3 Steps to Profitability with Kathleen Richards



3 Steps to Profitability with Kathleen Richards

On The Property Management Show this week, Kathleen Richards is joining us to talk about profitability. She’s been on the podcast several times, and we’re asking her a pretty simple question: how can property management companies set themselves up to make good money?

Kathleen Richards: An Intro

Kathleen has been a member of NARPM since 2005 and she’s the former broker/owner of a Santa Cruz property management company. She earned her CRMC designation from NARPM and owns PM Made Easy, a company providing operational documents and forms to professional property managers.

In 2015, she became a certified business coach and founded The Property Management Coach. Since beginning the company, she’s coached over 450 property managers and business owners on how to be more efficient and how to be profitable.

Out of that business, Kathleen developed a niche that has drawn people to her who want to start a property management company. Some of them are real estate professionals who want to expand into property management. Other clients recently bought a franchise but don’t have the necessary industry experience.

Earning Consistent Property Management Profits

The focus of Kathleen’s work is to make sure your property management company runs smoothly. That’s the value that leads to consistent profits year-round.

There’s a lot that demands your attention when you start a business. According to Kathleen, two things are needed:

* Time management

* Having efficient systems in place

The quickest way to set up a business is to create a plug and play model.

So much of what property managers do on a daily basis is repetitive. People usually don’t make progress with their business because they’re just reacting to things all the time and putting out fires. There’s no room to be proactive in how the put their systems in place.

Automation helps. You can create templates and not type the same letter 20 times.

This impacts your profitability. Maybe you’ve been thinking about raising your property management fees or updating your property management agreement but you haven’t actually done it yet. If you don’t have the time to focus on that, it means your systems and your time management aren’t working for you. That leads to less money.

Being too busy actually hurts your profitability. For example, if you’re spending a lot of money on marketing but you don’t have the time to return phone calls from new potential clients, you’re throwing away that marketing investment. It doesn’t work.

Systems Start BEFORE Day One

Maybe you’re just starting a business and you don’t have any clients yet. You still need those systems in place. In fact, this is the perfect time to create them. Get together a plan for onboarding new tenants. Create an application. Set up a rent collection process.

This isn’t necessarily the sexy stuff, but it’s foundational and necessary. You have to be prepared to operate your business before you open your doors.

There’s nothing worse than working hard and not earning money. The right systems and careful time management prevent you from spinning your wheels.

Set Yourself Up for Profitability

Think about your pricing – always.

Trying to do property management cheaply in order to attract more doors is a mistake. You don’t have to charge the least and you don’t have to manage every property that comes to you.

Set yourself up to be profitable. Price your services in a way that reflects your value, and monetize what you do.