Steering Your Life & Taking Back Your Freedom

• What is a Branch Manager & Why

  • Backstory:
    Christian Gissing, Founder & CEO of True North Property Management conceived the Branch Manager model in 2020, however, it was a lifelong endeavor in search of a way to find how to create personal freedom (financially, geographically, and chronologically) through enterprise & entrepreneurship. This drive for himself was truly powered by his desire to figure out how to build a platform that would provide a similar result for those he cared about most from what he’d built for himself. “I’m Christian Gissing and I made a commitment to my best friends as a kid that one day we would all live like Kings & Queens. I had no intention of letting them figure it out for themselves, it was my decision at that moment to take that upon myself.”
  • What:
    The Branch Manager model is based on a business model known as a Branch Network, similar to that of a Franchise model, however holding more flexibility in the structure of the contractual terms between the Parent company and the Branch. Each Branch and Branch Manager will gain the benefit of leveraging all the core systems, technology, human resources, training, knowledge base, marketing, and sales base with closing support & more. The culmination of everything included is the ever-evolving creation of over 10 years of obsession with excellence within this industry. See “What’s Included,” for a more technical explanation of what’s involved.
  • Why:
    If you have grit, tenacity, and the will to hustle, you’d like to build your own entity, and shave off years of effort while leveraging everything we’ve listed above and thus buy back your time and gain freedom within your life; this was designed for you. Your income will be uncapped, your scalability will be uncapped, you’ll plug into a streamlined system designed with automation* in mind, you’ll have ownership and continue as your own boss, and you’ll be able to work on your terms within following the brand standards which are only designed to elevate what you’ve built, amplify revenue generation, and leave a profound mark on the world. Arguably one of the most noteworthy benefits is that you’ll immediately leverage a much higher multiplier in the valuation of your company meaning a much more rewarding exit. There’s a long list of benefits. This model was built to provide as much value as possible and create as much of a win-win scenario as possible; an effort we continue to push further and beyond. Reach out to get a clearer picture.

