Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Tuesday Edition #7

Welcome to Issue #7 of the Tuesday Edition! Not interested? Click here to opt out (you’ll still receive the Friday editions).

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Great Employees Sometimes Leave

We recently had a long-tenured local team member give her 2 weeks notice at my property management company. Friday was her last day.

For small businesses, employee departures are universally challenging. And that goes triple when the employee who is leaving is actually GOOD at their job.

The reality of small business means when someone departs the company, you have to somehow fulfill 3 roles simultaneously:

1. Boss (how do I backfill this role & deal with the team???)

2. HR Manager / Biz Owner (how do I not get sued or mess up tax stuff???)

3. Friend (how does my relationship with this person change now??)

That’s a real challenge. After a decade of trial and error, here’s what I do now:

• Have the employee document their role (if already documented, update it). What are the 10 to 20 things they do daily/weekly/monthly/annually, and how to do each one. Ours is in Notion and looks like this. Each link under “Procedure Instructions” goes to its own page with step-by-step details on how to do that thing. More on my Notion setup. Crane members get my full Notion buildout included with membership.

  

• Decide if and how I’m going to backfill the role. Hire a direct replacement? Spread their tasks out among existing team member? If hiring, I get a job posting up right away.

• Notify the entire company with a professional message that both explains what’s happening in plain language, and also respects the privacy of the departing employee.

• Follow my normal employee-departure checklist (here’s a copy).

• Ask the departing team member if I can help them in any way with specific suggestions, and then follow through. I made about 8 personal introductions for this team member and was happy to do it. Anyone who works for me for 3+ years and leaves with proper notice gets all the help I can give:

  

• [Optional] exit interview

• Put together a nice send-off for them, usually a happy hour or something of the sort.

It helps to remind yourself “this is normal and happens to everyone”, because in the moment it can feel very personal and emotional. People move on for all kinds of reasons and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or your business is doomed! Just run the process, lick your wounds and learn the RIGHT lessons for next time.

PM Company & Vendor Updates

• Second Nature just opened up their MVP Experience for NARPM’s broker/owner conference. It’s a no-brainer to register for this if you’re going.

• Madeline Vinson just launched PMDash for $35/mo. It’s a property management dashboard that “connects to your leasing, maintenance, and screening tools and turns their data into KPIs” I’m already setting mine up.

• PropertyManagement.com just launched a PM vendor performance index & leaderboard. The top 5 highest-ranked vendors are GoodJuju, Enterprise Bank, RentEngine, Mason, and Property Meld. Full list here.

• RentScale just launched Clozr, a done-for-you sales solution for property managers. Customers pay only for closed doors. Interesting new model.

Podcast Archives: The Man Who Convinced Me to Start a Podcast (Russell Lowry)

Russell Lowry deserves partial credit (or blame?) for my entire podcast existing. He was my first guest ever, with our second episode together featured here:

We dig into Russell’s world of politics, strategy, entrepreneurship, and one of the most remarkable life stories I’ve ever heard. We also talk about how he identifies talent (something he seems unusually good at), what it takes to actually win inside government and public policy, and why many “obvious” policy fixes fall apart once they collide with real-world complexity. Great conversation. (Also available on Spotify.)

What I’m Reading Right Now

• Why You’ve Never Been In A Plane Crash. An article about how aviation culture evolved to examine systems, not blame people, in the aftermath of a crash—and how that culture resulted in an incredible record of safety. By the way, at any given moment, there are over 1M people airborne worldwide.

• Power in Business 3-part series (Commoncog membership req’d)

• How Open is Your PMS? (Thesis Driven)

• 14 comments on Irresistible Offer Ideas: “I’m curious what others have done for a sales push to increase business. We have a recent influx of leads and I want to push them to sign with a spring sales offer.” [Crane Only]

Webinar: In-House or Outsource?
(LIVE on Thurs. 3/12 @ 3pm ET)

One of the biggest questions PMs run into as they grow is what should stay in-house and what should be outsourced. Maintenance, accounting, leasing support - and everything else that comes with running a PM company. Bring your questions!

This month, Wolf and I will walk through real scenarios, tradeoffs, and a few mistakes we’ve seen along the way when teams scale too fast (or too cautiously).

Affiliate of the week: Property Meld

We use Property Meld across our entire maintenance process at RL Property Management. It centralizes communication, reduces bottlenecks, and improves visibility for our team, vendors, and residents. If you want interconnected maintenance operations, try Property Meld.

Meme Tuesday:

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The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. I may have consulting agreements with, or financial interests in, companies mentioned in this newsletter. Additionally, some of the links included in this newsletter are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through these links. Always perform your own due diligence before making any financial or business decisions.