A barrier to entry is an obstacle a business must incur to enter a marketplace. Barriers to entry can vary from one industry to the next. The property management industry boasts an overall low barrier to entry which enables higher market saturation. Because of relatively easy entrance into the industry, there are over 280,000 property management companies operating in the US and more than 31,000 are active in Canada, meaning the number of industry competitors in North America exceeds 300,000.
Positive reinforcement is one of 4 kinds of operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning – a form of behavioral psychology popularized by B.F. Skinner. In theory, operant conditioning is essentially a method of strategic reward and punishment to shape future behavior. The term “conditioning” itself can be alienating to many people, but in practice positive reinforcement is a system of validation that’s meaningful to people on the receiving end.
Topics: Productivity, Property Management, Communication, Employee Satisfaction, Advice
There are many metrics property management companies can use to pinpoint the value of their business, increase the profitability of their service, and decrease costs to their operation. Leveraging software that facilitate these measurements or regularly run property management reports allow organizations to actively improve or maintain profitability and increase cashflow to continue to grow their business. Collecting and analyzing data are key element of planning so businesses can stay financially healthy. If you operate a property management company and intend on growing, here are some strategies to effectively measure your profitability.
Topics: Productivity, Property Management, Accounting, Tips, Advice, Reporting, Trends
Errors are inevitable when accounting department rely heavily on manual processes. Property management companies deal with multiple accounts, hundreds to thousands of customers, vendors, and more, which can make the volume of invoices, payments, balance sheets and other accounting tasks overwhelming and difficult to complete perfectly on the first or even second try. Errors are inevitable, but unbalanced books can double the workload and stifle productivity. So, how do accounting teams avoid the seemingly unavoidable? Here are 5 tips to keep your books in order.
Topics: Productivity, Property Management, Accounting, Tips, Advice
User-generated content (UGC) is content that promotes a brand that is created independently by customers not commissioned by a company itself. UGC is created by consumers and customers who genuinely believe in a product or service. The type of content created can range anywhere from websites, blogs, photos, videos, testimonials, or social media posts.
Topics: Blog, Property Management, Marketing, Branding, Digital, Advice, Customer Satisfaction, Community
Having vacancies for too long can be bad for business, they can reduce cashflow, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. No matter how well you advertise or how well you maintain your customer relationships there will be turnover and vacancies. While it’s less than ideal, it’s not an impossible situation, here are 5 strategies to reduce the time units spend vacant.
Topics: Productivity, Technology, Property Management, Customer Service, Marketing, Branding, Business Growth, Advice, Leasing, Customer Satisfaction, Automation
Whether you call it “remote work,” “working from home,” or “telecommuting,” there is not doubt that the use of physical office spaces will decrease in favor of these alternatives. According to Global Workplace Analytics, the number of remote workers since 2005 grew 140%, and just one year, 2017 to 2018, accounted for 22% of that growth. The president of Global Workplace Analytics, Kate Lister, estimates that by 2021, approximately 25%-30% of the workforce will being working from home multiple days of the week.
Topics: Property Management, Employee Satisfaction, Engagement, Advice
There has been an unprecedented growth of cloud-based software and SaaS platforms, Gartner estimated that cloud services would grow 17.5% in 2019 and continue to grow exponentially by 28% in 2022. The monumental movement to cloud-based software may have some property management companies weighing out whether or not there is enough reason to transition from self-hosted physical servers to a cloud-based SaaS platform.
Topics: Productivity, Technology, Property Management, Customer Service, Marketing, Business Growth, Advice, Portal, Organization, Automation
Of the 2.7 billion smartphone users and additional 1.35 billion tablet users worldwide, people are spending 90% of their time on apps rather than web-browsers. By offering employees access to their property management software from a mobile app creates, companies are providing a platform that is more adaptable to both their job and lifestyle. Apps available on smart devices provide additional efficiencies to users and can also facilitate a new and improved standard of productivity.
Topics: Blog, Customer Service, Business Growth, Engagement, Advice, Reporting, Trends, Analytics
Relationships are essential in business. An organization must create a team that is reliable, they must ally with partners that are supportive, and foster loyalty with customers. Creating these relationships with key players is essential to the success of property management company. You can’t manage properties with a customer, you can’t serve customers without a team, and you can’t build your service without partners. No matter how you look at it, there is no situation where it is not important to develop and strengthen relationships.
Here are 5 ways to create longevity in your business relationships.
Topics: Property Management, Tips, Business Growth, Employee Satisfaction, Engagement, Hiring, Advice, Networking, Organization