PM Collective - The ART of property management
The ART of property management with Ashleigh Goodchild is a leading platform supporting collaboration not competition through an online community and events throughout the year with one purpose: to create happier property managers. She creates connections for property managers looking to create momentum in their careers and personal life. Join Ashleigh and her guests as they discuss challenges, struggles, mental health, mindset and give advice to property managers and anyone in the industry. To get the support in your property management career, join our PM Collective Facebook and Instagram community.
PM Collective - The ART of property management
Maximizing Efficiency in Property Management: Adopting a Business Owner Mindset with Joe Shannon
What does it take to truly excel in the property management industry? How can adopting a business owner mindset change the game for property managers and real estate professionals? Join us in this eye-opening conversation with Joe Shannon from the Efficiency Co., where we uncover the answers to these questions and more.
Joe shares his wealth of knowledge on streamlining operational efficiency for real estate agencies, implementing technology to improve property management processes, and the significance of property managers understanding their worth. We dive into the concept of servant leadership and its application in the property management industry, discussing the importance of honesty, transparency, and providing guidance and support to help staff succeed. Additionally, we explore the idea of staff efficiency, designing ideal roles for team members, and the benefits of outsourcing and implementing time budgets.
Don't miss out on this episode packed with actionable advice for property managers, business owners, and real estate professionals looking to elevate their careers and maximize their efficiency. Listen in and let Joe's expertise guide you in transforming your approach to property management, unlocking your full potential in the industry.
You can find out more by speaking to Joseph Shannon on 0403 681 771 or email
joe@theefficiencyco.com.au
PM COLLECTIVE - GUIDE AND SHAPE AN ENJOYABLE FUTURE
We believe in making industry-leading education and support accessible to everyone. Our community is packed with free resources, expert insights, and innovative training designed to help business owners, property managers, and BDMs thrive.
This podcast is kindly sponsored by The Efficiency Co.
We are a dedicated consultancy, training, and support partner for innovative real estate organisations.
Specialising in agency operations, team development and technology integration, we provide the insight, support, and training to maximise your performance.
Our toolbox includes 1:1 Coaching for industry pros, 1:1 Personal Strategy Sessions, Team Engagement Workshops and Bespoke Agency Consultation
Welcome to the PM Collective, a dynamic hub designed to empower business owners, property managers and BDMs to excel in their careers Through access to intimate conversations, cutting edge of video training, mental health support and unparalleled motivation. our community is the ultimate destination for individuals seeking to elevate their professional lives to new heights. So sit back, relax and enjoy our next conversation on our weekly podcast, the Art of Property Management. So today I am with Joe Shannon from the Efficiency Co. Joe, welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, hi, how are you going? Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1:So I am a big fan of yours. I have had you help me. for those that don't know the Efficiency Co, he is pretty clever in most facets, i would say, of any technology and prop tech in the property management world. Joe, do you want to give us a little bit of an intro on your business, just to educate the audience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Look, i heard you mentioned me a couple of times on your podcast. So first of all, thank you, I do appreciate it. I've got a bit of a twofold business. So my kind of to wrap it up, i streamline operational efficiency for real estate agencies, focusing on property management, but also in sales, also in management as well. I do kind of a twofold approach, so mostly around coaching and consulting for agency leaders, like team restructures, how to onboard new team members, how to kind of make your operations a bit more efficient. And then I have a major piece to do with technology. So I implement technology like Console, cloud, rex, inspector, real Estate, just to name a few. I partner with them, come out, implement it into your systems, build out some bespoke resources for you and then away you go. I can train your team, coach your team and kind of streamline everything from there.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So I know you're a business that, like a lot of people, don't know that there is people like yourself out there, so it's definitely an education piece for anyone that's going through a bit of it, implementing a new system, or needs that support. Joe is definitely someone who can make the process a lot less daunting And I'll give you some feedback actually on air, because you just recently did the IRE BDM campaigns for me And you basically went through and set up their campaigns, wrote it and actually put it in the back end of the system for me And I can tell you that they are actually working so well. I haven't called you to let you know yet, but I'm probably getting from those like the day seven, you know, day 30, day 60 campaigns going through. The people are getting them that I haven't spoken to say for a month And they're replying back saying thanks so much for the info. Actually, by the way, can you also check this property for me? So that communication piece is ongoing with the clients that I actually don't even remember speaking to them in the first place, that they're getting these campaign emails through. So I think you set me up for like a 12 month campaign Yeah, free, and it's definitely made a big difference And I would highly, highly recommend IRE, bdm campaigns if you haven't And I've referred you to a few people as well, like people that were just plotting along to do it, and I said, oh my God, like don't, don't just like casually, you know, get to it.
