It’s November, and we’re quickly approaching that time of year when Realtors begin thinking about their business plans for the year ahead.

How much money do I want to make? How many transactions do I need to close? How many listings do I need to take? What am I going to spend on marketing? Where will my business come from?

All important questions, and ones I’ve spent years helping people answer through our coaching and training programs.

But as we prepare to turn the calendar to 2027, I want to challenge you to approach your business planning a little differently this year.

Before you start calculating how much money you want to make, how many deals you need to close or how many new clients you want to attract, I want you to think about something that I believe is far more important.

What do you actually want your life to look like next year?

Seriously. Have you thought about it?

Because we spend an awful lot of time planning our businesses, setting financial targets and figuring out how to generate more income, yet we often overlook the one thing that makes all of it worthwhile.

Our time.

And unlike money, which we can always find ways to earn more of, time is something we can never get back.

 

What are you actually working toward?

 

I’ve been in this industry for more than 20 years, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with thousands of Realtors at different stages of their careers.

Some are just getting started, trying to establish themselves and generate enough income to make a living. Others have built successful businesses, have teams working alongside them and are producing numbers they once only dreamed of.

But regardless of where someone is in their career, there’s a question I find myself asking more often these days.

What are you doing all of this for?

I know the obvious answer. We all have bills to pay, families to support, mortgages, car payments, groceries and the many other expenses that come with everyday life. And given the challenges we’ve experienced in the real estate market over the past few years, I recognize that for some, simply making ends meet has become a much bigger concern.

But beyond the financial necessities, what are you working toward?

Is it financial freedom? More time with your family? The ability to travel? Paying off your mortgage? Retiring earlier? Having the flexibility to attend your kids’ activities without constantly looking at your phone?

Maybe it’s simply being able to enjoy a Friday afternoon without feeling guilty that you should be doing something business-related.

There’s no right or wrong answer here. Your goals are your goals.

The problem is that too many people have never really stopped to figure out what those goals are outside of their business.

They know how much money they want to make, but they haven’t given nearly as much thought to how they want to spend their time.

And I think that’s backwards.

 

The calendar doesn’t lie

 

Let me ask you this: If I opened your calendar right now and looked at the past 30 days, what would I see?

Would I see someone who’s intentionally managing their time, or someone who’s constantly reacting to whatever comes their way?

Client appointments, listing presentations, showings, inspections, offers, emails, phone calls, meetings, social media, paperwork and all the other responsibilities that come with running a real estate business.

And somewhere in between all of that, you’re trying to squeeze in family, friends, exercise, hobbies and maybe a little time for yourself.

Sound familiar?

One of the biggest challenges in real estate is that we have the freedom to create our own schedules, but that same freedom can quickly become one of our biggest problems.

We tell ourselves we’re self-employed because we want flexibility. We want to be our own boss. We want control over our time.

Yet how many Realtors actually feel in control of their calendars?

A client wants to see a house at 7 p.m., so we go. Someone calls during dinner, so we answer. An email comes in at 10:30 at night, and suddenly we’re working again.

And with technology making us accessible almost every minute of every day, the line between working and living has become increasingly difficult to separate.

I’m certainly not suggesting we ignore our clients or become unavailable when something important needs our attention. This is a service business, and there are times when we need to be flexible.

But there’s a big difference between being responsive and allowing everyone else to determine how you spend your time.

At some point, you have to decide who’s actually in charge of your calendar.

 

More business doesn’t automatically mean a better life

 

Something I’ve noticed over the years is that when people set their business goals, they almost always want more.

More income … more transactions, listings, leads and opportunities.

And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to grow. I’m a business owner myself, and I understand the desire to build something bigger and better.

But I also think we need to be careful about what we’re asking for.

Let’s say you closed 20 transactions this year and earned a comfortable living. You’re now planning for 2027 and decide your goal is to close 30.

Great.

But have you stopped to consider what those additional 10 transactions are going to require?

How many more appointments will you need? How much additional prospecting, follow-up, negotiating, paperwork and client communication will be involved? Will you need to work more evenings or weekends? Will you need additional support?

And most importantly, where is that time going to come from?

Maybe 30 transactions is absolutely the right goal for you. Perhaps you’re ready to grow, you’ve built the systems to support it and you’re excited about what that growth will mean for your future.

But maybe you’ve already been working 60 hours a week, missing family dinners and struggling to find time to take care of yourself.

In that case, setting a goal to do 50 per cent more business without changing how you operate deserves some serious consideration.

Because earning more money at the expense of everything else in your life may not be the success you’re actually looking for.

 

Start with your life, then build the business

 

Here’s what I’d encourage you to do as you begin planning for 2027.

Before you start filling your calendar with business activities, start with the things that matter most to you personally.

What kind of time do you want to spend with your family? Are there vacations you want to take? Events you don’t want to miss? Personal goals you’ve been putting off? Health and fitness commitments you want to make?

Maybe you want to be home for dinner more often. Maybe you want to coach your child’s sports team. Maybe there’s a trip you’ve talked about taking for years but have never actually booked.

Whatever those things are, write them down.

And then put them in your calendar.

