It’s the nature of humans; we have an undeniable urge to create. Create skyscrapers, create towns, houses and roads…create memories, create families. And life in the twenty-first century is only set to get busier with us all creating more of everything.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day grind, transfixed by the hustle of creating business and wealth let alone the demands (and the blessings) of the family you have created.
It can all blend into one crucible of busy-ness. This is when we see broker’s leaving the industry due to burn out. Or brokers and loan writer’s going through long periods of struggling through an imbalance of being overwhelmed and overworked, often leading to stress and resentment spilling into their personal and family lives.
Whilst a lot of brokers turn to business coaching or creating a business plan as a remedy to get their priorities and time management back on track to find a semblance of “balance”, I want to flip that on its head and suggest first you work on your Family Plan.
Your Family Plan is the roadmap to what makes your family (and everyone in it) happy, healthy and feeling connected. It might be more skewed towards time and outcomes or it may be more skewed towards feelings and moments; that is up to you and what works best for you and your family.
The Business Plan is still important, and we’ll get into that in this article as well, but think about the Family Plan as your first action step.
There’s a reason to do your family plan before you do your business plan.
When you understand your role in the family unit, your capacity and the help that you need from your family to remain on track and strong together, then the family plan takes priority and you can create your business plan around your family plan.
There’s no point in winning in business if you’re miserable or your family is miserable at home. The two need to work in union together and it really comes down to planning what your family life looks like and feels like, who is responsible for what, and what ‘balance’ and ‘happiness’ mean to you and your family.
So much of the family plan comes down to communication and boundaries. Simple things like being available for a morning school dropoff at least one day a week could make a huge difference to your family. Your family being aware that you work on your phone or with clients until 7pm and then you’re available for time, cuddles and bedtime stories could make a huge difference.
It’s often the smaller things that we take for granted that end up being a big part of what makes a family feel connected and happy.
When you know what you’re searching for, it’s easier to make it happen.
You can do this a couple of ways depending on the ages of your children. If you have younger children that won’t understand or be affected by the family plan, then you and your significant other can sit down and create the plan together and decide on deliverables and roles and responsibilities.
If your children are old enough to understand and be a part of the planning process then get them involved and help them to be a part of it.
Get their thoughts on what really matters to them and what they want to see as part of the family plan. You may be surprised with what they want; maybe they want more of you and your attention or maybe they want more family outings and activities or maybe they’ll throw something unexpected into the mix.
Once you’re on track with the family plan and you and your family unit are excited and happy about what your next few months look like, you can start to build the business plan.
This is something separate for your family plan and can be created with your team, business partners or assistant. Here is where you can look at things like marketing, new client acquisition, referral relationships, budgets and forecasts.
You build a business plan so you can have an idea of the costs and incomes that are needed to make certain margins. Spend the time to understand how many clients you want and the amount of loans you need to write. Look at the fixed costs vs the variable costs that you have to take into account the implementation effort and time you need to drive those numbers and hopefully meet or exceed them.
If you’re new to business plans there is a simple model to help you get started. Simply list the outcomes, growth, learning and accountability you want to see achieved and start from there.
Any good plan needs reviewing and tweaking.
Keep in mind that things change along the way, as they do the family plan can change too. And that’s not a bad thing; growth and change are inevitable with a young family. Kids grow and we grow along with them (hopefully not too much haha)
The same thing with the business plan. As the business grows and you may engage new staff, trial different software solutions, find customers from new sources and team members change (hopefully not too much haha)
Keep the Family Plan and the Business Plan on track with three monthly reviews, using your outcomes, growth, learning and accountability model as a way to measure your progress and success.
Try creating a Family Plan this weekend; you’ll be impressed with the happiness and balance you may find. Your family could be really impressed with how you’ve taken the time to think about how things can be changed or done differently for the next few months. We’re excited for you!
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