Speaker 1:When you get to it, just call Joe and he'll do it with you, you know, a couple of weeks before you're done. So it's been very, very helpful.
Speaker 2:That's such good feedback. Yeah, the 12 month campaigns are brilliant, so I'm rolling them out within the month. People can jump online and just download those campaigns and self-implement, or I can come and do exactly what I did for you implement them into your agency, train your team and away you go.
Speaker 1:And are you faced just in WA or are you working with clients all over Australia?
Speaker 2:All over Australia. Come to wherever you need me to go to, including regionals. I was just up in Geraldton for the last two weeks with a large agency up there. Beautiful drive, i'll tell you that much, not so much at seven o'clock at night. So if you need me to come somewhere, i'll probably be flying, That's for sure.
Speaker 1:You could have flown to Geraldton.
Speaker 2:I know, i know, hey Fine sight.
Speaker 1:Next slide Exactly Now. You and I have had some really good conversations about this topic we are going to discuss today And I am excited just for people to have a bit of an inside peek as to what we've been talking about and what really interests us, and that is property managers not having a business owner mindset. It's a real problem and something that you and I are very, very passionate about. So I will start off by saying that I feel sometimes a little bit frustrated from a property manager point of view And I'm sure that there'll be business owners out there who can resonate with this but also property managers out there that maybe didn't just think. They didn't think about it And it's not part of their wiring to process the business side of things to their actual roles.
Speaker 1:So to give everyone an example of what you and I discuss is routine inspections.
Speaker 1:So your agency might charge let's just throw it out there and say $60 for a routine inspection But you as a property manager just go out and do the routine inspection without a thought And that routine inspection could be taking you potentially an hour to do. Let's just use this as an example. Have a think about how much that is costing the owner how much that is costing the business owner for you to do that inspection if you are only charging a rate of $66. And the thought of is this viable to the business? Is it taking too long? Are you taking too long Or is there an efficiency issue? And I think that property managers should keep it in mind of how long they're taking to do tasks, how much the business is charging the clients and really working out whether it's viable for the business or giving the business owner feedback as maybe it's. Listen, our efficiencies aren't that good And I think we could do a bit quicker to make it more profitable for the business. So, peter, let me know what you see in your thoughts on that topic.
Speaker 2:Totally agree. When we look at efficiency and efficiency is one of those things A lot of people throw it out there but they don't necessarily know what it means And a very, very quick synopsis of it is lower input to get maximum output. And there was someone Peter Drucker did an incredible quote an effectiveness is doing things right and efficiency is doing the right things, and I think that that kind of sums everything up. When we're talking about those routine inspections, for example, taking an hour for a property manager to do a routine might very well actually not be viable for the agency. So there could be a very quick question of should we outsource it? Is it going to be more viable to outsource? But a lot of property managers aren't empowered enough to bring that kind of conversation to the table. They just let the director or the licensee tell them where to go and what to do.
Speaker 2:And I think kind of what you and I both so passionate about is empowering property managers and business owners to then empower their PMs to think like a business owner. And at the end of the day, you're running a mini business within a business, right, and that's what we're doing. If you're running around 100 properties on a portfolio, maybe a little bit more. You're looking after $150, $200,000 worth of an asset for that agency at a very minimum. So you have to think like a business owner and things are taking more time than think of ways around that and how to streamline that process.
