What to Expect When Working with a Coach or Consultant for your Property Management Company

Before we get started, what is the difference between a coach and a consultant? Simply put, the consultant works as an advisor to create a plan based on a client’s stated objectives. The coach’s methodology creates an environment where a client discovers the plan on their own. When it comes to property management, a business advisor should be able to provide the client with a blend of both consulting and coaching.

Property Management Coach

You’ve made a great decision by looking for a property management business coach. Whether you’re an established property management firm or just starting out, hiring a business coach can be one of the smartest moves you ever make. As a property management company, it is inevitable that as the company grows, your small issues turn into bigger issues, headaches and disasters. Maintaining focus on critical objectives becomes paramount to ultimate success and failure. The right coach can be the difference maker. 

Think of it this way, even the most celebrated athletes all have multiple coaches. They have always had coaches in their life, and always will. In fact, there simply are not any professional athletes – or highly successful professionals in virtually any field of work – who do NOT have a coach.

When working with a business coach, it is not uncommon to experience mixed feelings of vulnerability and excitement as you share your innermost thoughts and desires with someone who may be perceived as having little vested interest in the outcome of your conversation. These are common reactions when opening up one’s life to another person. If fears arise, they will likely dissipate when you understand that your business coach is not judging you; they are there to provide support and help you achieve the things that truly matter to you. Moreover, if you have a good coach, they are just as fulfilled as you are with your success.

High quality business coaches want their clients to be successful. They have a vested interest in your success, which means they will do everything within their power so that you are more confident and in control of your future. They can help you reset the direction of your business, which will allow it to grow.

An ideal property management coach believes that the key to success is education, empowerment, empathy, and personal growth. When working with a business coach, among many other things, one should expect their coach to:

• Get to know your business, your core values, culture, mission, and vision in great detail.
• Set the grounds and provide the space to help you learn and grow efficaciously. 
• Provide accountability. 
• Assess and clarify the reality of your business. 
• Mentor how to read and understand metrics. If you are new to regularly reviewing your metrics, this will be a game changer. If you are already there, your coach will take you deeper and further.
• Guide you to forecasting the future performance of your business.
• Help you set goals and support you as you work to reach them.
• Promote brainstorming sessions.
• Present you with options and perspectives.
• Support you in the design of your action plans and prioritizations.
• Help you discover the gaps in your operations and help you with problem solving.
• Help you figure out your “why” (your purpose) and help you discover your company’s story.

Expect your business coach to ask lots of questions. Questions are helpful in revealing details that may remain hidden without careful examination. A good coach will encourage you to examine what you do and why you do it. This reflection can lead to important breakthroughs.

Property Management Consultant

A property management consultant will help implement strategies for the company to experience higher performing operations and sustained growth. A property management consultant might also set up an ongoing leadership development program to identify personal and global strengths and weaknesses, or a consultant might help teams get unstuck while focusing on what works. Consultants are essentially hired to successfully implement the business expertise they provide.

A property management business consultant can be engaged to re-engineer your operating systems to efficiently scale up while delivering profits and solving process challenges. The considerable benefit of this kind of consulting includes the reliable completion of strategic business tasks and plans, real-time metrics, time management shifts to higher-level importance, happy employees, and improved efficiencies of business – workflows, automation. This is precisely the reason why people want to hire business consultants – they know that there is much to be gained and very little (if anything) to be lost by hiring someone to help them turn their business around and take it in a different direction.

Looking for a property management professional consultant can be an intimidating process. To potential clients, hiring a business consultant is akin to inviting someone they don’t know very well into their home and asking them to give advice about something which could potentially affect the entire future of the business. However, if the consultant has the experience and expertise in achieving the property management company’s objectives, the value and the return on investment (ROI) can be substantial. In other words, the benefits far outweigh the initial discomfort.

Conclusion: The “Blended Coach/Consultant”

With the right hybrid of coach/consultant a property management business owner can get the best of both skill sets and experience solid and sustained hyper growth. If you’re looking for help in developing your property management business, a blended business coach/consultant can provide you with the guidance and resources you need to succeed. A blended coach/consultant can help you with everything from developing a plan for success to devising schedules and goals that will keep you and your team accountable.

One of the best things about working with a blended property management business coach/consultant is that you can clarify and resolve both the big and small picture items in your business. This type of coach will be able to help you create and execute a plan, but they will also be able to offer assistance with day-to-day tasks such as goal setting, time management, and delegation.

If you feel your property management company would benefit from a trusted and reliable advisor, or if you just need some help getting to the next level, consider working with a blended business coach/consultant. With the right coach/consultant you will manage your time and resources more efficiently and effectively, reach new heights in your business and achieve and enjoy sustained success.

Authored by Nadja Prophete and Chapin Hemphill