Author Archives: Sarah Roussos

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Property Management

When you own property, you may love the fact that you own it, but aren’t sure if you should have a property manager.  That’s the question I hope to give you some information on to determine if it’s something that you’d benefit from.  Like with many things in life,  you need to have details and get facts to know if it will be a good fit for you.   For your consideration are some of the things that you need to consider if you may want to hire a property manager.

 

 

Time

Time is always something that you’re going to need to consider when entertaining the idea of getting a property manager.  It’s a question that needs to be asked from both sides of the coin.

First: Do you have the time to manage the property itself.  This will include showing it, cleaning it, fixing what needs to be fixed and any other challenges that may come with taking care of the property yourself.

Second and the flip side of the time element is will your time be better spend by having someone else take care of it.  Often times we think we’ll have time for things but in actuality we don’t or things take more time than we originally thought that they would.

If you’re time is going to be better spent elsewhere, then getting and having a property management team may be the best selection for you.

The Law 

Another area that you need to consider is the law.  What is the law concerning your responsibilities for maintaining the business (which is what renting a place is) concerning your rights and the rights of your tenants.  For example, if you decide to sell your complex, how long do you need to give your current tenants notice?

What about if they don’t pay the rent they owe.  What do you need to do to get your monies and how long do you have to wait before you evict them.  Are their any clauses that are in the contract that favor your or favor them?  If so, what if any options do you have when dealing with your tenant. What if they damage a place or are loud?  Can you just evict them, or do you need to wait until the police have been called out?

Also do you need to give them notification about when you’re going to inspect the property?  How about how long you have to fix the property if the plumbing breaks or the roof is leaking?  These are things that you’re going to need to be aware of if you’re going to be renting property.

Rent

You don’t have a rental property just for the fun of it, so have you consider how much the rent you’re going to charge?  If you don’t, do you know how to go about what you should charge?  What would be the fair asking price for your rental property, be it an office building or a residence?  For that matter, what determines what a fair price is?  These are just some of the questions that you need to have answers for if you’re going to take care of the property yourself.

 

 

Tenants

Have you decided how you’re going to screen to find the proper tenants for your business complex, home or apartment complex.  Not everyone will qualify if your selective at all.  Consider that there are specific income to rent ratios that have to be determined.  You can’t have 1/2 of ones wages be used for rent, or you’re guaranteed that you’re not going to get or rent.   Which also means that you’re going to need to confirm their employment and wages.

 

 

If your renting an apartment complex or mobile home complex and children live there, you’re going to be needing to do background checks.  Are you prepared for what you’ll find out and are you charging the correct amount for those checks.

There’s More

While this concludes this particular blog, if you’re feeling overwhelmed from reading what little is here, consider that a property management company is going to be the best way for you to go.  Not everything or even close to it was covered here.  The point was to give you an idea of what was involved with managing your own property, so that you can decide if it’s something that you can handle.  Everyone is different so some will say it’s simple, while others will know that they need a property management company.

 

 

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Marketing

Marketing used to be something really simple.  You make a commercial, write an ad, put up a billboard and call it a day.  That’s no longer the case with the development of the internet.  That’s not shock, but if you have no awareness of what you need to be versatile in, then you may be shocked and you many not understand why your business isn’t blooming like it should be.  Internet marketing strategies aren’t optional anymore, you have to be aware of them.  If you’re not a marketing expert, you’ll need to get one.
Here are some examples of things that you need to be versatile in where you’re business is concerned, beyond that fantastic product and great customer service.
Website!
Your website is your what your front doors used to be.  It’s what represents your company to everyone passing by on the internet.  It’s what makes them stay and shop for your product, or move on down to the next company that sells toys!  Your website is what makes you set apart form the rest of the pack.  If you have a great website, when you’re customer lands on it, they’re going to feel like they’re home.  They want to stay with you and not go anywhere else.  Your website is the same as your being dressed in fine clothes or wearing a bathing suit when someone walks in your business.
Glad LABS
Not only does your website have to be good from someone’s laptop or desk top, but it has to be responsive to cell phones.  What that means is that you have to have your website be able to adjust and make the needed changes for viewing when it’s on a cell phone verse on a desktop or lap top.

Social Media!

Social media is what coffee shops used to be.  Coffee shops used to be where you’d go and talk to people and in the process of a cup of coffee find out what they liked and didn’t like.  What was the best place in town to get advertising for your job?  What is the best place for toys?  Now you go to social media and you throw your question out there.

