End of Summer: Planning for a Successful 2025

Summer is closing out – the last end of summer vacations are being enjoyed.

If you are still at the office, at your desk, it’s time to prepare for the mid-year review of your one-page business plan. We have prepared a checklist to help you achieve your end of year goals.

1. Are you on track with your vision mission and objectives?

2. How does the economy affect your business?

3. Do you need to readjust or update your plan?

4. Are politics or tariffs affecting your ability to grow your business or are they just a distraction?

5. The slow pace of August is a great time to schedule face-to-face meetings with your clients, as well as your staff to update your worldview.

6. Your staff needs continual encouragement and communication with you. They need to know what direction you are taking the company. You are their leader.

7. If you’re meeting your benchmarks, what are you doing right?

8. If you’re not meeting your benchmarks, where can you improve? Maybe your team has some ideas.

9. Could it be time to refresh and improve your marketing?

10. Is your competition having more success than you are?

11. To grow your company, you need to hire people that will help you. In other words, hire people with the right attitude that will make you successful. This may not be the low hanging fruit, but rather highly competent capable goal-oriented leaders that can drive you forward.

12. Have you targeted some “drivers” to join you? Are you recruiting them, if not, why not?

13. Anybody can do the easy stuff. It’s the hard stuff that sets you apart from the competition. Potential new employees won’t turn you down when you ask them to come work for you. Don’t be shy about your skill set and your company’s vision, step up to the plate.

14. Trumpet your vision. Don’t keep it a secret, and then your employees and future employees will follow you till you meet your shared goals.

Your key people are going to come back from vacation reinvigorated. Take advantage of that energy and start running towards the end of the year goal line!

Clifford A. Hockley, CPM, CCIM, MBA

Cliff is a Certified Property Manager® (CPM) and a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM). Cliff joined Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services in 1986 and successfully grew the company from 10 to almost 100 employees, with over Two Billion dollars of real estate under management. He then merged with Criteria Properties in 2021 to establish Bluestone Real Estate Services, where he still serves as an associate broker.

In 2023, Cliff formed a real estate consulting practice, Cliff Hockley Consulting, LLC. designed to help real estate business owners, managers and investors improve their bottom line.

Cliff holds an MBA from Willamette University and a BS in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College. He is a frequent contributor to industry newsletters and served as adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he taught real estate related topics.

Cliff is the author of two books 21 Fables and Successful Real Estate Investing: Invest Wisely Avoid Costly Mistakes and Make Money, books that help investors navigate the rough shoals of real estate ownership. He can be reached at 503-267-1909, Cliffhockley@Outlook.com.