Terri Euchner's Blog

MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Management of people can really be a tricky thing.  No matter how long you have been managing, the tips below can help to assist you in becoming a good leader or help refresh your management styles.

“12-Step Program” for the Multifamily Housing Industry

1. Streamline Business Practices.

This is an opportune time to review your business procedures for effectiveness. Consider areas that can be combined into one or structured differently to reduce costs. Think about sharing resources, like administrative or payroll work, with other team members to reduce overhead. The goal is to streamline operation, so you can still provide a quality product or service, yet realize a greater profit by reducing the expenses to produce it.

2. Work Smarter.

As a successful company, you know you have to work smart to maximize business potential. But are you using the latest advances in technology to their potential? Look at all areas of business operation where you can cut waste or work faster and better by investing in automation software, new equipment, or web based applications.

3. Customer Appreciation.

Remember that your customers are going through a tough time, too. In order to retain their business, implement measures to express your appreciation. This could be a one-time price reduction, a customer commitment card, or a different kind of referral incentive. Whatever the strategy may be, it should be something of value to the customer and within your marketing budget.

I am issuing three main challenges to all of you today, I call it “GAB.”  We can all impact our business in a big way by focusing more time and attention on these three concepts:

 Growth-The primary measure of our success is our ability to consistently grow our profits.  Many opportunities exist today and most of these are with our current residents and clients.  These customers want us to deliver quality and value for their rental dollars, and continue to build, acquire, and keep clean, manicured quality communities.  We must listen to our customers, understand their needs and wants, and provide more of the service they desire.  As we do this, we will discover the vehicles that provide growth beyond today’s base business.  This growth will in turn provide personal growth opportunities for all team members.  This growth helps lead us to our goal:

 To be a leading player in our marketplace.

I started in Property Management thinking it would just be “employment to pay the bills until I found a real job.”  Twenty eight years later, I owned a property management company and then became a consultant, trainer and speaker.

If you look on the Web for a definition of property management, this is what you will find:  The range of functions concerned with looking after buildings, including collection of rents, payment of outgoings, maintenance including repair, provision of services, insurance and supervision of staff employed for services, together with negotiations with residents or prospective residents. The extent of and responsibility for management between landlord and resident depend on terms of the lease(s). The landlord may delegate some or all of these functions to managing agents.  However, it is so much more!

One of my friends and industry partners here in Phoenix asked me to speak about achieving excellence in sales relationships at one of the monthly vendor meetings.  It seemed that since we had fallen on tough times, many were feeling abandoned by their customers and it seemed no loyalty existed any longer.  I put together 12 reminders not lose sight of during the good times or the bad times.

1)      Good salespeople bring positive energy to a relationship.  We can choose to be energy givers or energy takers.

2)      Trust hinges on the willingness to deliver on promises.  Once trust is lost, relationships cannot survive.

“Life is like a grindstone--whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you're made of.” Unknown

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just click our heels together three times and repeat “There’s no place like 2006, there’s no place like 2006, there’s no place like 2006…. 

Well, here we are almost to the end of the first quarter of 2011.  Many of you made your usual New Year resolutions and two weeks into it, found that it was not at all what it was cracked up to be.  This is most likely because we make idealistic goals for ourselves.  Resolutions should be sensible and attainable, with reach.  So let’s look at where we are now and make adjustments before we move into the second quarter:

·         Be realistic by setting achievable goals.  Winning the lottery, for example, is out of your grasp!