DGS 256: Mindset Hack: You Don't Have a Property Management Business
Description
If you have a property management business, and you struggle in a particular area, you might benefit from a small mindset tweak.
In today’s episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull talks briefly about figuring out what you need to focus on in your business.
You’ll Learn
[02:25 ] You might not actually have a PM business
[05:48 ] Getting clarity on the 6 core functions
[09:35 ] What should you be focused on in your business?
[12:18 ] Figure out what you have been neglecting
Tweetables
“If you're doing long-term management, I want you to ask yourself the question, "What business am I really in?"
“You have to do what the business needs most, regardless of the customer.”
“If you don't have a good planning system… you will always be focused somewhat on the wrong things.”
“If you understand the game of business, it's always changing.”
Resources
Transcript
[00:00:00 ] Jason: So you need to realize what business are you actually in right now? And a lot of times it's not the one you're focused on in this moment.
[00:00:08 ] 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 are 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. 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.
[00:00:53 ] 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 Hall, the owners of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show.
[00:01:12 ] So today you may notice in the background, I'm in a little bit different of a place. I am at an Airbnb. This is my Airbnb. So this is a rental property. And so we got an Airbnb at DoorGrow so that we could have client events. And bring clients in and do some little, small group things, masterminding things.
[00:01:33 ] And so I'm now experiencing what it's like to have a short term rental. And some of the challenges with that and the challenges with getting a management company to manage it and making sure our concerns are met. So i'm seeing all the different sides of this which is interesting. And some of you are old hats at this like you have way more experience than me at this stuff. So if you have tips, cool.
[00:01:56 ] Send me a DM and say, "here are the best tips about short term rentals." So what I've learned is it's primarily a cleaning game. Like this is one of the big things. It's about cleaning. It's about making sure you have a good cleaner. You have a good inventory. I want to point this out.
[00:02:13 ] So what I think is really interesting is that a lot of times we think we're in a particular business and we think that the goal of this business is a particular thing, but if we're smart, we eventually figure out we're in a different business. And shout out to Alex Hormozi. I watched one of his videos the other day and we were in mastermind together before, and he's a brilliant guy. Like I love learning from him. One of the things that that I learned recently that I thought it was really interesting is that a lot of times we think we're in a particular business, but we're actually, if we learn the game, we're in a different business. So he shared an example where there was a business owner that was focused on a particular business and they had plenty of sales, plenty of leads coming in. It was easy for them to get business. And he was like, "well, then what's your biggest challenge?"
[00:03:01 ] And he said, it's talent. It's like getting the right people. And I think this is very related to short term rentals. I think short term rentals are very much like this. I think the idea is most think that you're in a rental property business if you manage short term rentals, and you may need to get rental properties to manage for sure.
[00:03:20 ] That could be a little bit of a challenge, but I think there's a lot of short term rentals out there and a lot of them do not enjoy the high pace of turnover, doing all the laundry, having to get good cleaners. The challenge, really the biggest challenge I think from my perspective so far is this is really largely a cleaning business.
[00:03:43 ] It's about the cleaners and it's not just about cleaning or a cleaning business. It's largely about good talent and getting talent. So it's really a talent acquisition business. It's a hiring business. Being able to get really good team members and build out a cleaning business because you need control over it. When you're doing a third party, there's gonna be a lot of markup.
[00:04:05 ] You can't control the outcomes or the output, then you're like having to switch companies all the time I talked to a guy the other day with 50 short term rentals and they said they've got one company. It's really good. They do everything well, and the other company sucks and they said they have gone through five different companies already just to find the one that's okay and somewhat mediocre and they have one good one.
[00:04:27 ] And so I said, "you have that many rentals and that much cleaning going on. You really need to start your own cleaning company." And so one, they don't realize they think they're a property management company, but really what they need to become, what's holding them back in progress right now is because they feel they could get more rentals. Like that's not an issue. It's cleaning. They really are in the cleaning business. And then once you build this cleaning business, you realize, "well, I'm not really in the cleaning business." Once you have a cleaning business, "what business I'm really in is talent acquisition. I'm in the talent acquisition business."
[00:05:02 ] I have to find the right talent or the right people, so I'm really a hiring or an HR organization is the bigger challenge. And so that's really the business that you're in. Right. And so we need to pay attention. So if you're doing long term management, I want you to ask yourself the question, "what business am I really in?"
[00:05:20 ] And it might be the thing that is the most difficult for you right now. It might be your team. You think you're in the property management business, but you're lacking leads. That's the weakest area of your business right now is getting more leads. So that means your business really, if you really get honest, your business needs to be a lead generation business. That's really what your business is. It's all about lead generation and you're distracted by keeping it a property management business. So if you imagine these six core functions I've talked about before search six core functions and DoorGrow on YouTube, you can find one of my podcast episodes about it.
[00:05:57 ] If you look at these and the six core functions real quick are lead gen, nurture, conversion, delivery, lifetime value, and financials. What I see a lot is people will be like, "man, I need more leads, I need more leads." And if we were to rank all these different functions on a scale of one to five, then usually what they'll see is that delivery and fulfillment is a four or a five. You're like really focused on property management, like doing delivery, making sure you're doing leasing and maintenance and inspections, all this, and you're doing a great job. But lead gen, then you would rate as a one like being worst, right? And you're not getting leads.
[00:06:34 ] I see this a lot. And so you're so focused, "I have a property management business, so I always need to be perfect in property management, but I'm starving and I'm not getting more business because lead generation really is weak." I want you to imagine each of these functions as if it's one of your children, and what you're doing is stupidly feeding and keeping this one child super fat while your other one is emaciated and like starving and looks like a skeleton and is begging for food from you.
[00:07:05 ] And you're like, "well, I gotta keep giving this one the food, because they're my favorite. They're the one I'm focused on right now." That's not healthy decision making is a business owner. You have to do what the business needs most, regardless of the customer. You have to do what the business needs most.
[00:07:21 ] And if you do a better job at doing what the business nee