OK so I’m not going to make the best photographer the world has ever seen but I saw this and it’s indicative of where the industry is heading. A visible proof from Broker/Owner the PM Business is changing rapidly.
Have you noticed that each year at Broker/Owner there is a certain buzz around a specific topic?
Here’s an insight I’ll share with you because it shows how the industry is changing.
Of all the topics people could list up on the bar camp, there are four main ones. (I’ll list them out to save your eyes!)
Company financial performance with 22 tallies
Utilizing virtual employees (VEs) with 22 tallies
Employee compensation with 20 tallies
In-office communication with 15 tallies
The next closest was ‘Passing to the younger generation’ with 9 so it was way down the list.
At first glance, those first four may look like they’re not closely related however there is a common theme running through them.
We are all under pressure to make our businesses perform, and so company financial performance is always going to be on a list of topics. We need to make our businesses streamlined, cut costs and improve productivity – we’re all well aware of that.
Similarly, employee compensation is a key point. What is your biggest overhead? Employees. Does it impact your company’s financial performance? Of course it does.
Is there a way to streamline your business while keeping a lid on employee compensation?
Of course, there is, and the speed at which the industry is grabbing that opportunity is gathering pace… which is the reason that ‘utilizing virtual employees’ is right at the top of the tally marks too.
People know about virtual employees (VEs), they know they need them, but usually wait too long to make the decision to move forwards… and that’s why the BUZZ is there around these topics.
On the surface, it should be a simple decision to get a VE.
‘My business generates a lot of critical paperwork. Should I have somebody in my office do it with a compensation package of around $50,000 or should I outsource it less than $20,000 a year?’
It should be simple because that can give a streamlined business with improved financial performance, right?
There’s a big BUT isn’t there? ‘I know it makes sense but…’
…I don’t want to outsource to a call center
…Where do I start? (see my PS at the end and you’ll see how to solve this one easily)
…I don’t have systems in place
…I don’t want to be speaking to somebody with a thick accent I have trouble understanding
…I need this person to do a perfect job every time
…I don’t have time to do it and get them up to speed. It’s just faster to do it myself for now
I had ALL those and more before I took on my first VE.
For me, the real reason I hesitated so long was because I hated the idea of having to ring a call center and not get a clear-cut answer because ‘somebody else was doing the work’, not my point of contact.
I had no intention of being caught in the middle with nobody taking responsibility. That is why when I took on my first VE I didn’t use one in a call center.
I employed them full time.
It felt like a leap, so I minimized my risk.
I had a set of criteria to do the initial vetting (perfect English, genuine references and a solid university degree) and only interviewed three people who passed those easily.
And then I held brief, focused interviews and selected the person I felt I could work most closely with and who fit the business the best – Theriza.
I already had my list of ‘tasks I hate and will do the one last time’ ready for her.
I did each of the tasks and noted down the steps. Then I handed it over to Theriza and made certain she could understand my notes and what outcome I wanted.
Now because Theriza was working for me full-time she wanted to do a great job and she helped to perfect the system for each of the tasks and I could be certain that if she (or anybody else) followed ‘the system’ they would do the work exactly as I wanted it done.
In a single swoop I’d streamlined my business, handed tasks I wasn’t too motivated to do and saved tens of thousands of dollars by having it done overseas instead of hiring somebody to replace Julie and her endless romance-gone-wrong-over-the-weekend stories.
If you’re in a position where you know you want to streamline your business, control employee compensation then a quality, full-time VE is an easy solution to a difficult problem.
But how does that solve the in-office communication?
Imagine this.
You use one or two full-time virtual employees to manage all your necessary admin tasks.
What are your employees spending time doing now you have freed them up from the dull, repetitive work?
You want your business streamlined so now they can focus 100% of their energy on the important aspects. Building relationships with owners, signing leases, moving forwards.
Suddenly you have a highly streamlined organization where everybody is focused on the goals that matter. How much more productive do you think they will be?
The communication sorts itself out because everybody is pulling in the same direction
And if you want to consider that bugbear of hiring… how much easier will it be to attract the best out there?
‘Yes, you heard that right. If we hire you, we aim to free you up from the tasks that pull your focus from signing new leases (or whatever you want them to do). We want you to be happy and to be focused so as long as you give the admins the work in the correct manner, they’ll take care of the rest of it for you.’
Who wouldn’t want to work in the environment?
That’s why those four hot topics are showing how the industry is changing and changing fast.
PM businesses that use virtual employees are becoming more streamlined and focused and able to outcompete their competitors.
If you’d like to talk through how to make it work in your business, then send me a quick note to me Info@HireSmartVirtualEmployees and we’ll have a chat.