201 Street » Business

Property Management Red Flags

Brody — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:25:46 +0000

Property management companies can be extremely beneficial to a rental property. They can take a large part of the work and make the business very organized. On the other hand, a bad property management company can also cost a business an extremely large amount of money and can damage the reputation of the property.

Hiring a property management company is a big step and when considering companies to hire there are definitely red flags to be aware of.

References and experience are critical. References give an insight into a person’s work ethic, their previous accomplishments and their personality. If someone is unwilling to give references that is a sign that they are not a very good choice. Experience is also very important, hiring someone who has never managed a property before is not going to help business. There is a difference between good experience and bad experience though. If someone has been working in the industry for years but does not have an organized system or a proven track record then they are going to be harmful to the business.

Demeanor and personality are huge factors. When meeting with them, if they are rude or inattentive then they are generally someone to avoid. The way they handle conflicts is also very important. Inevitably conflicts and problems with tenants will arise and they are going to need to be able to handle any sort of pressure or conflict thrown at them. If they have a short temper or are insensitive then people are not going to want to live at that property.

It is also a good idea to shop around and look at other property management companies as well. There are many different property management companies, for example, TransGlobe Property Management, which caters to all kinds of needs. Knowing all the options makes for a more informed decision. Plus getting the best possible price for the best possible service is a bonus.

Hiring a property management company to run a rental property can be challenging but in the end will be worth the time and money it will save.

Property Management Red Flags is a post from: 201 Street

Good Outsourcing

Brody — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:38:27 +0000

Contrary to popular mythos, there is such a thing as good outsourcing. Some companies consider outsourcing to be a good idea if it improves their bottom line and nothing else. A better standard would be to employ outsourcing services that actually improved a company’s service while saving them money. This isn’t as hard to accomplish as it sounds.

Companies that are looking to outsource aren’t trying to hurt their employees or destroy their reputation in a community. What they are trying to do is streamline their business so that they can both save money and put more of their resources back into their primary activities. In most cases this means outsourcing things like billing, tech support, and perhaps human resources. This is what is know as business process outsourcing or BPO . Companies outsource those business processes that have nothing to do with their main function but are a normal part of doing business.

If a company chooses wisely, their BPO partner won’t simply ship work overseas. Instead they will work with the company to identify how to design new processes that are more efficient and more effective. In fact, many companies that work with top BPO firms will discover that their customer service ratings actually go up. They will also find that clerical errors and billing problems go down. This is because BPOs specialize in processes that the ordinary business sees as chores. They have the time to analyze, test, and improve these processes.

One final way that companies can improve their outsourcing profile is by hiring an American-based outsourcing firm. While they may still send some of the work overseas, these BPOs have executive, administrative, and even training facilities in the US, which means that they continue to employ Americans and pay taxes in this country as well as invest their profits here.

Good Outsourcing is a post from: 201 Street

Dealing with Online Complaints

Brody — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:30:41 +0000

One of the worst things that can happen to a small business owner is if someone posts a less-than-favorable review on one of the numerous complaint sites that have cropped up all over the web. Most of these sites only exist to get content and traffic in order to attract advertising dollars. They have no real interest in providing a forum for legitimate complaints . As a result they are full of inaccurate, misleading, or downright fraudulent claims. Unfortunately, they can quickly rise in the search engine results for a company name where any potential customer researching the business can see it.

A good way to combat this is to create as many positive sites for a given business as possible. With the rise of social media, it is actually fairly easy to create profiles and pages in multiple places like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, any small business should make sure that they have profiles anyway — in order to prevent someone else from using their name online. Choosing a handful of these pages to build out quality content is a good hedge against complaint sites rising in the search rankings. Likewise, setting up company blogs will create additional online real estate associated with the company name. As well as a main blog for the business, key individuals in the company may want to have individual blogs and experts should seek out opportunities to guest post on other industry blogs .

In addition to guest posting, companies should follow basic public relations tactics. Getting local news outlets to write about their company and services or products will help bury the negative pages. It’s a good idea for any business to send out a press release whenever something notable happens. This way the media will have the information to use in writing an article and the press release itself may end up in the search results. Appearances on radio programs, including podcasts, local television news, webcasts, and posting videos online are also good ways to call attention to the positive elements of a business.

Dealing with Online Complaints is a post from: 201 Street

Improving Employee Skills

Brody — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 19:48:51 +0000

Employees in the twenty-first century need to develop a habit of learning. It is no longer enough to get a college degree and an entry-level job and then have career security . The rate of change in business is accelerating at an ever faster pace which requires employees to stay on top of business news, industry trends, and the changes specific to their company and their specific job duties. A continuing education plan will include following key blogs, reading industry magazines and newsletters, attending networking events, and taking additional business skills training.