Speaker 2:So a lot of people bring technology into the mix, don't they? Either way, the first thing they do is go what app can we do to make it go faster? But sometimes an app isn't going to solve your problem if it's not streamlined, it's not integrated and it's not implemented properly. Have you ever had an app, ash, where I know you probably would have? I know I have where you've put something in place thinking it'll go a lot quicker and a lot smoother, and it actually takes a lot more time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's it. And you give it three months, because that's what you meant to give on your programs three months, and then by the time you finish in three months, it's just really not much of a difference.
Speaker 2:So that's what I mean when it comes back down to the property managers empowerment and PMs are Extremely savvy of business and sometimes without even knowing that they are, they're brilliant at managing a rent role, and managing a rent Roll is not, as is similar as what we might think to managing a business. So if we start to empower our property managers to actually think like a business owner, think about the operations, the strategy, the vision and the mission For their miniature business within a business, i think the overall business owner is going to get better gains from those PMs, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, i mean. And a property condition report is a real classic one, because I see People talk about how it might take them. One person might take one hour, another person that might take them five hours. So next time you're doing your property condition report and it takes you four hours or five hours, have a little think about what your hourly rate is and how much is being charged to the client for that to be done, and just Work out. Do you think that that is viable or is there a problem? because my next question to you was going to be How do you know when you're being inefficient? Like, how does someone know that they're inefficient unless someone tells them you're being slow?
Speaker 2:So personally, like if it's a person that's sitting there and they think they're being efficient, it is. It sounds a little bit cliche and it sounds a little bit stupid to say, but if you have enough time at the end of your day to pack up when you're meant to leave and you actually Feel like you're on top of everything and you're not stressed and overwhelmed, chances are you're being efficient in your day-to-day job. If you pack up and you are still very stressed and overwhelmed and anxious about what you've done that day and how long It's taking you to do those things and what maybe you have planned for the next day, chances are you could do something to improve your efficiency.
Speaker 1:You're probably Targeting 99.99% of people like that and I and I you know you and I speak very honestly. So this is please no offense to anyone that's listening at all, but I feel that quite often the first thing that people will Will say is I'm overworked, i have too much responsibility, i have too much as and deflect that on Somebody else, like potentially their boss, and not look at themselves and go maybe I'm being inefficient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i think a lot of people are very and this is more generally across the board, every industry wise. I think a lot of people in this day and age are very quick to assume that the employer is there to solve every single problem and to make Their life easy and happy to go to work. And it is in part, don't get me wrong. It's definitely the employers job to make sure that their stuff is happy and has the right tools and resources. But we have to take a bit of personal responsibility And in a role like property management and a role like real estate, that is kind of crucial to actually having a productive time at work. If you were to look at a sales rep, for example and I'm very big on this you would have seen on our last podcast I mentioned I'm renting sunset. I still have the same thought, the same philosophy sales reps go out and they write their own paycheck. That's, that's kind of the main part of their role. That's what brings people into the sales industry is what they do today is going to generate them an income for tomorrow and the day after.
Speaker 2:And property management we generally get a salary. So when we get a salary we can become a little bit more complacent. We can then try to wait for someone else to give me something to do or wait for someone else to make my job easier. But I think it's really important for property managers to think more like maybe a sales rep or maybe like a business owner, and go No, what can I do today to make my life easier and to make more money for the business? But it comes both ways right. You can't expect a salaryed property manager who's sitting there on a normal salary To think like a business owner, so you have to have some sort of incentive that ties into productivity, kpis, whatever that might be, in order to actually incentivize working better, faster and harder. So I think it's just a little bit of both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i love the mention of that personal responsibility and I think there could be a lot more of that happening in the industry. And there is nothing wrong with a property manager employee helping the business, make money, helping the business owner, because unless you actually report back to them and say, listen, this is what I'm noticing. Does this sound right? Does that sound like I'm taking too long, like they're really important discussions to have with your boss, and I don't know many people that are having them.
