BUSR BUSINESS PLAN

You may upload your Business Plan here; if you are unable to do so, you may paste it into an e-mail from your Mt. SAC student account.  Please note, you may not e-mail attachments!

The Grading Rubric will be as follows:

Goals: 15%

Tasks: 40%

Calendar: 30%

Budget: 15%

Just a reminder that your Business Plan is due next Monday.   You may upload or paste it into Canvas in the General Assignments Module by clicking on the Business Plan Submission tab.

Much of this assignment is already done!   Please take a look at your completed goals and prospecting assignments and develop them further for the first two sections of this assignment.   All you have left is to complete a weekly calendar showing your activities (focus on prospecting) and a annual budget for your business (focus on marketing).

Some of you may be confusing the Business Plan with a Listing Presentation.   Your assignment is to create a Business Plan; YOUR plan on what YOU plan to do to develop business after you obtain your real estate license and begin working for a real estate broker.

Let me know if you have any questions.

All students are required to prepare a Business Plan for this class.   The plan will essentially have four components: Goals, Tasks, Calendaring and Budgeting.   While the nature of this assignment is for students entering the residential real estate market as a sales associate, a business plan can be created for any profession as well as for personal improvement.   Students not planning on entering a residential real estate career should meet with the instructor to customize a plan for them.

Goals (15%): The student should list their professional goals.  What they hope to achieve in terms of financial rewards and professional status.   There are no right or wrong goals, the focus should be to make a complete list of what the student hopes to achieve in the next year, three years and perhaps five to ten years from the point of entering the real estate business.   These goals should be realistic and measurable, as discussed in the textbook.

Tasks (40%): These are the activities (prospecting) necessary to achieve the goals listed above.   Students should review the text chapters on prospecting and time management and create a list of activities that they are prepared to commit to over the length of the business plan.   You are expected to have at least 3-5 prospecting activities; please take some time in describing how you will conduct these activites and hope to gain business from them.

Calendaring (30%): The next step is to organize all of your prospecting tasks as well as other activities (recreation, family, etc.) into a weekly calendar of events.   In this Canvas Module is a sample calendar but students are encouraged to be creative in creating a schedule of events.   It is important that a student commit to a regular schedule of activities as an independent contractor if they are to achieve their goals.   Those activities that cannot be done on a weekly basis should be scheduled monthly, quarterly, etc.   Remember, you cannot schedule appointments with buyers (showing properties) and sellers (listing appointments) because you do not have any yet; what you need to schedule is your prospecting activities (SOI marketing, meeting with FSBOs & Expireds, farming, open houses, etc.).   Your textbook will describe a number of different ways to develop business.

Budgeting 15%): Finally, you need to make sure you have enough funds to accomplish your plan.   You need to create a budget, showing your anticipated expenses in a columnar format.   Be sure to include advertising, marketing materials, office supplies, professional memberships (MLS for example).   Since you are not familiar with the costs of a REALTOR and MLS membership, plug in $700 per year ($400 for MLS, $300 for REALTORS dues) for professional membership to cover these sort of expenses.   Remember, marketing involves money and labor.   If you don’t have enough funds to do a mailing (money), you can compensate with going door to door (labor).

Although no specific style is required, the report should be typed and in an appropriate form to present to a prospective employer; therefore, spelling and grammar will count for grading purposes.