REI Wealth Monthly Issue 15 | Page 12

SMART STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING YOUR PROBATE BUSINESS IN 2014 LEON MCKENZIE Know Where You Have Been The first step in creating success in 2014 is to take a hard look at the past year. Understanding where you have been helps you to see the progress that you have made and also to think through the missed opportunities that were available. This exercise is not meant to cause you to mire yourself in negativity, rather it is meant to help you celebrate what you have already accomplished. The first step to evaluating 2013 is to pull out any goals that you had set a year ago for your probate business. Did you reach those goals? Were there any that you missed? Think about why some of opportunities for probate business growth. Some your goals worked and why some didn’t. If you of these areas include alternate income streams in met all of your goals, congratulations! If there estate sales, the buying and selling of jewelry, were some that didn’t get achieved, this year may artwork and antiques, purchasing a business or be the year to get them under control. vacation home or even commercial properties. getting involved in Looking back at 2013, if The next step is to think through missed there were opportunities that were missed, list opportunities from the past year. One of the most those and consider whether they might still offer an common areas of missed opportunity in probate is option for the upcoming year. alternate income streams. investors simply While some probate concentrate on residential Know Where You Are Going properties, there are many, many more The hard part of evaluating your vision, progress and leadership for 2013 is over. Moving forward in Set aside a regular