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Transcript

234. Hosting Hotline: Division Of Labor for An Airbnb Partnership · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Sarah: Hello, everyone.
• 0:01
  Welcome back for another episode of the Hosting Hotline.
• 0:04
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:05
  Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are--
• 0:08
  Both Sarah and Annette: Thanks for Visiting.
• 0:09
  Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
• 0:10
  This is where you get to call in.
• 0:12
  Well, actually, you'll go to our website thanksforvisiting.me.
• 0:15
  In the upper right hand corner, you'll see a red button that says Ask TFV.
• 0:18
  You'll press it and you can record your voice, ask your question, and
• 0:23
  we'll answer it here right on the show.
• 0:25
  And today we've got a question from Christina.
• 0:28
  Questions: Hey, Sarah, Annette.
• 0:29
  It's Christina again.
• 0:30
  I just have one more question that I would love for you to talk about, and I
• 0:33
  can also come ask inside the group now that we're in your program, which by the
• 0:37
  way, we're super, super excited about.
• 0:39
  And thank you so much for creating such an amazing program and community.
• 0:42
  As you know, Lyndon, Brianna, and myself are just starting the concept of our
• 0:46
  short-term rental from the very beginning.
• 0:48
  And so there's three of us.
• 0:50
  We all have other full-time jobs, so this is going to be something that we're doing
• 0:54
  on, in addition, but with each other.
• 0:56
  So we have that opportunity to divide the work up really between the three of us.
• 1:01
  And I'm curious how you see three major buckets of work that might
• 1:06
  help us to start seein g the role each of us would play.
• 1:10
  We already know some things about ourselves, like I really like the
• 1:12
  operations of setting up structure.
• 1:15
  Lyndon's really good at partnerships and design and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:20
  Lyndon's really good at the pulse and knowing people and what they need and
• 1:24
  where they're at and good at marketing.
• 1:26
  So I'm curious how you see division of labor could be in the very beginning
• 1:32
  when we're just, just starting even the research between three people.
• 1:36
  So love your thoughts and thank you so much.
• 1:39
  Talk to you soon.
• 1:40
  Sarah: All right, Christina, this is a good question.
• 1:42
  Annette, you had a really easy way, easy idea for Christina to break this
• 1:45
  down to at least get her thoughts going.
• 1:48
  Annette: I'm someone that writes everything down.
• 1:50
  I have to see the vision of what I'm thinking here.
• 1:52
  So this is what I want to offer to you, Christina, and all of your partners.
• 1:57
  To me, you are all-- the equal partnerships, you are all the CEOs.
• 2:01
  And I think it's okay to have co CEOs.
• 2:04
  So all of you will be at that top of the org chart as CEOs.
• 2:08
  And then I would assign a COO, Chief Operating Officer, a CMO, a
• 2:15
  Chief Marketing Officer, and then a C FO, a Chief Financial Officer.
• 2:21
  Sarah: So Annette, what do you think then the COO, the Chief Operational Officer,
• 2:25
  what would they do in your opinion?
• 2:27
  Annette: The COO would be in charge of the behind the scenes
• 2:31
  of the operations of the property.
• 2:33
  So hiring out the team, customer service, making sure any of the
• 2:38
  consumables are there and dialed in.
• 2:40
  Sarah: And the thing about that too is I don't think we're suggesting
• 2:43
  that, let's say, partner A is the COO.
• 2:46
  They don't have to be on the app 24/7/365, but it would be their job to find someone
• 2:53
  to manage guest communication on the various apps and emails and so they would
• 2:57
  be in charge of finding that person.
• 2:59
  Annette: And the COO could assign the CMO and the CFO to also be
• 3:04
  part of the customer service team.
• 3:07
  So especially when you have a small team, people wear many, many, many, many hats.
• 3:11
  So don't be afraid to distribute those hats to everyone.
• 3:14
  Sarah: Okay, so what are some CMO responsibilities that you can think of?
• 3:17
  Annette: All right, for CMO I heard in the question that someone probably
• 3:20
  focuses more on the design aspect, and that to me is going to be the very
• 3:23
  first focus of marketing your property.
• 3:26
  You want to make sure that it's designed properly.
• 3:28
  And then the CMO would also take care of things like putting your property on
• 3:32
  listing sites, on OTAs, in the future being in charge of that direct booking
• 3:36
  site, also Email collection, any sort of marketing to maybe influence local
• 3:42
  shops, bars, and restaurants in your town.
• 3:45
  That's what the CMO, to me, would be in charge of.
• 3:48
  AD MARKER
• 3:49
  Sarah: Okay.
• 3:49
  We're two thirds of the way there.
• 3:50
  We might as well lay out this one.
• 3:52
  What would the CFO, the chief financial officer, be in charge of?
• 3:55
  Annette: And I also heard in the question, someone really likes to
• 3:58
  dive into the numbers, so this is going to be the numbers person.
• 4:00
  This is going to be just someone that's helping you set up the bank accounts
• 4:03
  if you're going to do any credit cards, do forecasting for you, keep
• 4:07
  track of the day-to-day financials.
• 4:09
  They would be the one helping you.
• 4:10
  If you have a bookkeeper, they're going to be corresponding with the bookkeeper.
• 4:13
  They're going to be the one trying to map out what your nightly rate is going to be.
• 4:17
  They are going to do all the functions of the finances.
• 4:20
  They're going to work really closely with the CMO when they're designing
• 4:23
  the property and helping them establish a budget with the COO on how they
• 4:27
  hire the team, how they pay the team.
• 4:29
  That's what the CFO would be doing.
• 4:31
  Sarah: So we hope that helps your question, Christina.
• 4:33
  Saying the words question and Christine in the same sentence it's not easy.
• 4:37
  We hope that answers your question.
• 4:38
  And this is not the only way you could structure your partnership,
• 4:40
  but we wanted to get those thought, those ideas going for you to see what
• 4:43
  works best for you and your team.
• 4:45
  Annette and I are in a partnership with Annette's sister and we have it
• 4:48
  structured differently because people brought different things to the table,
• 4:50
  like money and a W2 and so there's not one way to do it, but we thought
• 4:55
  this will at least get you going.
• 4:57
  And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
• 5:00
  Annette: I am Annette grant, and together we are--
• 5:02
  Both Sarah and Annette: Thanks for Visiting.
• 5:03
  Sarah: We'll talk to you next time.