For those developers out there, a tiny home community is a great way to make a profit if done correctly. As builders of tiny homes, we know a thing or two about managing tiny home communities and have a few tips to share with you. Here are 5 strategies to remember when considering whether to develop a tiny home community.
#1 Choose your location wisely. You’ll want to purchase land that is both affordable but also has the ability to draw in clientele. Consider property near a lake, near mountains, or near some sort of outside entertainment with a temperate climate.
#2. Start small and expand as finances permit. While you will want to start with an overall site plan for your property, consider purchasing only a handful of tiny homes to ensure the demand meets the supply. Furthermore, you will have to put a lot of your initial revenue into marketing to build your tiny home community. Hence, we would suggest starting with a small tiny home community and expanding as you go.
#3. Be prepared to get your hands dirty. As with any start-up business, you will need to spend several hours working the business yourself. As the tiny home community grows, you will be able to hire more staff. To start, however, you will need to get your hands dirty, whether it’s managing the books, making beds, mowing the lawns, etc.
#4. Gather feedback from clients and use it effectively. If simple solutions can boost your ratings and reviews and keep your clients happy while costing you little, there is no reason why you should not implement these changes. However, you do need to know how to improve and asking for feedback is crucial to this process. Responding to feedback, even the most negative of criticism, is also an extremely useful skill to develop. For example, if clients claim that there are not enough activities to do at your site, providing horseshoes, a bags set, or a bocci ball set might be a simple, effective and cheap solution.
#5. A strong, happy staff can help ensure a profitable tiny home community, and any venture for that matter. We recommend building and nurturing a strong staff and work environment. When your employees are happy, they will go out of their way to help your clients, which in turn improves their experience and your ratings. You will have less turnover and spend less time training new staff. Furthermore, you will eventually be able to trust others to manage the business while you move on to new ventures.
A tiny home community, like any hotel or resort destination, can be an extremely profitable development. With careful planning and patience, you will be able to manage your costs and eventually generate enough revenue where you will be able to hire qualified staff that will help you manage the company. In the short term however, you may need to put in just a “few” hours. Trust us, we know.