Pub. 1 2016 Issue 1

8 www.ctaahq.org 䌀吀䄀䄀 吀䠀䔀䌀伀一一䔀䌀吀䤀䌀唀吀䄀倀䄀刀吀䴀䔀一吀䄀匀匀伀䌀䤀䄀吀䤀伀一  Study the Competition If you want to be competitive, you also need to know what other people are doing. • List your competitors. • What are they doing that seems to be successful? Is there something you could do that would improve your own business practices? • Did they make any mistakes that you know about? Maybe you can prevent your own mistakes by learning from theirs. Use the Internet e Internet has become an indispensable tool for all businesses. • Websites are great for marketing and for communicating with residents. • Getting involved with social media can also be an easy way for you to increase your online presence. • Collect, manipulate, and store property-management data. • Use the Internet for electronic money exchanges as much as possible. Flexibility and convenience will be reason enough for many people to take advantage of electronic payments, but since seniors are a growing market segment and are sometimes less comfortable with the necessary technology, you will want to consider what you can do to make the process easier for people who are unfamiliar with electronic payments. Prevent Fires Apartment res are expensive, with a price-tag of between $1.1 and $1.6 billion annually. Most of those res can be prevented by communicating with residents and planning ahead. Approximately 27 percent of winter structural res are caused because of heaters and take place during the winter months, with the highest concentration taking place between December and February. What can you do to prevent res? • Communicate with residents. e National Fire Prevention Association has yers that can help. You could also put information about re prevention on your website. Make sure residents know space heaters have to be kept at least three feet away from anything ammable and should never be left on when no one is around. Ask residents to unplug small appliances when they aren’t using them. • Ask residents to communicate with you when breakers trip, since that can be an indication that there is a serious problem electrically. • Inspect laundry rooms, furnaces, and HVAC units on a regular basis. Have a certi ed contractor inspect any chimneys. Although the best time to inspect chimneys and heating equipment is in the fall, you could put it on the calendar now and follow up with it later. • Ask the local re marshal to do a courtesy inspection of common areas and as many units as possible. e re marshal will look for hazards such as overloaded outlets and circuits, hazardous materials and improper storage, and obstructions. Check whether there is a fee for the visit (sometimes there is). If you correct anything that is found in a timely way, there generally won’t be any nes for code violations or other issues. • Consider making renter’s insurance mandatory for all residents. One way to approach doing this is to make lease renewals contingent on it. • Have an emergency plan in place for events such as res, and hold a re drill periodically. Make sure re ghters have the access they need to electrical rooms, storage areas, and utility rooms. ey also might need to shut o elevators or electricity. • Schedule times to check the re sprinkler, carbon monoxide detectors, and smoke alarm systems. Replace batteries regularly. It’s important to document your work The Right Start | Continued from page 7 Are there any tools available that would improve your work environment, make your job easier, and help you to be more effective and efficient? Now is also a good time to look at your internal policies and practices. If you are using project man- agement software, you might want to think about whether it is doing the job you need it to do, or if it is time for an upgrade.