The beginning of the new year is the best time to write down your property goals for 2019. Goals are an important part of any property sourcing business.

Not only do goals give you something to strive for when your motivation is flagging, but they also allow you to measure how well you’re doing. Setting goals can also drive your business forward by encouraging you to go for bigger and better markers as time goes on, and you become increasingly comfortable in the world of property sourcing (certainly, your list of contacts should be growing on a monthly basis).

The type of goals you should be seeking are likely to centre around categories such as the number of properties sourced, deals done, new contacts made, property courses you’ve attended etc.

One popular method of goal setting is SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals. If your goal is clear, has a time frame, is obvious when it’s reached and it’s not too ‘pie in the sky’, then you’ll have ticked all of those boxes. For instance, one of your goals might be to have made a certain amount of cash via your property sourcing career, by a particular date.

How not to ‘overdo’ your goal setting

It’s important to set at least a handful of goals to keep things interesting, but don’t go overboard and have so many that you’re running yourself ragged trying to achieve them. Make some of them long-term and others shorter – maybe even weekly – so that you have plenty of breathing space in between.

Tips for goal setting

  • Always start small so that you’re more likely to achieve your goal. Set benchmarks on the way to your final goal (like the rungs in a ladder). Reaching a benchmark will always spur you on to the next one;
  • Prioritise your goals so that you know where your focus should be;
  • Keep your goals within sight (literally) by pinning them up on your office wall or writing them down in your diary. Seeing them written down constantly helps your focus allowing you to track more readily;
  • Partner up with another goal setter so that you can both be accountable to each other. This is another form of motivation, and of course, competition (which is a motivator in itself).

What if you don’t meet your goals?

No-one likes to feel that they’ve failed. Certainly, not reaching a goal isn’t cause to feel dismay; rather it shows that the goal wasn’t worked out properly in the first place. It may have been unrealistic, for instance, or the time-scale was too short. It may even have been the result of economic or environmental factors, over which you had no control (i.e. the recent recession, new government legislation).

The parts of the goal that you did have control over i.e. the SMART areas are worth looking over to identify any oddities. That way, the next time you come to create a new goal, you can project a better – and more easily attainable – goal for that particular category – but one that still provides a decent challenge and rewarding outcome.

It can be tough to create your goals initially, when faced with a blank sheet of paper, so in order to help with your goal setting, you can find a number of different Smartsheet templates to choose from right here. Just select which are most relevant to your business needs and get started!