Speaker 2:No, put it this way How many property managers out there And I'd love maybe we could do a poll or something, Ash how many property managers out there know how much money or turnover your revenue, your portfolio made last month We're recording this when 30th of May. How much did your portfolio make this month in both management fees and ancillary fees?
Speaker 1:So my team know and I guess there's a lot of people out there that are scared for the team to know that. But yeah, my team would know how much their portfolio makes and how we allocate their wage to that portfolio as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've wrote. So many business owners are scared. I've gone out and spoken to about 20 business owners in the last six months.
Speaker 2:Part of my role is to go out to a bit of consulting and coaching for the business owner in order to just streamline things that are currently happening tech-wise or not tech.
Speaker 2:For example, last couple of weeks I restructured a department, changed some roles around in order to make it more efficient, and one of the biggest things that I kind of implemented and reinforced was get your property managers to know how much they are generating in fees, how much their portfolios are actually turning over, and I've myself worked in industries or worked in agencies in Perth where they will not tell you when it's hidden, hidden information. As a property manager, you are not to know how much turnover, because then you might dare to ask for a pay rise, and I think that's the wrong mentality. Look, i've got a very nuanced way of thinking about things, i suppose. But I think every business owner in the PM space, especially when it comes to property managers, on their current salaries or whatever they are working on, they need to know how much money their portfolio is turning over, because then if they're not turning over the right amount. You've got something to kind of have a conversation about.
Speaker 1:That's right And I think you could also like a tip to business owners is you could dissect it down a little bit and just focus on one part of the property management department at a time. So I know that I had to look at our routine inspections. I know that, based on 900 properties, that there's roughly this many inspections that needs to be done per month, And I noticed that in February and March it was completely out of whack. There is nowhere near enough inspections getting done that were meant to, which meant that my team hadn't actually put you know, hadn't actually booked them in. And so I actually had that conversation with them and said listen, based on your portfolio, I'm expecting you to do 60. It was for this one portfolio. I said it was 60 routine inspections per month. I said you only put in 10 for the month. I said that means that our agency lost 50 times that many. You know that much, 50 times our routine inspection fee. And I said and that's a lot of money. So I had that conversation and told them that that's how much money we lost because they didn't book in enough.
Speaker 1:But letting them know their expectation is you'll need to do this many routine inspections per month for your portfolio. If you don't do that, it's a massive chunk to our business. So I then would have the discussion. We fixed it up, So we got all that sorted. But then we had the discussion around potentially putting in some KPIs, around making sure that was a target that was met every single month, That every month I need to see this. Many routine inspections on the portfolios were being conducted And that was one benchmark. And again, you don't like I check it as a business owner, but the property manager, she didn't mean anything malicious by it. She just had a busy month with home opens or leasing, But it is what it's at the conversation. So they know the business side.
Speaker 2:She thinks that it's a more beneficial conversation to say to someone look, this wasn't done this month And the result of that is $40,000, $20,000, $10,000 loss in revenue, rather than naughty, naughty slap on the wrist You didn't do your inspections.
Speaker 2:Because that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about actually giving a reason for the conversation versus just reprimanding somebody for not doing the job, and I think it's really important for business owners to give that level of insight back to their staff. We have to remember that although people are out there doing their job every single day, they may not see the behind mechanics of the business, so they might not have that level of buy-in to the business and the business owner vision and mission of what they actually want to achieve. So in order to get everybody kind of working together as one efficient team to generate the most fees and get the most productivity through the door and get the most sales or rentals through the door, you need to have that level of back knowledge. Every staff member needs to have that level of buy-in with the business and understand what they do has value.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and then I know, just throwing it out there, another efficiency thing that we do, and just I guess it's just something for people to keep an eye on that, even though we run different portfolios. If I'm going to be in an area like at the moment, i've got to go down to Rocky Ham this week and one of my team has a portfolio down there. When I'm down there I have said to her hey, i'm down in Rocky Ham, is there anything you need doing down there? And she said, yeah, actually I need these keys checked, done. I'll do it while I'm down there, because there's no point in her wasting two hours to go and do that trip just to check here.
