we're hired a few, fired a few, had one quit. (both property owners and employees, if i think about it!)
we've taken over the whole house that we started our office in.
we've survived a summer and lived to tell the tale.
we're managing 200+ units, and are looking at growing another 120 in the next few months.
we've learned that our friends, family and the people in our extended network believe in us and the excellent job that we do. because of this, they refer their friends, family, and the people in *their* extended network to us for management.
the president has survived the year also as president of the san diego county apartment association and was asked to consider the presidency track for the california apartment association.
in addition to the new business, we've survived personal side stuff - 6 moves (between 3 people) and a family death that required unexpected foreign travel, plus all the vacations and travel that left the company with one or two less hands on deck than normal.
we've officially started our maintenance division aimed at the general public (and had it used!)
we've set a schedule for reviewing various aspects of our business on a regular schedule. (4 weeks = 4 aspects. leasing, financials, maintenance, owner/resident relations. each gets touched at least once a month.)
we've learned that we've got a lot to learn!
we've learned that we're doing a lot of things right!
this is one decision that i do not for a moment regret making. we're free to try new things and discard them if they don't work. i still get a thrill out of writing 'cambridge management group, inc.' on any form that asks for my company name. it's definitely been a challenge learning as i go - especially when it comes to managerial-type stuff like delegating, hiring, trying to manage people when i barely have enough time to keep track of my own items...
there are a couple tools that i have found immensely useful and completely worth the money that the paid memberships cost:
manager tools
gtd connect
i honestly don't know how i would survive without the getting things done methodology. granted, i'm still working on being consistent about using the task list and weekly review, but life is so much better when i am staying organized. when the above-mentioned family death took place at the end of june, i simply dropped everything and was unable to get back to cruise control until this week. in fact, yesterday was my first weekly review in two months. thankfully, i wasn't as bad off as i had imagined. normally i have at least 2-3 pages of open loops when i relieve my brain of everything that it is trying to track for me. this time - 1/2 a page. i did have to clear a lot of paper and email, however, before my brain dump. i think a lot of it was being controlled by holding on to the paper/email that triggered the item and keeping it in my inbox. (that makes for a very tall/long, very messy inbox!)
looking forward, we're getting ready to find an assistant for me to help out with the financial aspects of the company. we're holding our first owner meeting in september on 1031 exchanges, with future ones to be also given by our industry partners to educate our owners on growing their wealth. we're getting into a system of reviewing our company's progress on a weekly basis. (we're growing so fast, this is a must. things like job duties, forms and new policies change on a weekly, even daily basis as we grow by 1, 12, and sometimes even 64 units at a time.)
it's amazing how much things have changed from that day a year ago when we walked out of the office of our previous jobs for the last time. each of us were working from home, and had no idea how this was going to happen. all we had was our industry experience and our huge dreams and ambitions.
and now for year 2!
high standards. higher returns.
