This time of the year is the perfect time to consider what new strategies and tools you'll need to stay competitive in the coming year. Your business planning, ideally, should be part of the last quarter of the year so you can hit the ground running in January.

An important element in your business planning for 2004, after you have gathered the information on what worked and didn't work (or worked less efficiently than you would have liked, given the dollars invested), is allocating your marketing dollars for the coming year.

Some of the important questions are:

• What 20 percent of your dollars are giving you 80 percent of your results ?

• What segments of the market are responding to your efforts?

• Where are you getting diminishing returns for your dollars?

• What new market trends or niches do you want to expand into in 2004?

• How can you give value to your target market markets that will differentiate your services from everybody else?

The answers to these questions will help you decide where to judiciously spend money in 2004, rather than just adding new marketing to the old. Technology continues to afford us opportunities to build our brand and name awareness in many different ways. Perhaps, though, the good news is that the number of new products and "must haves" has slowed from the crazy days of the dot.com heyday. At the NAR tradeshow in San Francisco, it was actually manageable and allowed time to talk with the tried and true suppliers who were offering new enhancements as well as take a look at a few new tools.

Here's a quick overview of some cool tools for 2004:

Published: December 19, 2003

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Joeann Fossland ePRO, GRI, MCC, PMN, SRS is a dynamic, international speaker and business coach. She personally coaches a small number of extraordinary agents who want to leverage their production results and have a life they love! She was recognized as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Real Estate in 2008 by Stephan Swanapoel. Subscribe to her free Tuesday Tips, attend Fossland's Forums, free monthly tele-seminars, and find out about classes delivered by email and personal coaching by visiting Joeann.com or email her at . You can also connect at Facebook and Twitter.