The topic of budget is a touchy subject. For some, they dread the word. For others they love the idea of having a budget and sticking to it. When it comes to your farm, one of the first places I tell agents to start is to focus on their budget.
The reality is most agents think of just money when they hear the word budget. That is one part of the equation. When I consult agents, I get them to work on 3 things when it comes to budget.
The first is your financial budget.
The second is your time budget.
And the last, and most often overlooked is your energy budget.
Let’s dive into each one of these for a minute so you can get a better idea of what you are going to want to keep in mind.
Financial Budget
As I said earlier, this is the one most people understand and think about when they are planning a budget but many agents overlook some important aspects of their budget with their farm. A lot of agents will start with too small of a budget. What happens when you do that is you tend to want o use your budget for a few months and “test it out”. The reality is if you are only committing to your farm for a few months, you really aren’t farming. You are just sending a few marketing pieces.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again till the world understands. It’s better to start small and scale up then it is to start big and scale back. Lots of agents will start with some cash in the bank that they are going to commit to their farm. In this case, let’s say $2,000. Many agents will probably think “Well, I’ll probably get better results if I spend that and reach a bigger audience in 3 months. Then I’ll take the money from that and then re-invest it.”
What happens is… usually nothing… They don’t get any leads that convert. They don’t get nearly the response they expected and then they give up. It’s defeating. And it turns off a lot of people from farming. Thus furthering the myth that “farming doesn’t work!”
A better approach is to focus on a smaller audience and spread that $2000 over the course of a year. By budgeting $166 per month over the year, you may be reaching less people, but you are building a consistent message to those people over and over again. When you budget for a full year, you can be more realistic with your expectations. You aren’t at the mercy of seasonal markets. You aren’t putting your eggs into one basket for a few months, you are spreading it out and testing it.
So when it comes to your financial budget, it’s important that you plan well in advance. If you don’t have the funds set aside, start smaller. Your ultimate goal is to fund the farm from your farm. So you will need to set aside enough money that you won’t give up if you don’t get results right away.
Time Budget
This is something that so many agents overlook. They understand the financial commitment but they tend to misunderstand the amount of time its going to take to succeed in farming. Just like any successful business, its going to take time and or money to grow. If you aren’t prepared to put in the time, you better be prepared to put in the money.
If you don’t have the money to invest, then you better be prepared to put in a lot of time. Especially up front. So many agents fail because they misjudge the amount of time they need to a lot for the tasks they need to do to be successful. If you are committed to making your farm work, you will need to ensure you are able to commit to the amount of time you will need to put into it long term. It’s easy to get busy up front and get it all started, but you will need to figure out how much time you can devote to your farm daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. This budget is just as important as your financial one.
Another time budget mistake that many agents make is they sometimes do create a time budget, but they budget their time to the wrong tasks! They spend their time worrying about having the perfect logo, or creating the perfect website, they spend hours researching internet lead gen and then don’t do anything with it or they spend time on social media without getting any results.
We all have the same number of hours in a day and we need to learn to protect that time. I know this isn’t the first time you have heard that and it won’t be the last. But when it comes to farming, you really want to make your time count. You are investing in your farm for the long haul. So every hour spent doing inefficient and ineffective things now, is multiple hours you are going to lose in the future. Make your time count!
Energy Budget
This idea is one you may not have considered, but I feel is a very important part of having a healthy balanced business.
So what is your energy budget?
I’ll start with this… Imagine a task in this business that you can’t stand. Maybe it’s admin work, maybe its cold calling, maybe its graphic design, maybe it’s open houses. Each agent is going to have things they love and things they can’t stand.
Now imagine if you were forced to do the thing you couldn’t stand for a few hours a day, every day.
How would you feel?
I’m guessing you’d feel drained, unhappy and maybe even bitter?
There you go. You just experienced your energy budget at work! We all have things that give us energy and things that zap them. If you are building a business with strategies that are going to zap your energy you aren’t going to commit. You will burn out. You won’t be effective. And worst of all, you may just give up.
When you are budgeting your time and money, you need to take into account your energy budget. If you have strategies that you must do to make your farm successful you will need to be aware of how much energy that is going to take from you. If you aren’t going to do it, you may decide to either just not do it, or you may outsource it. Either way, you will need to budget for that as well. If you outsource it, you will need to take that into account in your financial budget. If you are going to do that yourself you will have to take that into account in your time and energy budget.
Your Budget Is Key!
So, now that you know the three areas you are going to need to focus your attention on, it’s time to develop your plan! As I said at the beginning, every great farm starts with your budget. So spend some time to figure out how much time, money and energy you are going to commit to getting your farm off the ground and then get to work.
Lastly, one thing I want to add about budgets is that you may not stick to it EXACTLY, but it helps give you a guideline to follow. You will want to review your budget on a regular basis to see if you are holding to it and if you need to adjust anything. You may find what you budgeted isn’t enough or that you over budgeted. The key is that you start with a plan and check in with it. Measure you success against it and adjust as you go along.
I’m glad you took time out of your time budget to read this, now go take action! Let me know what you are budgeting for this month!
Happy Farming!
Ryan Smith – Founder/Creator
Launch Your Farm
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