How was it for you?

Here we are at the start of another year; did you achieve what you wanted to last year?

My review of 2021 from a property investor’s perspective is here.

If you didn’t do what you set out to do have you reviewed what didn’t work, what did you miss doing, were there things that you couldn’t do or didn’t do?  The seeds of the future are usually in the past, so it’s worth reviewing what did and didn’t work - and what changed your original plans.

I’m not suggesting that your plans shouldn’t have changed, after all, plans made in January 2020 were pretty much blown out of the water - or had to be radically revised - due to unforeseen circumstances.  Things change and plans should not be set in stone, but not having plans means that often nothing gets done.

So here are my top 5 questions to ask yourself as you’re putting your plans in place for 2022:

What was in your plan, but didn’t get done?  And why?

Examining what you didn’t do, is almost more important than looking at what you did.  If you have something in your plan and it didn’t happen, what stopped you?  Was it avoidance of a ‘hard’ task or was it just life got in the way?

You might want to think carefully about goals you didn’t take action on.  Are you sure they were your goals and not something other people had told you that you should do?  Sometimes things that seem like a good idea at the time are just not right for you.

However, you do need to put on your big pants and admit if the reason something didn’t get done, was simply because you didn’t step up and take action.

What did you learn from last year?

There’s an old saying ‘When you lose, don’t lose the lesson’.  It’s important to think about not just what didn’t work, but WHY it didn’t get the results you were hoping for.  It may be that a few tweaks could turn a failed strategy into a successful one.  Don’t just abandon something because it didn’t work, make sure you’ve got every last drop of value out of it before you toss it on the scrapheap!

How will you use your 2021 results to get where you want to in 2022?

It’s always good to build on existing foundations, rather than ignore perfectly good footings and start from scratch.  The same applies to your goals for 2022.  What can you take from 2021 - good and not so good - and use to improve the plan for 2022?

Are you setting goals based on profits or properties?  What’s important to you?  What do you enjoy doing?  What do you dislike doing?  Could you outsource the bits you don’t like or do less of them?

Will you do more of the same or go bigger/change strategy?

If you got some positive results in 2021, are you planning to rinse and repeat?  Or are you looking at adding another string to your bow, or maybe changing direction altogether?

There’s no reason why you can’t add different strategies to your plan.  For instance, if you’re currently doing OK with BTLs, perhaps looking for properties that can be flipped to build your cash reserve up or adding HMOs to your portfolio.

What additional knowledge do you need to ensure success?

Learning improves your earning!  The more knowledge you have, the better results you’ll get.  This doesn’t mean you need a degree in property management, but the more you know about your chosen career, the better.  You could go on a course for a specific aspect of property you want to know more about, get a mentor or even join a mastermind cohort to fast-track your progress.

Find the experts who can teach you the short-cuts, inside techniques and help you to get the results you need faster, more efficiently and more profitably.

Things to think about

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, everyone is different and they’re to encourage you to think about what you already have that can be leveraged to improve results longer term.