Do you have a business plan?

Dear Members,

October and November are busy months for us at GHAR! As the largest local association in CT and the second largest local association in New England, we are organized like a business. That means we also plan like one. This is the time of year that we get budgets squared away, we approve plans for 2011, and we transition to 2011 leadership. We do all of this to help you be successful during the coming year.

The strategic or business plan is the ‘brain’ part of the Association. It’s our guide throughout the year so that we make sure our goals are met. Most experts agree that behind every successful business, there is a plan. I’ve been actively meeting with our the Leadership Team, our Board of Directors and committees to identify some of the best ways to help you to improve your business. Below are just a few ideas our leadership has brainstormed:

• Enhancing the value of your membership in GHAR by providing new products and services.
• Building relationships with other housing related organizations and associations
• Identifying areas of knowledge that are necessary for members to be successful as the marketplace evolves
• Formulating an awareness for the need for enhanced professionalism in the real estate profession
• Finding ways to build our influence throughout the Greater Hartford community

These are high level ideas and we are working hard to come up with creative ways to implement all of them. As a REALTOR® and small business owners, do you have a business plan for the upcoming year? Here's an interesting article that discusses this very topic: www.marketing-tools-for-real-estate.com/Realtor-Business-Plan.html. If you have a plan, tell us about it! We’d love to have you share with our readers and give us some feedback about what you do to make your business successful.

-Jeff Arakelian

Volunteers = Awesome

Finally, it’s my turn again and boy, have I got stuff to tell you! First, I’m going to let you in on a secret. As fun as writing press releases, newsletters, and email blasts can be… nothing gets my blood pumping like working with the Community Involvement Committee! There. I said it. It’s true that a majority of my duties deal with writing but the things GHAR has accomplished through getting out and helping communities really makes me proud. I hope after reading this post, you’ll be proud, too!

Wednesday, September 29th, marked the first GHAR-organized REALTOR® volunteer day with Habitat for Humanity. What a day! The weather was picture perfect and our 13 volunteers were ready help build not only a house, but a community. 16 Sexton St. in New Britain was our ‘office’ for the day and we eagerly picked up paint brushes, screw drivers and safety goggles instead of a cell phone, a pen or a laptop. It still warms my heart to think about REALTORS® coming together to help put finishing touches on a neighborhood that is in need of just that type of special attention.

 

We painted trim, hung blinds, shoveled gravel, stacked boards, vacuumed floors and left with a satisfied smile because we were able to give back. So often it seems that REALTORS® are thought of in terms of commission rates but not on that day. Nope, on that day we were able to show a community that REALTORS® are so much more! That is what makes me so proud not only to work at GHAR but also to be a part of the Community Involvement Committee.

Stay tuned for more great things from this committee like the upcoming Foreclosure Prevention forum that is paid for by grant money received from NAR. It’s open to the public so please help spread the word! GHAR is hosting a free seminar at our headquarters taking place this Saturday, October 9th, at 11am. We have foreclosure experts speaking and lawyers volunteering their time to help anyone with questions about this very complicated process.

So... are you proud yet? :)

Special thanks to: Linda Berkowitz, Prudential CT Realty; Shelley Gentile, Prudential CT Realty; Arlevia Williams, CHFA; Nelly Kinahan, Prudential CT Realty; Gene Bolles, Prudential CT Realty; Lisa Lepore, ERA Broder Group; Brenda Baldino, ERA Broder Group; Jeremy Joslin, Coldwell Banker; Eve Stricklett, Wiliam Raveis; Marianne Latimer, Prudential CT Realty; Thomas Burr, William Raveis