• What’s included

  • Tech Stack
    • PMS: Our Property Management System is the most robust on the market. In fully utilizing this system and its extensive functionality we’ve built a powerhouse around it.
    • Channel Management: Giving access to more than 18 booking channels for individual vacation rentals and over 100 hotel booking channels for buildings/unit collections, resorts, and hotels. Also, the latter can access both vacation rental and hotel marketplaces in a synchronized fashion.
    • Revenue Management / Dynamic Pricing Software: Revenue Management software when used correctly will ensure that our properties are always beating the market by adjusting the price up or down based on demand within the market, ensuring we get the highest ADR (average daily rate) on days where demand is high, and beat the comparable properties in the market where demand is low. On average we’ve found applying our strategies along with this software we’re able to increase revenues by 12-20% as opposed to static pricing with this alone.
    • Phone System: Professional phone system that directly integrates with our PMS providing a popup with guest or owner information to support a better customer service experience.
    • Lock Control System: Seemless integration with wifi & z-wave locks allowing us to auto-generate and allocate individualized codes for each new reservation texted to the guest along with a mobile guest portal with lock control.
    • Guest Guides: Every guest receives a comprehensive guest guide via text with all of their relevant property and check-in/check-out information along with the ability to lock/unlock their lock with the touch of a button if it’s been integrated. Up-sells can also be added to the guest guide to generate additional income per reservation. We also create and implement video tutorials for the appliances that might need support within the property.
    • TV Hub: We have a pre-programmed Google Chromecast device we can plug into any TV in each and every property allowing us to project our branded hub onto the screen to provide that hotel feel upon entry, providing the same features as the guest guide, including Wi-Fi QR Codes, plus optional welcome videos, up-sells and additional services.
    • Owner Mobile App & Web Portal: Providing full calendar control, ability to block dates for personal use, generate profit & loss reports, view 1099’s & month-end owner statements, and more.
    • Housekeeping & Maintenance: Our system can auto-schedule cleans, generate checklists, require photos upon completion of steps & tasks, track inventory, and much more helping to remove the majority of the room for human error and simplifying the management process.
    • Travel Insurance: Ability for guests to purchase travel insurance for any reservation allowing them to cancel for any reason, however ensuring you and your owners still get paid.
    • Guest Security Filter: Ability to activate a guest check helping to deter unwanted guests.
    • SMS & E-Mail Marketing: Ability to generate lists from a wide range of criteria within our guest or owner database, campaigns, and send them out periodically or on request to help build demand and continuous awareness.
    • Loyalty Points System: Guest retention made easy by providing each guest with a number of points directly correlating to a dollar value, earned based on what they spent. They receive an update email upon each reservation providing their own personal coupon code to apply their points.
    • Market Research: We have full access to global data on two different high-level market data platforms which you can leverage to find a wide range of useful data as well as generate revenue analysis on any address – something very useful during your acquisition process.
  • Human Resources:
    • Bookkeeper & Accounting: All month-end, professional owner statements, owner & vendor payouts, and much more are handled by our team. Our specialist can also create balance sheets for your branch and analyze the cost of doing business on larger projects like hotels, and more.
    • Revenue Manager: Dynamic Pricing software are truly only as good as the user. We have world-class revenue managers in-house who are both experts at revenue management, but also experts with our chosen revenue management software to ensure every worthwhile function is being fully utilized. They’ll be tracking, comparing, and evolving your properties strategies and pricing in effort to further evolve on a daily basis with the goal of beating any economic downturns, leveraging any opportunity, and generally increasing revenue on every property year over year.
    • Revenue Management Support: Taking occupancy data and creating email and SMS campaigns in order to generate demand in times when it’s needed or when an opportunity is detected.
    • Guest Communications: Our dedicated team is online from 9:00AM to 2:00AM every day, responding to all guest inquiries via phone, text & OTA. They also act as the liaison between guests & your operations team.
    • Admin & Onboarding: A full team dedicated to all administrative needs, listing updates and onboarding of all new properties & owners allowing for a seamless process from closing to live.
    • Listing Optimization Specialist: Our specialist has been trained and performs continuous education on how to optimize every listing on an ongoing basis across every listing platform we utilize.
    • Owner Relations Specialist: We have an agent dedicated to being a liaison between the owners and the rest of our team, ensuring instant communication and absolute follow-up. Additionally, putting together a once a quarter video breaking down performance, areas of opportunity and recommendations as well as a follow-up call requesting feedback so we’re in a constant state of pursuit of excellence all the while providing more value for owners.
    • COO: Our Chief of Operations will come to your location to help build out and automate your operations team with you along with bringing you and them up to speed with our standards, systems and processes.
    • Sales: Sales support with closing will be available and we have a pre-built formula for you along with a CRM, however, our world-renowned sales consult with work with you one-on-one to build your strategy for you specific market for maximum success.
  • Systems & Processes: Clear instructions, guidance & systems for operationalization of every part of your responsible roles within your branch. Built for success, excellence, efficiency & performance.
  • Partnerships:
    • Marriot
    • Process for building relationships with new local vendors for exclusive discounts which can be offered to guests and provide a point of difference.
    • Many industry experts offering a wealth of knowledge, insight and connection.
  • Credibility & Marketing: Whether you use your brand “Powered by True North,” or just plug straight into our brand – Plug into a well-established brand, portfolio, and expertise to gain instant credibility. Further, take advantage of our seasoned online presence and support with pushing your branch’s presence in your market.
  • Contracts: A collection of contract templates within our Digital Signing database along with a seamless process for having new owner contracts filled & sent by our internal team upon request.
  • Exclusive discounts on furnishing, software, and more.

• Role & Responsibilities

  • As a Branch Manager you will be responsible for the following:
    • Owner acquisition: With our help, you’ll be responsible for building your portfolio.
    • Owner relations: Although our team will be here to help to a large extent, the bottom-line rapport and relationship will be in your hands.
    • Performance: Keeping tabs on your team and your listings performance is your responsibility as much as it is ours. We will be here to support and facilitate, but it will be your job to also review your listings, their performance, your properties, and their integrity, identifying ideal updates and upgrades to refine and add to the experience, keep tabs on your operations team, check in on their work, and take a leadership role with them. Being that this relationship is incentivized by a profit share, it’s in your best interest to perform these tasks regardless as it directly affects your income.
    • Support With Hiring Vendors: You’ll need to establish your vendor list based on the needs we supply, and we recommend. This will involve speaking and negotiating with various vendors in your market for each specialist skill (for example: HVAC), and finding the best price, quality, and available (can they be available in a timely manner) option.
    • Local Partner Relations: You’ll need to create relationships with local brands in order to provide exclusive guest benefits. An example of this could be that in Traverse City, MI where there are a lot of wineries, we’ve partnered with one of the wineries after doing wine tastings at all of them, finding the best price for quality and now provide a bottle of local wine to every guest complimentary. Another benefit that strictly adds value without cost could be an exclusive discount at a favorite restaurant or tourist amenity. We list these exclusive benefits in the listing description to help give our listings a point of difference and stand out among the rest. The more; the better.