Get Over the Getting Started Hump: Grow Your Rental Property Management Business

You're ready to make the leap. This year, you're planning to make your rental property management business bigger and better. When you're planning to step up to a new level, what strategies can you use to get yourself over the startup hump and become an established, respected, and well-structured business?

Go for a Professional Website

Create a site that truly reflects who your rental property management company is, and more importantly, who you aspire to be. Your website should look professional, with a logo and colors that reflect your company's branding. According to Entrepreneur, looks matter: "Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store, your site may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer."

When applying that thought to a property management business it's important to consider the impression your website will have on potential renters and owners. The site needs to have SEO that easily draws people in, with keywords that are also targeted to local traffic. Once you have a professional site, look at how you can add to your site's success by creating blogs, ebooks, and other inbound marketing tools.

Upgrade Your Documentation

While a tiny company may get by using spreadsheets and the institutional memory of its employees, you need a better way to document if you want to grow.

According to Inc, documentation will not only help standardize your processes, "two huge reasons to document processes for your own business are:
1. Your employees go on vacation and you need to pick up the pieces for what they do when they're not around.
2. Your employees will leave your company and you'll be left holding their bag and you don't know what's in it."

From financial documentation to property inspections, you need to be able to file, save, analyze, and report on the information that you've gathered about your properties. Tenants and owners also need to know what's going on at their property, and they appreciate it when you create venues such as tenant portals that help them see all of the information about the property in one place.

Track Your Processes

Developing and tracking your processes is an essential part of growing up as a company. From monthly, seasonal, and annual maintenance regimes to documented inspections and move-in, move-out processes, you need to have systems in place to get the data that you require to properly manage your business. Manage work orders and vendors from a single location using software that allows you to easily track projects and processes.

Value Your Property Management Business Relationships

As a small business that's trying to grow, you don't just want to focus on who you want to draw into your business. You need to focus on who you have right now. Whether it's checking in with your vendors and reaffirming they're the right fit for your business or creating an annual thank you gift or discount program for loyal tenants, create ways to value your relationships. This will help your business establish a positive reputation as you grow, and you'll need to spend less time looking for new owners, vendors, and tenants since you'll have established excellent relationships with your existing ones.

“We wouldn’t be the company we are without Propertyware… it allows us (with only 2 people) to manage the entire business” – Jeff Shelton / 3rd Base Realty

When you're a small rental property management business, you can accomplish a lot through interpersonal connections and spreadsheets that help you organize your work. As you grow, you need to reach further into your community and upgrade your business processes and technology support. Making this move will help you achieve the business growth that you desire. Interested in upgrading this year? Contact Propertyware and sign up for a free tour today.