Imagine that you’re starting up your own property management company. It’s a completely clean slate, and you can do anything you like. It’s an exciting place to be, but also pretty overwhelming. Where do you start?

You’ll likely have a pretty standard checklist of items to address.You’ll need a company name, a logo, a website, and some management software. You’ll need to set up your business with the IRS and the city or town where it’s established. You may also need office space and motivational posters for the wall, but that may come later.

Those are all important pieces to have in place, but before any of that, you might want to brainstorm your company’s brand. And once you do, everything else can flow from it.

Brand is a somewhat challenging term to define. When most people think of a brand, they think of Apple’s apple or the Nike swoosh. But the essence of branding is in the origins of the term itself. It refers to the actual brands that were burned into cattle to differentiate one herd from another. And there’s the key.

Your brand is what differentiates you from your competition. So when you’re setting up your company, start by figuring out what it is you bring to the table. Are you cheaper than the competition? Are you more tech-savvy? Do you have specialized skills that the other companies don’t? Can you offer incentives the others can’t?

And once you’ve established all of that, the rest of your branding can start taking shape. Use your unique value proposition to influence the company’s name or tagline. Find a color scheme that no one else is using. Approach property management from a totally original angle. Find out where other companies are lacking and fill in those gaps. Be an innovator. Take risks that the bigger companies won’t.

Do all of that, and you’ll soon have a property management company that’s synonymous with success. And that’s a brand that’s worth its weight in gold.

photo credit: Paul Mayne via photopin cc