Obtaining qualified skills training comes in many different forms now. It used to be a matter of going to a training center or hotel and taking presentation skill seminars or software certification classes. Now employees can attend webinars, take on demand training courses, or even attend online university courses towards an advanced business degree .

The variety of skills needed changes with each new software program and handheld device that is created. However, there are some core business skills that everyone needs to add to their resume. Communication, presentation, and time management skills are important to most office workers. Those who want to pursue management careers should look into leadership development training , project development, and public speaking courses. They should also find a mentor to help them choose training and development opportunities that will be of the greatest benefit to their career.

Improving Employee Skills is a post from: 201 Street

What To Do in a Summer Slow Down

Brody — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:10:00 +0000

Summer internships are winding down and school is starting up again. For some companies like Southwestern Company that means that business slows down quite a bit. In fact, any company that regularly relies on students working through the summer has to slow down when school starts back up again and less people are available to sell products. There are a number of things that do pick up during this time though.

If you have a company that is based on these things, now is the time to let the students start to go back to their school work, but that doesn’t mean that you need to lose touch with them. Ask special students to help plan out meeting on campus where you can explain the challenges and benefits to other students who might be interested in selling for you. From there you can plan meetings and interviews with students and move in the direction of gaining new workers for the upcoming year.

They don’t have to sign up until summer is almost there, so doing it early gives them some time to think on it, talk it over with friends and family and decide if having a summer internship is right for them. Doing this will assure that you will get the right workers to help your company grow.

What To Do in a Summer Slow Down is a post from: 201 Street

Paradigms and Structures

Brody — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:10:00 +0000

The world doesn’t have to make sense to be able to move forward in it, but it makes the going much easier when there is some idea of how things work. Of course, everyone has an idea of how things are, and how they are supposed to be, but there is still plenty of room here for paradigms that can hold large segments of knowledge and experience, in order to have a guide for the journey. At least a guide that can serve part of the journey, because in any organization it’s necessary to stay fluid and try to keep options as open as possible.

Part of the secret of moving in the world with confidence, and from a position of strength, is to remain teachable . This is true on all levels of the hierarchy, and being able to decide when new ideas should enter into the order of things. This is always a good moment, however, because it means that there are new guides coming into the field, and the changes are usually very welcome. More than simple motivational seminars, giving the employees the opportunity to reconsider how things are, at a very elemental level, is healthy and promotes growth. Elemental does not have to mean elementary , however, because there is a point to moving forward without having to reinvent the wheel at every turn.

There are many reasons why courses work. The most essential, of course, is because they’re based in principles that never go out of style. There are tried and true methods and systems, and they do function in the realm of common sense more than anything elusive or mysterious. These also work because of the way that human beings are programmed, generally, to find meaning in the world. It seems as though people were designed to find patterns in structures, and when the pattern is recognized, it’s really rather thrilling. And when the pattern is something that’s applicable to the way of working, then it’s really rather powerful as well.

Paradigms and Structures is a post from: 201 Street

Commercial Defeasance Structures $28 Million Transaction for Concert Real Estate Corporation of Vancouver

Property Management Exceeds Their Tenants Needs

Brody — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:07:56 +0000

Aside from the responsibilities a property management company has to the owners of the buildings they manage, they have responsibilities to the tenants who rent those buildings. One of the basic elements of customer service is to not only meet the needs of customers and clients, but to anticipate them when that is possible, and to exceed those needs most certainly. People put their lives in the hands of the property managers when they rent. In some cases it is their home life and in other cases it is their business in which they gain their livelihood. In either case they trust the company with their “stuff”, in keeping their possessions safe and in keeping them safe and cared for when things break down.

In terms of property management companies , there are various websites that are dedicated to the anticipation of what people may need. They not only advertise the properties they have available for rent, but they do a bit extra. One of the websites is for properties located throughout the cities in Canada. This is a site where college students can go to find apartments that are in their budget. But that is not all that is on this site. The options that are also available on the site, inform young college students on developing study habits , how to go about finding jobs, and the best way to look for a roommate.

In years past, not only did college students have to look through the paper and the rental magazines to find a place to live, they had to ride around on their bikes simply looking for “For Rent” signs. And, on top of that, they many times found it necessary to simply run adds to find roommates, and search the adds looking for those who needed them. This is just one of the ways a property management company can go above and beyond in their field and in the practice of great customer service . It is why those companies who do, continue to stand out and continue to be the most trusted companies in the industry.