 

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Even if you don’t know what company’s are social media, you know them.  You’ve heard of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and a never ending list of social media sites.   Social media is where people now meet and greet and let everyone know what they think about everything, including how a company is doing.  If you’re not on social media, you’re missing a huge market!

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the fancy name for internet marketing.  It’s the umbrella term that includes such things as Growth Hacking, Social Media, Marketing and Reputation management.  SEO takes you from being lost among millions, to being on the front page with the big boys.  It’s the difference in 300 a month and 1000’s a month.  If you’re not making what you want to be making, you need SEO.

Looking up at a computerized stocks-value board at the Philippine Stock Exchange

Marketing Strategy!
Where are you going?  What’s your target market?  What impact do you want to have?  Where do you see your business in 10 years?  These are all questions that a marketing strategist asks when they first come on board.  They are the ones that can invision where you are, but more importantly where you can be.  They not only can invision it, but they have the ability to get you there.
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Part of the talent that comes with being a strategist is their ability to know when doing something that is counter-intuitive is actually the correct thing to do.  A strategist doesn’t understand the concept of a box, let alone being in one.  They are a unique breed that most people can’t begin to understand, but they are critical to your business growing, developing and being their in 10 years.
All Of Them!
The answer to your next question is all of them!  That’s right, if you’re company is going to grow you are going to need all of these people in your business.  That’s especially tough in the beginning, when your company is a mom and pop type of store, but they are all needed.  You can look at what you have and what  you’re going to need to determine what is first, and move from there.  You can do it!  It is possible!  Just take your first step and before you know it,  you’ll be flying!!!
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Success In Business

When someone starts a business, it’s never their intent that it fails.  If you consider that  you were going to fail and that would be the outcome, you never ever would have started to begin with.  Realize that 8 out of 10 business fail in the first 5 years.  So what does that mean for you and what can you do about it?

 

dancing ant

 

Multiple Assaults

Starting a business should be handle much like when a country goes to war.  The generals never just go into the battle and guess what they’re going to do, they have gone to school, studied, learned their enemy and strategized.  So when they go on a mission, they know what they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it.  They know when airstrikes are going to happen, when ground troops are going in, and when to set up a M.A.S.H unit.  Because the realty of war is death and injuries.  They don’t go in half hearted to fight, it’s a full on assault.

They same has to be true for you and your new business.  You need to study!  Yes, you need to do your homework.  You need to study the enemy (your competition) and find out what he/she does well, but also what they do poorly.  You need to have a M.A.S.H. unit.  That is, you need to have your plan in place for when things don’t work the way you planned.  For example, if sales don’t come when you think they will; have resources lined up so that you don’t have to close your doors, have your car repo’d and you don’t have to lose your home.  You have got that plan in place.

Your Arsenal!

Like an army, your arsenal has to be in place.  Do you have your SEO agency in New York in place?  So that your name and your company is getting out there?  Do you have your social media marketing agency set up, so that you can get onto the social media sites and get your name out there for you.  So that when they see that little red ant, they think of you?  Are you online at all?  Do you have  your website designed and user friendly?  Is your website designed in such a way that it’s responsive to cell phones.

Is your arsenal ready?

 

 

Your Product!

The product that you’re choosing to merchandise is important.  You can have all of your ducks in a row, but have a terrible product and it never fly.  If you are one of 20 restaurants on a corner,  then it’s not necessarily how good your food is, but your location.  Are you one of 5 dentists in a strip mall?  If so, you’re going to have a hard time getting new customers over the other 4 businesses that are in your neighborhood.  Worse, is there a genuine need for what you have and what you do?  Are you feeling a void that currently exists.  This is why Microsoft worked so well.  Not only did they fill a void, but they created a need that we didn’t even know existed.  Now you can’t imagine not having a computer, let alone talking with someone around the world!

Is your product needed?

YOU Can’t Live!

That’s right, YOU can’t live without being in business for yourself.  This is a must above everything else.  Why?  Because you’re going to be working seven days a week.  You’re not going to see your family.  You’re going to miss important events.  You’re going to work late into the night and then turn around and get up early in the morning.  It’s all part of the unspoken cost of starting a business and making it work for at the very least, the first 5 years of it’s existence.  Then you might be able to start cutting back on hours…maybe.

Are You Ready?

That’s the question that remains; are YOU ready?  It’s a time of blood, sweet and tears.  It’s a time when you have a lot to loose, but you also have a lot to gain.  So do those around you, those that you live with…your family.  It’s a hard road, but if you succed…well there’s nothing better!  Ask Bill Gates!