPN Manager

It’s official: 2012 has kicked into full gear. If you haven’t already, now is the time to start your business planning.  Elizabeth Mendenhall, 2012 chair of NAR’s Strategic Planning Committee, recently asked YPN members what kind of statistics they consider when forming their annual business plan.  From my former selling days, I focused mainly on two statistics:

• Absorption Rate: Focus marketing in areas/neighborhoods/price ranges that have high turnover rates and low time on the market.

• Frequency of Income-Producing Activities: Where does my business come from and how much time/energy do I put in these areas?

Several other YPN members have great ideas as well:

Dollars/Hour Earned (Brian Copeland): How much are you earning per hour?  Take your gross annual income and divide it by the number of hours you worked.  Increasing this number means you are making more and working less!

Months Supply/Inventory (Nobu Hata): Communicating this information to the consumer effectively will help ensure more accurate pricing.

80/20 Rule (Tiffany Curry & Kate Koplinka): Are you part of the minority doing the majority of the business?

Market Share (Lena Williams): Increase the percentage of your market share if geographical farming is part of your plan.

Average Sales Price (Kenny Parcell): With prices on the decline nationally, how is your average sales price and what are you doing to maintain/increase it?

Investor Spread (Kyle Malnati & David Coe): For those who work in commercial real estate or with investors, what is the spread between loan interest rates and the rate of return?

Total Sales Volume (Andrew Terrell): How much total volume do you need to sell to meet your financial goals?

Hit Ratio (Shawn Anen): How’s your prospecting?  How many contacts do you have to make to get an appointment, how many appointments do you need to take a listing, etc.?

29 Million (Melissa Krchnak): The number of 18- to 30-year-olds living at home.  What are you doing to attract this potentially explosive market?

Return on Investment (Linda-Webb Jenkins): How much are your business expenses and are you receiving a reasonable rate of return on your expenditures?

That’s a lot to think about, but if you focus on one or two of these, your business is sure to improve!