Property Manager Overcomes the Odds for Real Success

June 21, 2019

Successful Female Property Manager

A startup success story is always heart warming and uplifting. Those who overcome challenges to keep progressing to new small business success are true leaders. Entrepreneurs put their heart and soul into their business and a reward is only right.

In Entrepreneur Magazine, Andrea Gombalova Stevens, a property management startup owner shares her challenges in launching her startup. She offers some practical tips you might need as a reminder.

Her property management business, a franchise of Just.Property of South Africa has a staff of 28 in 2 locations. She emigrated from Slovakia, with minimal English skills, no real estate training and found a path to success in the property management sector. How could something like this possibly happen?

It could be her inexperience allowed her to avoid the overpowering hurdles that experienced people who fall prey to. Her history however reveals she’s had several runs at the property management business, and this time she made it. One wonders if she kept at it on her previous path using a good property management solution, would her brand have matured and paid off? Time and patience are factors.

The Vision Always Has Hurdles and Friction to Overcome

Steven’s lack of experience steepened her feeling that “everything was against her” pushed to stay focused and build her business. And while she confesses to lacking some “emotional intelligence” she’s discovered strengths that have vaulted her past the daydream phase that has held back other entrepreneurs.

“The secret is to just start. And then drive and (sometimes agonizing) discipline, I have learnt, are critical.” from a report in Entrepreneur.

Screen capture courtesy of Facebook and Andrea Gombalova Stevens

Audacity is Always Important in Business

With no background in the property management business, sizable growth and sales, and in a foreign country, we have to pay attention to what she says. She’s obviously shown resilience, ambition, courage, and many of the most prized personality traits that successful entrepreneurs share.

11 of Andrea’s Business Development Tips:

be sales oriented
refine your processes as you – don’t assume perfection
lead by example
hire slow and hire right
avoid hiring the wrong person, those who don’t share your dreams and beliefs
don’t spend so much time on administration
constantly analyze, examine, and re-examine every part of your business
never underestimate the value of existing clients
it’s what you are prepared to do that will bring that success
just do it — inaction is not forward progress
build a clear vision

“The entrepreneur’s duty is to work on the business: Cast the vision, build a culture, lead your team and network.” – from the Entrepreneur interview.

No Path is Ever Paved

It’s a helpful list of startup mastery tips. What should be added is that some friction tells you where you might be wrong in your management direction. An advisor or consultant for instance, may not share your vision, but they can help you define which of your assumptions are incorrect, and avoid decisions not grounded in reality.

We might add that our property management platform fits well with Andrea Steven’s advice on reducing micromanagement, creating time for the vision and sales efforts, and optimizing precious budget spend.

Sales is always good because hanging onto current landlords is never easy. They can sell their properties, hire another firm using proptech, or their properties aren’t profitable anymore.

Have a good read of other property management posts and research findings.

Start a FREE Trial of the ManageCasa Platfrom Today!

Need to accelerate your learning of the property management business and grow your key connections? Apartmentalize is where you want to be. The event is just a few days away. Denver, Colorado is the location. Learn more about Apartmentalize and register to attend. Come and meet the ManageCasa team, do a product demo, and lets talk modern property management and see how our solution helps you achieve what Elizabeth Stevens advises.