Speaker 1:So, having really good communication and working together as a team, it's just little things like that that are so important. Yeah, everyone. Just it's like everyone stays in their own lane so much, and I know staying in their own lane is good, but you need to just cross over and just help someone out a little bit to create a not only an efficiency with your portfolio, but then you've got the efficiency as a team as well.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Look, I love what you've done there because it kind of I'm a quote person. if you haven't noticed, Do you know Simon Sinek at all?
Speaker 1:Love Simon Sinek.
Speaker 2:He's a brilliant, brilliant speaker and I was watching one of his presentations last week and it kind of resonated with me. And you've just given a great example. Leadership isn't something that people aspire to be. Leadership is a service that you give to your team And by you being the business owner, as a leader, going out to Rockingham, going, hey, what do you need me to do? That's showing true leadership. And I feel like there are business owners and trust me when I say I know there are business owners because I do quite a lot of training and presentation over a thousand or two people a year And the business owners that I do see in me, a lot of them have that mentality of no, no, that's the staff's job, they're going to go do it. Oh, no, that's reception's job, they're going to take the mail, or, you know, i I doesn't gel with me Put it that way- It's.
Speaker 1:You know what it's actually another topic that I'm so passionate about because, yeah, i think a lot of people put that leadership role above their employees when in actual fact it actually falls underneath because, like you know, you said it you're a it's a servant leadership role. So basically, i am working underneath my team because my team tell me what they need to work effectively and efficiently and I do it. So it's not the other way. It's not me telling them what to do, it's me, it's them telling me what they need to do their job properly. And that servant leadership I feel is is very, very important. I know I mean today is a great example, because today one of my team was really busy but she needed keys cut and I said, no, i'll run down and I'll go get the keys because I can make phone calls and do some work. You know, on the drive anyway, when I got keys cut came back So she could keep on doing and, you know, smashing her work out as well.
Speaker 1:But no one is should ever be too big to be able to do things to help their team out every single day, and every single person gets a little bit of me in a different way. Some people need me as a leader to give them a bit more time just to talk about personal stuff. Some need me to do actual practical, you know help here and there. Some need it in all different ways, don't they? And you need to be a team to know what love language and what part of you they need. But the leadership 100%.
Speaker 2:I love language, i love that It's true, though right Like. it's not like children, but it is kind of like your partner, and when you go to work, you're working with a group of people who you kind of sometimes forced into this relationship with, sometimes openly wanting to be in a relationship with. but either way, you have to be able to speak each other's language and kind of work as part of a team. that is a well oiled machine And, look, in my opinion, i'm coming from, you know, kind of a younger generation, and a younger generation's mentality is the people who are in charge need to be doing just as much work, or at least empowering the team to know why the team has to work as hard as they do. It's not the same industry anymore.
Speaker 1:Exactly And to bring it back into that whole, you know, being honest and transparent.
