Most property managers start out as one or two-man bands; managing everything in the rental process. They will source and onboard new owners; create listings and manage rates, communicate with guests and answer every question that’s asked. They cover all the bases and often find, even when they start to take on staff, that they continue to be involved in every activity of the growing company.

This is what I’ve been doing for fifteen years and although I’ve loved getting down in the weeds and dealing with the basic issues and problems that every business experiences, the time has come to move away from the small stuff and spend more time on strategic management. My New Year resolution is to break free from the minutiae of everyday property management, stop working IN the business and spend more time working ON it.

In this episode, my business partner, Mike Bayer talks me through the business processes he understands as a professional firefighter.

By assigning strategic, tactical and task levels to the most basic premise of firefighting, “wet stuff goes on the hot stuff,” Mike explains how we can apply these principles to our vacation rental businesses.

We talk about:

• How to apply strategic, tactical and task processes to a business
• What span of control means and why it’s important to maintain balance in a VR operation
• Breaking down operations and assigning them to others
• The importance of prioritizing personal life events over vacation rental tasks
• How to avoid BST syndrome
• Why the biggest and best is not always the right option

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 212 – 7 Activities for 2018

Capterra

Don’t Panic Management

Active Campaign  (A)