If you are a Landlord or Manager of house shares (HMO’s), now that we are in extended lockdown, things might be looking very challenging at the moment, but harnessing the power of communication can help in the short term, while also getting you in great shape in preparation for the time that we move out of the current economic stagnation.

Hopefully you have already taken a good, hard look at all of your overheads and general outgoings to see where you can preserve cash in your bank, but what else can you do to improve things in the short term?

We are all in this together, and you need to keep the communication with tenants close, so that they are clear what is expected of them, and you are forewarned of any payment issues they may have. Steering them towards the various benefits available can save wasted time. 

Avoid allowing pride to delay you contacting your landlords. Many of them will understand the very difficult times we are in, and a carefully constructed communication to them to propose a rent reduction or partial delay to help you get through this in one piece could be a great help.

Businesses often get bogged down in the day to day of their business and fail to prioritise communication with audiences which are significant to their business, so while you are unable to do many of the usual activities, this time poses a great opportunity to get systems in place. Once things pick up, it will be a simple job to keep them updated using email marketing software such as Mail Chimp, Campaign Monitor, or similar to automate communications to your audiences. 

Building lists of names and email addresses in excel and learning to use the software and making sure you comply with GDPR takes time, but once you are up and running it is easy and these are some of the things you will be able to do:

• Keep more in touch with your landlords, strengthening your relationship, trust and understanding, and letting them know the good things your business is doing while giving them industry advice which could help them
• Add to this list with landlords you would like to work with
• Operate a referral scheme with your existing tenants as part of other regular communications, encouraging them to recommend/refer colleagues or friends to you; a successful applicant will get, say £25 off their first month’s rent and your existing tenant will receive the same
• Build a list of people who know about your business and may be able to refer tenants or other landlords to you and communicate regularly with similar updates which you send to your landlords. Local employers, council members, tradesmen you use or even those who have just given you their card, can all go on this list

One thing is for sure: You will get results which would not have happened if you hadn’t communicated with your audiences and some will be a great surprise and very beneficial to your business