Not as something you’ll try to fit in if business allows, but as something you’ve intentionally decided matters to you.

Now look at the time you have available to work.

How many days a week do you want to work? How many hours are you prepared to dedicate to your business? What does your ideal workweek look like?

Once you’ve established that, you can begin building your business plan around the time you’ve allocated.

Determine how much income you need to earn. Calculate the transactions required to generate that income. Identify the activities that will help you achieve those targets, and then schedule the time necessary to execute them.

Of course, life happens, plans change and real estate rarely operates according to a perfectly organized calendar.

But at least you’ll have a plan that reflects the life you’re trying to create, rather than allowing your business to consume whatever time happens to be available.

 

Where is all your time going?

 

Now comes the part that might make some people a little uncomfortable.

Before you can make better decisions about how you’re going to spend your time next year, you need to understand where it’s going today.

And I would encourage you to be very honest with yourself.

How much time are you spending on activities that actually generate business?

How much time are you spending on administration, paperwork, meetings, emails and other responsibilities that could potentially be handled more efficiently?

How much time disappears while scrolling through social media, checking notifications or bouncing between tasks without ever really accomplishing anything?

And how much time are you spending doing things simply because you’ve always done them that way?

Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, yet with every new platform, application and tool that comes along, we somehow find ourselves with even more things to manage.

I see Realtors spending hours trying to create the perfect social media post while avoiding the phone calls they know they should be making.

Others spend countless hours organizing their databases, redesigning their marketing materials or researching the latest technology, all while their most important business activities get pushed further down the list.

I’m not saying those activities don’t have value. Many of them absolutely do.

But every activity comes with a cost, and that cost is your time.

If you’re spending two hours doing something that could be accomplished in 20 minutes, or investing hours into an activity that produces very little return, you need to ask yourself whether that’s really the best use of your day.

Because those hours are coming from somewhere.

And more often than not, they’re coming from the time you could have spent doing something else that matters to you.

 

What are you willing to stop doing?

 

When we talk about business planning, the conversation almost always revolves around what we’re going to start doing.

We’re going to make more calls, create more content, attend more networking events, improve our follow-up, learn new technology and become more consistent with our marketing.

All worthwhile objectives.

But I want you to add another question to your planning process this year.

What are you going to stop doing?

What activities are taking up your time without producing meaningful results?

What responsibilities could you delegate, automate or eliminate altogether?

What commitments have you made that no longer serve you?

And what habits have you developed that are preventing you from spending your time where it matters most?

This is something I continue to work on in my own life and business.

Between running a company, coaching, speaking, travelling and being involved in my kids’ activities, there are plenty of days when I look at the calendar and wonder how everything is supposed to get done.

And like many of you, I sometimes find myself saying there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

But the reality is that we’re never going to get more hours.

We all get the same 24.

What we do with them is where the difference lies.

I’ve also come to appreciate just how quickly certain stages of life pass us by. My kids are growing up, their schedules are getting busier and the opportunities to be part of those moments aren’t going to be there forever.

There will always be another email to answer, another project to finish and another business opportunity to pursue.

There won’t always be another game to watch, another family dinner or another opportunity to spend that particular afternoon together.

That’s something I’ve become increasingly conscious of as I’ve gotten older.

And it’s a big part of why I believe our business plans need to account for more than simply how much money we want to make.

 

Make time your most important budget

 

As you sit down to plan for 2027, I want you to think about your time the same way you think about your money.

You wouldn’t create a financial budget without understanding your income, expenses and financial obligations.

So why would you create a business plan without understanding how much time you have available and where you intend to spend it?

Start by identifying what matters most to you personally.

Decide how much time you want to dedicate to those priorities.

Then determine how much time you’re prepared to invest in your business and what needs to happen during those hours to achieve your financial goals.

And once you’ve built that plan, protect it.

Schedule your prospecting. Schedule your follow-up. Schedule your appointments, administrative work and professional development.

But schedule your personal priorities too.

Your family shouldn’t always get whatever time is left over.

Neither should your health, your relationships or the things that bring you happiness outside of work.

And please don’t wait until you’ve achieved some magical income number before deciding you’re finally going to start enjoying your life.

Because there’s always another goal, another transaction, another opportunity … and another reason to put something off until next year.

 

What will you remember?

 

A year from now, when you’re looking back at 2027, what do you want to be able to say?

Of course, I hope you’ve had a successful year in business. I hope you’ve reached your financial goals, helped a lot of people and built something you’re proud of.

But I also hope you’ve enjoyed the year along the way.

I hope you’ve taken the vacation, attended the game, spent time with the people you care about and made room for the things you’ve been telling yourself you’ll get around to someday.

Because “someday” has a funny way of turning into another year gone by.

We’re all going to get older. Our families are going to change. Our priorities will evolve, and the opportunities we have today won’t necessarily be there tomorrow.

So as you begin building your business plan for 2027, give some serious thought to what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

And remember that the most important return on your investment isn’t always measured in dollars.

Sometimes it’s measured in the time you get to spend living the life you’ve worked so hard to build.

Plan your life first. Then build a business that helps you live it!