DGS 249: Every Property Management Entrepreneur Needs an Assistant
Description
Property management business owner, do you have an assistant? We’ve talked before about how important it is to build a team around you and get support as an entrepreneur.
In today’s episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts, Jason and Sarah Hull discuss why property management entrepreneurs need to hire an assistant for themselves.
You’ll Learn
[01:14 ] The Most Important Hire in Your PM Business
[02:41 ] How to Get a Really Good Assistant
[04:57 ] Two Types of Team Members
[06:42 ] When Should I Get an Assistant?
[08:17 ] Benefits of Having an Assistant
Tweetables
“I think the very first person that somebody should hire. is an assistant.”
“If you continue to build the team around the business, you will end up more and more miserable instead of helping yourself more and more, which actually makes you a lot more money.”
“Nobody's good at being two or three different types of people.”
“I've seen business owners have team members that they've gotten assistants for and they don't have an assistant for themselves.”
Resources
Transcript
[00:00:00 ] Jason: I've seen business owners have team members that they've gotten assistants for and they don't have an assistant for themselves.
[00:00:07 ] That always just drives me crazy because it's so obvious that there's a problem there.
[00:00:13 ] Jason: Welcome DoorGrow property managers to the DoorGrow show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you're interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently then you are a DoorGrow property manager. DoorGrow property managers, love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings.
[00:00:40 ] Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. We're your hosts, property management growth experts, Jason and Sarah Hull. And let's get into the show. All right.
[00:01:13 ] So today we're going to be talking about assistants, right?
[00:01:16 ] Sarah: Yes. Why don't you have help yet? Okay.
[00:01:20 ] Jason: So one of the challenges that we've noticed with our clients and with other property managers is that a lot of times they don't have an assistant for themselves. And so they'll have some team members even, but they won't have an assistant that supports them.
[00:01:36 ] And I think this is a common trap entrepreneurs fall into. I think the very first person that somebody should hire. is an assistant. You start getting yourself some help instead of just helping the business. And if you continue to build the team around the business, you will end up more and more miserable instead of helping yourself more and more, which actually makes you a lot more money.
[00:01:58 ] That's like everything in a nutshell.
[00:02:00 ] Sarah: There you go. We're done. There we go. We can wrap up. Have a great day. So get an assistant.
[00:02:03 ] Jason: Goodbye. Alright.
[00:02:04 ] Sarah: Madi will edit this one and she'll be like, "oh wow, that was so fast."
[00:02:07 ] Jason: "Wow, that was the shortest one ever." Kidding! So let's talk about this. I have an assistant.
[00:02:12 ] Giselle's sort of your assistant. I think. Somewhat. Operationally? No, you don't think so? Okay. All right.
[00:02:18 ] Sarah: She's really good at really anything because she asks people on the team and she's like, "Hey, is there anything you need help with this week?" She always usually messages me at the beginning of the week and she says, "Hey, is there like anything I should be aware of or any special projects that you need me to work on this week?"
[00:02:34 ] And sometimes I can't think of anything until later. And then I go, "Oh, you can help me with this." And she's like, "great. I'm on it."
[00:02:41 ] Jason: So how do we get people really good assistants? Well, we have them do one of our DoorGrow time studies to figure out which things are energetically their plus signs and which things are their minus signs.
[00:02:51 ] And then we build out a job description, but it needs to be one personality type, not two or three different personalities that like that human being doesn't really exist.
[00:03:01 ] Sarah: And if they do, they're hard.
[00:03:03 ] Jason: There's people that can do everything.
[00:03:04 ] Sarah: They have like multiple personalities in one.
[00:03:07 ] Jason: Yeah.
[00:03:08 ] Sarah: Let's think about it if we want to hire them.
[00:03:09 ] Jason: No, we don't. We don't want that person. We want somebody that's good. At being one person, right? Like in, because nobody's good at being two or three different types of people. Right. You're not going to have somebody that's like, "man, I'm the salesiest person ever and super salesy. And Oh yeah, I'm a really brilliant detail oriented operator."
[00:03:27 ] Like it's just, for example, so we need to get you your ultimate assistant. We also then like to figure out your personality, figure out who you are. So when we get into our DoorGrow hiring, and if you need help with hiring, reach out to DoorGrow, we have a really great hiring system called DoorGrow hiring, and it's going to cost you a lot less money than working with a placement agency where they charge thousands of dollars and you'll probably get better results.
[00:03:48 ] Not probably. You'll get better results typically because their job is just to get somebody into your office and get paid. But we assess people, we make sure they're the right personality fit. We help you make sure you have the right culture fit and the right skill fit, which I've talked about many times, the three fits.
[00:04:06 ] So, I've had lots of assistants over the years. Lots. I've had some really amazing ones. I've had some okay ones. I haven't really had, well, I guess I've had a few like bad ones as well, right? So I've had lots and lots of assistants. And what I usually look for in hiring an assistant is I need somebody that I can trust their judgment and their intelligence to do things so that I don't have to do it. Right. And so my assistant Mar, she's better at several things than I would be. She has more patience. She's willing to like get frustrated at people if need be to like get things handled, whatever it takes.
[00:04:46 ] I think it's really important. A lot of people think, "well, I'll go get a VA and I'll go get some low dollar, low wage, cheap sort of worker in Mexico or the Philippines, and that'll be my first assistant."
[00:04:57 ] So there's two types of people you're going to hire in your business. Some are people as process. People as process are basically like people you hired that function like a robot. Just do what I tell you to do. Don't get cute. Don't be clever. Just follow the checklist.
[00:05:10 ] That's not a great assistant. It's not really a good assistant to have because you're going to have to do all the thinking for them and then give them tasks and you, then you're gonna have to show them exactly how to do every task and that's going to be really frustrating for you. That's not the ideal assistant.
[00:05:25 ] So then there are people that are thinkers or decision makers that you can trust to make decisions without you and to make judgments. And so that's the type of assistant that you want. You want somebody that is intelligent. Intelligence is the big differentiator here. And you can tell when you're talking with people, are they bright?
[00:05:46 ] Are they quick? Would you trust them to do things over you on the things that you're going to give them to do because they're better at those things? So you want to hire people that are intelligent, not people that just can follow tasks That's not going to be a really good assistant for you. Now later on if you do have some low level work or tasks in the business that you just want to offload, you can hire some people as process we have people on our team that are people as process.
[00:06:11 ] They follow things. They do the same sort of work each time. They're not really involved in making a lot of decisions in the business. They don't come to our weekly meetings. They don't come to our monthly meeting, planning m
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