Speaker 1:I think that the leader, head of department, business owner role if you are on that same playing field as your team, in that you, that leadership role, is sort of, I guess, what I call horizontal management or vertical management. Having those conversations around the business is not you speaking to them as a hierarchy, it's you speaking to them on the same level of what we all need to do together to make this business profitable. It's not about what I need you to do to make me money, it's what do we need to do to make this a well oiled machine that's running efficiently, where the staff are happy and the business is making a profit. So having as a leader within the business, being on that same level so that those conversations are very easy to have and well received, as something I think is probably really really important as well, i might not go down the right way if you've got your business mentality owner sitting in his little private office backing orders where you know $2,000 is missing from, like Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, i don't know. Look, when it comes to that business owner mindset, i think it's so important for the day to day operational staff, whether it be from reception all the way through to property management, understands that there is actually a reason why we do what we do. And it sounds kind of capitalist of me, but we're here to make money, like. We're not here to do charity work, we're not. We're not here to just run a business for fun, we're here to make money. So let's bring those conversations in to the people who are actually doing the job. Let's make sure they understand why they're doing it and where the value comes from. So for me, i kind of put it into four different buckets of this conversation. The first bucket is your strategy. So, for a business owner, this is the number one thing you'll do when you create your business plan. If you haven't got a sturdy business planner, if it's in the bottom of the drawer, come and chat to me. I'm sure we can work something out. But your strategy is first and foremost right. You have to have some sort of strategy in place. So what is your vision statement? What is your mission statement look like? What is it that you want to achieve And what is your strategic positioning in the marketplace. So, for example, if you are an agency that is local and you really value those local experts, you may have a property manager in four different areas, four different suburbs altogether. Make sure your team knows that they are now the local expert of that area. It's so important to make sure you communicate that vision and they then run that vision on a day to day. They make sure everyone else knows about it. Then you need to look at your financials. So, when it comes to financials, i'm not sure exactly what it is your PMs look at, but I would be looking at your gross revenue on your rent roll, whether it be ancillary and management fees, and literally having that open, honest conversation about how is it tracking compared to last month and how is it tracking compared to this month last year. So how can we see the normal ebbs and flow of business so people can understand it's not going to be the same every month? Property managers can understand it's not going to be the same every month and they can then start to position oh well, look, i didn't do 50 inspections, so there's a massive hit to our revenue of my portfolio because of that. So next month I'm going to change something. I'm going to structure something a little bit differently. The last two are your operations and your marketing.
Speaker 2:Now, operations for me is everything from the procedures all the way through to the systems you use, and I think your staff need to have buy-in on that operation. They need to know what the structure is like, they need to know what systems and if they've listened to the out of property management podcast and they've come up with a new system that they thought of, they need to be able to mention it and say, hey guys, i found this new system, let's give it a try, let's. Let's look at Trello, let's look at Asana, let's look at these different things And, of course, it comes back down to the actual operations of the portfolio. Does the receptionist get keys out ready for the inspection manager? Does the property manager do that? Does the business development manager pass it over after managing it for the first six weeks, or do they pass it over straight away once they've listed a property? So the actual way that the business runs is really important. Everyone should have buy-in on that and have part of that conversation.
Speaker 2:And lastly, marketing, which a lot of business owners leverage their staff to do their marketing for them. So they allow them to have Instagram, linkedin, all of these different things, but they don't allow them to have their own marketing persona, which I think for me. I see this all the time. I'm scrolling through Instagram and I see somebody from XYZ Real Estate and I go well, that's not you, I know you.
Speaker 2:That's a person. You're not saying the words you usually say. I know there's a few agencies in Perth especially, where if the property manager or a sales rep has an Instagram account, it must be managed by the company And they can't then use that as their personal account. They can't promote anything. It has to be just for the company. They can't take it with them. And look, i personally disagree with that because I think everyone should be able to market and drive marketing for their agency. But hey, look, they're my four different buckets.
Speaker 1:They're the four things I put down to. I've actually yeah, i've heard of that same thing where people have got their social media that if they leave the company they don't get to keep it And it's I don't know. I agree, i don't agree with that, because you need to trust people, you need to know that they're just on a journey for a certain time and while they're on the journey with you as the employee, you wanna do everything in your best interest to help them succeed And of course, we never want staff members to leave, but they will. But to hold them by that I feel like that's not. It's not a nice cult For me. It's like, no, that's not a nice cult, like I'm probably the other end.
Speaker 1:I've had people work for me while they've been building their own property management business because they're helping me, i trust them and I wanna help them succeed. Personally, i wanna help them succeed whether it's with me or on their own. So I will look after them while they're with me and then, when they're ready to go and do their own thing, they can go to their own thing and we have a beautiful relationship doing that, and I know a lot of people probably wouldn't agree on taking it that far either. That that's the way I like to collaborate, i know.
