The Dog Days of Summer - A Great Time to Evaluate Yourself

We are entering the "dog days of summer” when things slow down, people are not around, and decisions are not made as quickly. During a recent email blast, it seemed as though most brokers were on vacation. So what should you be doing to remaining productive?

1) It’s mid-year. Take time to gauge where you are. Go back to the plan you developed earlier in the year, and evaluate what you intended to do and how is it going. This is a great time to determine what is working, as well as what is not, and commit to making changes to your plan for the second half of the year. It would not be too late to consider using Createaplan.com if you feel you need a better tool to monitor your goal setting.

2) Are you making your goals? If not, why not?  What happened? Go back and review deals that you were working on that you didn't make and ask yourself what happened. What could you have done differently? Check the deals you did make, and evaluate how much time you spent on that deal vs. how much you made. Are you spending too much time on smaller deals or “long-shot” deals and not enough time on new business development?

3) Are you doing a good job calendaring your activities daily? Are you allowing time each day for new business development?

4) Have you developed a system that creates business opportunities 24/7, or are you just hoping the phone will ring while you work on the few deals you have uncovered?

5) How many marketing tools do you have working for yourself? Are you hitting your client base at least six or seven times during the year? It’s better to limit your marketing attack to a smaller group and hit them often than to cast your net of potential clients too wide.

6) Clean your desk, your computer and your files. Spend time organizing yourself.

7) Spend time researching future business contacts. The dog days of summer are a good time to stop by and visit clients in person. Remember, if you have more time on your hands, your future clients probably do as well.

8) Use our library, take out our tapes and books, and make it a point to not only educate yourself but also plan to introduce at least one thing that you learn into your daily business activities.

Typically August is one of the slowest months in business, but September and October are usually some of the busiest. Get your marketing and cold calling up to speed now so that you will have the necessary business contacts and prospects lined up now for those months.