You know what the pandemic taught a lot of us. You simply don't have enough cash reserves. I'm tom ferry today in the tom ferry show. I want to talk to you about five things you can do along with some slides and some graphs to encourage you to make 2021 not only your best year ever, but also put you in a position where you've got more cash reserves.

So, let's go through the slides together. The first and obvious thing is: we need to focus on making more sales. If i sat down with you one-on-one and said how much debt do you have that you want to pay off, and you told me that number and then i said how much money would you like to save four months of all of your costs in the bank? Six months a year, we'd get that number and then we'd combine it and i'd say all right in order for us to net that, after paying our taxes running your business and running your life, how many transactions do we actually need to do? The first and most important point is to recognize that the vast majority of people - maybe you you're, not setting up your business plan and your goals based upon debt reduction and savings you're setting it up. Based upon your mindset of how am i going to be able to do x amount of transactions, i challenge you to think first about debt reduction and savings and then reverse engineer how many transactions you have to do.

The second thing, because i want you to have more cash - is to acknowledge your standard for what happens when you get a check. Years ago i started showing people these three slides which you're going to see today, and it really represents how we watch the vast majority of people that we talk to for our coaching programs and events how they manage our money. The first one you can see is most people call it. Eighty percent they're not incorporated, so they get a check for a closing and it goes directly to them into their personal account and guess what happens they blow the money.

It happens every time. Eighty percent of the people in this industry end up flat, broke and simply don't have enough cash just in case something happens, and i want you to solve that. So, let's look at the second slide. The second one is a little different model now you're incorporated.

So a check shows up and it's payable to your llc, your s, corp your c corp, your country's appropriate business strategy and then it goes into your business account and then a percentage goes to your taxes and a percentage goes to your home. So you can manage all three effectively. There is nothing worse than waking up and realizing you owe money to revenue, canada or to the irs, and you don't have a closing in sight. We need to start planning for this, so a you've got more cash and b.

The reserves are set up and ready to go now. Here's the next one, the best people on the planet, the ones that truly desire to put themselves in a position to retire financially set. They set it up like this. A check comes in, money goes to taxes, money goes to run my business and then they orchestrate how the money comes through their home into all of their different accounts.

Now, i'm not a financial planner, i'm just giving you examples of things that other people are doing with their money, so they're paying off their debts, saving for real estate investments, maybe the 529 b plan, because they want to put their kids through college and set aside Money for it and so much more, i want to go back to that slide. My question for you is: what happens when you get a check and what's been the unintended consequences of potentially not having the right plan in place? Let's go to number three and that's obvious: we need to set a budget, we need to set a budget and plan for our finances in our business. So as we look to 2021, here's an example again just a sample marketing, 10 salary and staffs 15.5 percent education and coaching one and a half percent, maybe point five percent. If you're, making seven hundred thousand eight hundred thousand a million supplies, communication, tech, auto insurance equipment and, more again, the goal for you to have at least a 70 margin in your business before your taxes, so you can see down below it says: total 30 cost.

If you're doing less than that great, but what, if you're doing more, what leverage you need to pull if you're sitting at seven or eight or nine percent in your total expense, i would guess that you're, probably a secret agent and you're not doing enough marketing to Generate the kind of business that you want or worse you're, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week because you're not taking advantage of outsourced transaction coordinators or hiring that first assistant, that frees you up to go for making 50 or 80 or 90 000 a Year to 200, 300 or more so, really look at those numbers as a benchmark, a way to gauge how you're operating your budget financially. So again, you can see speak with your cpa, about taxes, we're just giving you a number there. 33. 35.

55, if you're in california, you know what i'm saying right pay attention to that number. But at the end of the day, you're, not a non-profit. Your goal is to serve as many clients sell as many houses as you can and put yourself in a position to have a nice profit. So you can pay off those debts, you can save more money and you can put yourself and your family in a great financial position.

Let's go to the next. One number four raise your average sales price. Yes, we have agents around the world that have become so powerful at their marketing concentration that they can actually raise their sales price through better marketing, whether it's a geographic farm working, their past clients or sphere online, lead generation and more. You can target market to raise your sales price and, of course, earn more in the process.

Talk to your coach talk to your manager, talk to people inside your office about how you can do the same, to sell the same homes entered even more and then the big one, the one that i've been harping on for the last seven years is, as we Watch, commission compression attack our industry, great agents, like yourself, are actually becoming consciously aware of their net percentage of retained, commission and working on their sales and negotiation skills to ratchet that number up now. I know you're watching this you're saying but tom. I just did this recently, it was a friend or you know, it's a high sales price and the other agent, and i we worked out a deal to finally get the deal closed and the challenge is you've got a story like that for every one of them. You think it doesn't matter, but what i want you to get is it does matter it does matter.

Every time you lower your percent of commission. The impact on you financially is enormous. Take a look at the numbers. Let's say you have a five hundred thousand dollar sale.

A two percent commission is ten thousand dollars. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but look at the difference of three or three point: two: five and yes, some agents are even providing the level of service and transparency and charging three and a half percent retained on their side. Here's my point: you think it doesn't matter, but it does matter because when you compound this by 15, 18 22 105 sales boy, oh boy, does it add up now remember i started this video by saying to you what the pandemic showed a lot of people is Most agents simply don't have the cash reserves that they should or they need, because you - and i both know the market's always adjusting. So my question for you after watching this show, is what are you going to do? What are you going to do more of what are you going to do less of what are you going to stop doing and once and for all, what disciplines and systems are you going to put in place, so you pay off that debt and you increase your Savings - and you put yourself and your family's financial future in great shape.

I look forward to reading your comments. Give me your feedback share this with a friend or two, because you probably know an agent or two who desperately needs to see this message. So if somebody sent this to you remember, it was sent with love thanks so much for watching. Remember always your strategy matters, and now, more than ever, how much you net is what ultimately rules the day you.