Speaker 2:I mean collaboration, not competition, right Yeah? And when you think about it, that's what we're doing within an agency. We're collaborating with other people who are educated, They've gone and done their course. They're probably no enough to actually have part of the collaboration. So let's collaborate together to make it run better, more smoothly, more efficient and make more money.
Speaker 1:That's what we're here for Yeah, and I think that like this might sound so airy-fairy now, but by being a good, decent human being, good things come to you at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:I have a massive believer. I know that I help other officers. I help other officers in their BDM teams. I go in there, i train them. I have no problems doing that. I feel like if I give a good energy, then I will get it in return twice as much. And why people are so yeah, so I guess controlling and you know whether it's business owners, the industry, whatever.
Speaker 1:I find that it's a shame, because I feel like if you are too controlling and you hold so much back, you're really only limiting your potential as a business or as a leader, or as a business owner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely agree. If you want to limit yourself, that's fine. Just look at your ideas and no one else's.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Easiest way to do it right.
Speaker 1:And I mean to share with everyone. I know that since probably the last three years, i have done the most collaborating, the most helping other agencies, the most giving away as much information and education as I can possibly do, and I can tell you that in the last three years I have nearly doubled my portfolio from 500 to 900 properties. In that span of me giving out so much more, you know, information, education and telling everyone exactly how I bring in leads, i have increased my portfolio so much more by that energy. It's a bit of a you know a feel good story for everyone to have a little think about. If you're a bit cagey, that you know, that is really what I'm such a believer in, that.
Speaker 2:If you oh, proof is in the pudding, right, like if you're one of those business owners who goes, no, no, i'm not giving out my secret recipe, because it's my secret recipe and no one else can have it, that's fine. That'll only work for the people who hear about your secret recipe. But if you start telling everyone about it all of a sudden, everyone goes, oh, look at the ideas that this person's had. I want to be with the ideas person. So you're right, you need to be able to actually get your voice out there a bit.
Speaker 1:And I know you love a good quote, so the quote I will share with you is you can share the recipe, but the sauce tastes different. Oh, i, love that.
Speaker 2:We all love a good secret sauce.
Speaker 1:So we have to finish off. We've talked about property managers thinking with a business mindset, paying attention to how long you are taking to do things, what it's costing the business with you doing it, You know, is there room for improvement? So we've spoken about that. What could? can you finish off with sort of maybe giving me a tip for business owners? If you feel, as a business owner, that potentially you think that you're actually hot and scrapped, that, let me start that again. You've got a property manager who's feeling very overwhelmed, really not staying on top of things. You're a business owner and you think there's some real improvements they can make with efficiency, their time, their speed, et cetera. What would you recommend a business owner do to help that person without making it sound like they are, like you know, just saying you need to work faster, or you know what I mean Instead of shifting out like? what could a business owner do to sort of help that situation without you know, without making it obvious that that person's being slow.
Speaker 2:My biggest tip when you have a staff member who is maybe potentially a little bit slow, maybe not as efficient as they should be, get them to evaluate their own performance. and then get them to evaluate their own performance in comparison with another portfolio in the agency or you know, the portfolio is a whole lot industry standard. So by getting someone to actually look at their own performance and then in the category so looking at the financial performance of that portfolio, the time management and then do a self-assessment on their own productivity, their own workload, and then compare that to another portfolio, I think that's really powerful. It allows people to kind of come up with the same realization the business owner's already gotten to without you directly having to say it. But more importantly than that, once you've identified those areas that can be improved, sit down with that staff member and get them to design their perfect role, And you're gonna get some very weird and wonderful things come out of that, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:But whatever their perfect role might be, you figure out ways in order to support that perfect role internally and whether that be additional support for a three month period or whether that be outsourcing for one month to kind of catch up, Whatever that person needs, allow for them to create a plan of support and then do whatever you can do to guide and support that staff member. But it's really important, once you've done that phase, to make sure there's a time budget on there. so three months to six months we're looking and we're gonna reevaluate again. Do that exact same evaluation, look at that current workload, look at that current productivity, look at the financials of the portfolio again to see if they've gained or to see if they've decreased. I think it's really important to get people to actually look at it themselves and do a bit of a self-assessment first.
