A business plan: A plan for successGary Opper, CPA, CFPbusiness plan, goals, marketing plan
A mortgage broker should take some time to plan! A mortgage
broker can prepare a plan as a personal business plan or a company
wide business plan.
With the preparation of your business plan, your company can
improve on its good points and delete or modify its shortcomings.
Review other mortgage and non mortgage companies for ideas and get
started! Lack of writing skills, procrastination or fear should not
prevent you from preparing this most important document for you and
your company.
A business plan may include the following areas:
Table of contents
Of course, the table of contents is a listing of the topics
discussed and the page location.
This is us
The "this is us" lists the name, address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail address, owners of the company, and the types of
licenses held by the company and the principals. This includes a
description of you and your current position, including your market
niches, your strengths and your weaknesses.
The business plan must be flexible and periodically updated to
reflect changes in the company, principals, market and economy.
Executive summary
The executive summary provides a summary of the history of the
company and the principals. Describe the environments of the
company, including the economic, legal and demographic
environments.
Goals
Your qualitative and quantitative financial and non financial goals
could include:
-To increase net income by 25 percent in each of the next three
years;
-To have the companys mortgage brokers solicit six real estate
agents per day; or
-To increase and enhance the quality of life of you and your
family.
To do list
The to do list outlines all of the actions necessary to accomplish
your goals.
Schedule and timetable
The schedule and timetable give dates that the items in the to do
list should be accomplished by.
Marketing plan
For each market niche, the potential clients of the niche should be
profiled. Develop a strategy to market to these niches.
Research and development plan
Discuss the following in the research and development section:
-The future needs of the mortgage market (products to offer);
and
-The prices and costs to offer these mortgage products, which
should be fair.
This section always keeps me looking ahead to the future.
Production plan
In the production plan section, the current and future needs of the
following are discussed:
-Equipment;
-Software;
-Office space; and
-Branch offices.
Organization and management plan
The organizational structure of the company is reviewed in this
section. Should another organizational arrangement be considered?
Would any of the employees perform better in another position,
either promoted, demoted or moved to a different function?
A flowchart or narrative of the different cycles should be
prepared and dissected to develop improvements and innovations in
your systems. Your cycles could include:
-Obtaining and qualifying leads;
-Processing the leads;
-Finding the lenders; or
-Closing the loans.
If your company is large enough or you have several people
performing the same function, a partial or complete operations
manual should be prepared.
Also, the company may want to have forms for repetitious acts.
The training programs for employees should be developed in this
section. The quality control plans and the legal compliance plans
should be developed. Other items that should be discussed in this
section are personnel, insurance and security.
Financing plan
If an outside source of capital is needed, the plans for obtaining
such capital should be discussed in this section.
Financial plan
The financial plan will quantify the business plan and its
potential financial success with realistic pro forma financial
statements.
A business plan should address the funding of retirement, keyman
insurance, disability insurance and life insurance for the
owners.
Time management plan
This section should address time management items and timesaving
ideas. In this section, address the maximum time allowed for
business so that you may enjoy a good quality of life.
Rewards
Dont forget to reward yourself and your employees for the
achievement of your goals.
Future issues
Future issues may include items that are beyond the time horizon of
your business plan, grandiose or unrelated to the present business
plan.
Appendix
The appendix should include all of your support for your business
plan, including:
-Magazine articles;
-Excerpts from books; and
-Flowcharts and forms.
Conclusion
A business that fails to plan plans to fail. Get started today with
your business plan!
Gary Opper, CPA, CFP is the president of Approved Financial
Corporation and is past president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers
Miami Chapter. He may be reached at (954) 384-4557 or e-mail
[email protected].
