Developing our business strategically

[Alissa Collins]

Hello BP community, 

I have a question about business development and strategic planning. 

My husband and I are currently investing in single-family (buy and hold, fix and flips), but are looking to grow into multi-family and commercial. We know where we are going for 2015 but want to formally define our business development strategy. 

Do you have any suggestions on what else to discuss at our business development session? We are looking to discuss:

• Goals - Milestones; Objectives 
• Operations - Financial; Property Management
• Marketing Strategy
• Strategic Management - Building new relationships and deepening existing relationships; Growing our Team
• Legal   

I have scheduled a couple of hours to dig deep into the above and create the roadmap. In your experiences while growing your businesses, do you suggest anything else to add to the list?  

Thank you in advance.

[Gretchen Roberts]

Great job on planning for the planning! I'm re-reading The Millionaire Next Door (haven't read it for a dozen years or so) and one point that stuck out is how much time high net worth couples spend planning and working on their investments/financial future. This is the hybrid business/investment equivalent of that.

Only thing I'd add is to document who is responsible for what. Shared goals without task delegations can get fuzzy. "I thought you were doing that." "I thought you were going to make the call first and then I'd start on it." (6 months later)

A couple hours might not be enough, though, to really dig in and create a plan. I schedule a full day to do this and we almost always run out of time. I know couples who actually schedule a weekend getaway to do financial/investment planning, which is a terrific idea if it weren't for our three kids. :) 

This year after a tough day of financial planning, we treated ourselves to dinner. It was the best end to a productive day.