Speaker 1:And that's that. Coming back to that taking responsibility, I like the creating your perfect role. I think that that is a super interesting one to do with the team and that'd be actually just a really good exercise to do in general. And the what was the other thing that you mentioned as well, the ideal role, but So all got it.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, you said the using some outsourcing. I have done that before as well, where I have used some extra outsourcing for that month just to help catch up, because that's actually I'm glad that you brought that up, because sometimes as business owners, we see that the staff or the team feel a little bit overwhelmed. So we say, hey, let's bring you in extra support. So then what happens is you bring in the outsourcing or you bring in the extra support, but then what happens is that that might be all helpful at the start, but then you find that that property manager starts creeping up and they are busy again And it's like, well, why are you busy again? I've just got you this support And I do exactly what you suggested.
Speaker 1:Where you get that extra support for a month and you say, listen, let's get you back to scratch, let's get you back to a good point, good base, so that we can maintain that. And people my team have always got off. That's what I just. I feel like I just need to just get a clean slate and then I can stay on top of it again. And the outsourcing for like a month or a couple of weeks is an excellent option where you would just say, listen, we're just gonna outsource your routines this month just to give me that break, get you on top of your emails, blah blah, but you're not committing to it long term. It's just yeah, just for a little break, and I'm a huge believer that that is something really good to do and very appreciated by your team as well.
Speaker 2:Especially if your team can kind of look at the financials of their portfolio and go look, i can afford it within my mini business, within a business, it's gonna cost X amount for my month. So they can actually plan and budget and go it's going to cost $9,000 to outsource my inspections and a couple of finals this month And kind of like doing a proposal to management. Can we please spend this money because it's going to allow me to do X, Y and Z and increase my efficiency going forward, so allowing the staff and empowering the staff to have those types of conversations and kind of decision making power, even though it comes to the business owner at the end of the day. but the staff feel more empowered and feel more in control of their own role, which is so important. So I think it's really important as kind of key takeaways for staff members to know the nitty gritty of their portfolios and the finances behind it and to also know their productivity limits and where their current workload sits and how they can kind of get out of that.
Speaker 2:The ideal role and kind of creating your perfect role works so well. I've done it now with a few clients in Perth. we've sat the entire team down as a team and then we've sat every single person out individually and said what is your ideal role? Let's look at it When we've restructured departments to kind of fit all of those aspects in. you revisit six months later and they're just so much happier. It's like take productivity out of the window, take finances out of the window for just a second. They're happier, and being happier in your job is going to make you more productive and more efficient in the first place. So I think it's kind of more of a holistic approach. You have to do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I see those workshops are definitely something that the Efficiency Code could help with. Definitely. Yeah, excellent. I mean I think that that's a fantastic, fantastic option for a lot of business owners out there, a really good, productive workshop. You know what I mean for teams, so I love that. I love your insights. I think that there's some great takeaways, not only for business owners but for property managers and employees and those discussions, that transparency and the confidence to do all that's so important And I appreciate your insight to it And I'm sure we'll chat again soon And I hope everyone listening enjoyed the conversation. And this is literally like every time I see you. I should really just put a microphone on you and just record our conversations and like just podcast them, just because we do love having a chat about these topics all the time, don't we? We?
Speaker 2:do So, funny, not definitely. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Good to see you. Thanks, and if anybody would like to reach out to Joe, i'll have his details on the show notes as well. Please do reach out. There is so much he is capable of. So I would even say if you're not sure, just still give him a call and say Joe, i'm needing help with this. Is this something you can help with, and I am sure you will be able to. you're a man of many talents.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, Josh. As always, absolute pleasure Watch out to you soon.
