Your annual business planning is the design of a structure to fulfill your perfect year. You know, the kind of year you dream about, but haven't quite attained: one that combines a great income with plenty of time to enjoy it. While effective use of your time and resources is important and can increase the bottomline, I find, as a business coach, the most frequent problem is a lack of clarity with values and priorities. It's the WHY you are doing your business.

In the prior articles, we discussed the market research and personal research necessary to create a business plan. The next step is to define WHY you are in business. What is really important to you?

Vision

Without a clear vision that ties to your own personal wants, needs and dreams, your business plan will live as a piece of paper with little power. The juice that powers action comes from living a dream or vision that lets your own self-expression & values come through. We each have a unique contribution to make during this lifetime. Think about folks you know who are successful. Don't they have clarity in their purpose and direction? In planning the coming year, think about what your gifts are and how you can leverage them into attracting more business.

What is really important to you and does your week reflect spending time where it is allowing you to make a difference in the areas that are most important? List 3-5 values that are the most important for you. If your business were to reflect the importance of those values this year, what goals would you be setting? This is, perhaps, the most important piece in doing your plan, because you will not be able to stay motivated if this piece is missing.

Once you have identified these values, consider what the perfect year would look like. What is your vision for the coming year? One of the biggest mistakes made is to dream too small. If it doesn't give you goosebumps and butterflies, it is too ordinary. A big dream pulls you forth and demands creativity and persistence when roadblocks occur. Expect for the challenges and roadblocks to show up. They are your big opportunity. They will force you to breakthrough to your next level, because they show you that there is a limit to the results of doing a little more of the same.

Strategies

So, you know where you are starting from and you have a dream that will serve as the beacon towards which you are heading. The next step is to list and develop your strategies for the year.

This is somewhat different than goals. Goals limit and define; strategies broaden and expand. An example of some strategies could be:

• To increase your personal health & well-being
• To maximize and leverage the strategic alliances
• To upgrade your office systems
• To become more educated in working with a new niche group
• To learn about and use permission marketing
• To increase your financial independence

Strategies are designed to accelerate and encourage expansive thinking and to focus on the person who is going to be doing the work. In actuality, if you just focused on buffing up your education, health and relationships, the effectiveness and joy you would experience in your business would increase and attract more business to you. I have found when people start doing this they find their "luck" improves greatly. I don't believe it is luck.

Think of what strategies would fit with the market research you did and the values that are important to you and choose 3-5 that you will focus on. Then brainstorm within each strategy at least 10 ways you could use it. If you really want to have fun, make the list 25 items or more and don't edit out the crazy ones. They will probably lead to a workable idea. Evangelist Robert Schuller used this method when he identified where to hold his first church services (and ended up at a drive in!). Don't be ordinary.think extraordinary!

Goals

Have you noticed you have done a lot of work and haven't yet identified any goals? Are you ready? If you've taken the steps so far, you now have a clear idea of what you want you goals to be. So, get all the numbers down now, as well as other specific accomplishments you want. Some of you have a need for recognition and the awards or competition is a motivator. What recognition are you shooting for this year? Some of you have a need to increase your skills and knowledge. What courses or designations will you take this year? If family is important, the vacations you take, the college savings plan or your retirement plan might be goals to include.

Focus on your NET! Your budget is an integral part of your annual plan. It is what you keep, not what you make that makes you wealthy. So make sure you are tracking the expenses as well as the gross. Your overall expenses should fall about 30% or less of your gross. If last year's figures are not in line here, do some work to discover how to get profitable. Work with your manager or a coach on this area can significantly impact your business. Maybe you don't need to do more business this year, you just need to keep more of what you are making and plug the holes.

Systems

You've heard the standard advice: Take your goals and break them down to the actions needed on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. Knowing how this looks is important. The more you can systematize your business, the more time you'll have to focus on being the rainmaker who is spending time face to face with possible prospects. If you haven't read The E-Myth Revisited, I highly recommend it. You will understand the compelling reasons why it is so important to treat your business as a business rather than YOU being the business in reading this book. If your entire focus this year was around taking one system to the next level each month, by the end of the year, you would significantly increase your effectiveness (an decrease your stress).

Systems will make sure things happen consistently. Software like PREP enables you to set up "Smart Plans" that automate your systems. For some agents, their software is their assistant, rather than having to hire someone.

Implementation and structure to carry through with your actions is essential. What or who do you need to support you? Make a list of the people you will need this year to be your partner in success.

Now that you have the plan on paper, what else do you need to do to insure you have the best year ever? In the next part of this series of articles, we'll examine how to enjoy the journey. For your own personal detailed, step by step guide to your business planning, An Awesome Year 2000 Planning Guide is available at www.joeann.com/ayp.htm .

Published: December 16, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Joeann Fossland GRI, LTG, MCC is a dynamic speaker and business coach. Creator of THE REAL ESTATE GAMETM, she provides coaching solutions enhance your effectiveness and life balance. You can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, attend free monthly telephone seminars, and find out about classes delivered by email and personal coaching by visiting JoeAnn.com or e-mail her at .