January Leasing & Retention

January
National Diet Month
Losing weight is the #1 New Year's resolution. Invite a nutritionist from a local hospital to give a seminar discussing good, healthy foods. 90% of New Year's resolutions are broken in the first week! Help your residents lose that holiday weight. Host the seminar at a local gym or in your fitness center to teach residents how to properly use the equipment.

March Of Dimes Prevent Birth Defects Month

Call the March of Dimes at 914-428-7100 or visit www.modimes.org for a promotional kit on how to increase the prevention of birth defects in your community.

National Soup Month

Each year Americans enjoy more than 10 billion bowls of soup! (That's about 40 bowls per person.) Host a soup cooking class.

-Give a can of soup to each resident with a thank you note.

-Host a canned food drive. (See our article on p. 25.)

Make A Wish Foundation helps make the wishes of terminally ill children come true. They need YOUR community's help to help grant these wishes. Call the Make A Wish Foundation at 800-722-WISH or visit www.wish.org for your local chapter.

1st- New Year's Day

Good luck symbols for the New Year include a rabbit's foot, four leaf clovers, horseshoes, lucky pennies and lottery tickets.

Send out renewal notices with New Year's themes like:
-Counting down the reasons for you to spend the New Year with us!

-Put confetti and party favors in the envelope along with a countdown list of reasons for them to renew their leases.

1st- Betsy Ross' B-day

Pass out miniature flags to residents.

2nd- Throw Out Holiday Leftovers Day

4th- Vitamin C Day

Pass out orange juice to your residents as they leave to go to work.

7th- Save Water in the Shower Day

Encourage water conservation and save on water costs by sharing tips on how to use water wisely. Think about installing water saving shower heads in all your apartments.

8th- Show & Tell Day At Work

Kids do it, why can't adults? Bring in your favorite toy, book, person, whatever to the office!

8th- Elvis Presley's Birthday

Have an Elvis look a like contest! Play Elvis songs in the Leasing Office. Buy a life size stand up of Elvis and take pictures of residents with the stand up.

9th- Bob Denver's Birthday

Have your staff dress as castaways from Gilligan's Island and hand out Chips Ahoy cookies, Lifesavers and other desert island delights to your residents.

10th- Maintenance Worker Appreciation Day

Show your appreciation for those who keep your community running smoothly. Collect all of your service response forms after the work has been completed, and pick prize winners from a hat. Commend those maintenance folks who received high numbers of satisfactory replies. Or give the workers with the highest number of positive responses a prize!

11th- 17th- International Letter Writing Week

Purchase some nice stationary and pens in bulk, and give each resident a piece of stationary, matching envelope and a pretty pen (with your community name on it, of course!). What a great way to show residents you care and encourage the lost art of letter writing!

11th-17th- Pizza Week

PIZZA PARTY at your place! Make your own pizzas using cookie cutters to form crazy shapes with the dough (how about a groundhog shaped pizza?) You can make your own chocolate pizzas by taking a thin brownie crust and drizzling caramel, chocolate, marshmallows, nuts and other favorites on top. Chill for about an hour.

13th- Clean Up Your Desk Day

Take some time to throw out those piles of junk cluttering up your desk. Buy your staff tools to help them get organized--file folders, stackable file racks, etc.

13th- Forgo Fast Food Day

Just say no to those drive thrus and eat healthy food today! Who needs all that fat and calories anyway?

14th- Benedict Arnold's Birthday

Serve Eggs Benedict for brunch this Sunday morning.

January 22nd- Chinese New Year

Gung hay fat choy!! (Chinese for "Wishing you more money.")

Ring in the new year with firecrackers, paper fans, Chinese lanterns, wear Chinese robes, and serve Chinese tea and fortune cookies to residents. Invite a fortune teller for free fortune-readings. Order Chinese food. Have a taste test of different Chinese dishes. Serve Chinese chicken salad. Play Chinese checkers. Have a Feng Shui expert come in. Give away Chinese food cookbooks.

Call the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for more information: 213-617-0396 or visit www.lachinesechamber.org.

23rd- National Pie Day

Chicken pot pie, pizza pie, or ice cream pie are all great ways to celebrate. Give slices of pie to prospects and residents (a local bakery or the supermarket will donate them).

26th- Contagious Customer Service Day

Time to re-evaluate your customer service program! A smile is worth a thousand words.

28th- Coupon Day

Contact local businesses and collect coupons for services your residents are likely to use. Check with dry cleaners, pizza places, Chinese food, any place that�s likely to have coupons and want the attention. Just put them all together and pass them out in envelopes.

28th- Say Thanks Day

I just read a networking book that suggested writing five letters a day, three of which should be thank yous! Keeping a drawer full of note cards, stamps, and envelopes is the best way to be able to immediately thank someone. Remember to include WHY you are particularly thankful. "Thanks, Love Mindy" doesn't cut it. We also humbly thank all of our Rent & Retain subscribers for their support!

Also hang Thank You! signs all over your community.

31st- Firefighters' Appreciation day

Send cards out to your residents with fire safety tips and a reminder to change their smoke detector batteries every year.

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