Property Management Exceeds Their Tenants Needs is a post from: 201 Street

Life in Nova Scotia

Brody — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:09:03 +0000

There were a couple of reasons I wanted to explore Nova Scotia. I had been considering moving there after reading so much about it, but had yet to experience it in real life. What interested me was that I had read that the live music scene was incredible, mainly the Celtic and Folk scenes. And the cities that are situated along the coast such as Sydney, Yarmouth, and Wolfville seemed to be calling my name. I had always wanted to live along the coast, so I was going there with intention of finding a great place to rent, and perhaps staying for a little while.

Food is another pleasure of mine and when I got into Halifax, I was overwhelmed with choices as there are more than four hundred restaurants, a very dense concentration choices. The city is very cosmopolitan. I had read that but I still had the idea that it would just feel older, more traditional, I mean the city is almost 300 years old. The Victorian architecture however is mixed in with many funky cafes and pubs, and the plethora of cultural activity gives that city a certain buzz that is modern and happening.

Each night Cape Breton Island has a couple locations where live music is played, folk legends such as Natalie MacMaster, Gordie Sampson, and the Rankins all got their careers going here while their friends, neighbors and families paid their support by dancing the night away. Other live music genres thrive in the city as well, everything from country to hip hop to roots and reggae.

This is a region that is extremely diverse and multi-cultural. I asked a fellow at my hotel for suggestions on how to go about looking for a place to live, as I had made my decision that I did in fact want to spend more time learning the history and getting to know the people of Nova Scotia. He directed me to a property management company called TransGlobe, and I went in and told them what I was looking for. Within a week I made arrangements to have things shipped from the States, as I sat in my brand new, older Victorian apartment overlooking the sea.

Life in Nova Scotia is a post from: 201 Street

Why Tiger Woods Needed Online Reputation Management

Brody — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:19:12 +0000

Ever since its inception, the internet has had far reaching implications for every aspect of society. It has changed the way we communicate. It has changed the way we think. It has changed the way we do business. The recent fiasco with sports figure Tiger Woods is perhaps a great example of this. Though he plays sports, his name has become a brand. He has numerous advertisements that he does and tons of money from doing them. His name and fame have made him a fortune.

Unfortunately, the way in which he handled the extramarital affairs scandal has affected that brand name he has worked hard on producing and cultivating. Proper reputation management would have helped him out immensely, rather than the silence he chose for those few days after the allegations came out. His brand took years to build, but yet had been destroyed in a matter of days. Some could probably argue hours. Bloggers and other social media sites tore him down, and his silent approach only fertilized their efforts.

Good online reputation management could have prevented all that. It helps a company to protect its brand and name from customers who have no real grievances: there are times when a company has done all it can to help a customer out, but that customer simple has a chip on their shoulder. However, in instances where a company has fault, online reputation management has a more difficult job of fixing things, though not an impossible one.

There are certain things to track and keep an eye on, namely, everything about your company. The employees, your services, your products, your customers, and so on. After all, online reputation management can only do so much if your company has a bad rep for a good reason. You should also know your competitor and information related to your industry and what you do. There is also more monitoring to consider: news feeds, search engine keywords, message boards, groups. The point of monitoring sites like this is to see where your company stands on the internet. Then from there, you can understand where you need to take your company or what you need to do to maintain it.

Why Tiger Woods Needed Online Reputation Management is a post from: 201 Street

Avonmore milking sales management

Brody — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:38:33 +0000

Branding and marketing have proved to be a great part of the success that Avonmore Super Milk has experienced lately in Ireland. Within just this year, it has seen an increase of about fifteen percent from sales. Researchers in the industry claimed that about sixty thousand people had actually made the switch to the brand as well.

Part of the reason for its success comes how the company has employed sales management. Training and experience on his side, Simon Greene, not the famous science fiction author, constructed the campaign that has led to the current success the company has been enjoying lately in the news. He named it the power of sunshine, owing to the fact that a large amount of people in Ireland actually suffer from a rather significant problem: many of them lack proper amounts of vitamin D. Some of the effects of lacking enough vitamin D are increased chances of heart disease, diabetes, rickets, cancer, and even schizophrenia, though there is usually some sort of genetic predisposition to the last disease for the deficiency of vitamin D to have that kind of an effect.

There have been large changes in the way the company advertises their goods and in the goods themselves. The milk now contains a little bit more than the normal calcium and vitamins normally found in milk. However, it has been put in to address the problems specific to Ireland, and not as a kind of Frankenfood experiment. In addition to the funny advertisement campaign, the company is also planning on keeping its sponsorship from Munster Rugby Schools Cup. Further sponsorship will be found on TV as Avonmore will be a patron of the weather on TV. Charity has also been a big part of what the company does and will continue to be. There will be a picnic this year that is expected to bring in even more money for the charitable efforts of Avonmore corporate. Team building and community building games and funs will naturally be a part of the event.

Avonmore milking sales management is a post from: 201 Street