So it’s a whole new process for Workday, which is why it’s taken a — it takes a while to build it. We got to ramp it up. They got to get the infrastructure together and they got to move it through that. So I think those are the good things that happen. We do not know quite yet how that’s going to work, but we feel very, very positive that we’re going to be successful at it because Workday has asked to lead it. And that puts us in a very unique position to be able to go through and really help not only our company but help Workday as well. And so we think that’s all going to start once it’s all built and starts getting — the rules of engagement start getting worked out, I think that we will see those results starting. I think as of yesterday, Eric Peters, our Division President, told me we just had our first Workday consultant out of the Workday portal get chosen to go on a job.
So we’ve got the first one going out right now. So that’s a great sign for us.
Howard Halpern: And just overall now, could you talk about what you’re anticipating the pace of being able to pay down debt will be throughout the year?
John Barnett: I mean, Howard, every bit of cash that we generate, everything that we can pull out of the business, we are focused on paying down debt. And I’m not going to provide a forecast on that. But no, we are — that is our focus.
Operator: And the next question is from Bill Dezellem from Tieton Capital.
Bill Dezellem: I’d like to actually start to ask you to clarify this in the press release. The second paragraph, where you referenced that the current macro environment is different from the past. What specifically were you referring to there?
Beth Garvey: The property management arena we talked about a minute ago. The difference in how they’re operating, what’s happened with the operating expenses in that environment where the property owners were having increases in their insurance and increases in their taxes. A lot of the people who had ARM loans are out coming to fruition now, so their interest rates are going up. So those types of things.
Bill Dezellem: And then would you please provide a perspective on your revenue trends for each of the 2 divisions? Over the last 4 months, I mean, you talked pretty positively about what you’re seeing with the Professional side and maybe we can get a little more clarity on the building strength that’s taking place there.
John Barnett: Bill, we talked about — I mean, the property management side, those trends have been down. And really, that downward trend year-over-year decline started in December and continued through the first quarter. If we look at the professional side of the business, I would say, really, we’ve been very similar to what we’ve seen from our competitors, which is relatively flat business adjusted for seasonality. And that really has been since the middle of last year, and that trend has not changed. I think we are optimistic that a lot of the initiatives that we have been putting in place and working on tirelessly on the professional side, really, for the last 4 months, 6 months is going to start to show in our numbers towards the really end of the second quarter and into the third quarter.
Bill Dezellem: And John, have you seen, as we’ve gone through January through April that month-to-month, there is a little bit of strengthening taking place in the Professional arena? Or was it reasonably consistent throughout the quarter?
John Barnett: I would say, in general, reasonably consistent. We had some balances, right, as we move through — definitely on the Professional side, as we moved through January, February and March. We actually had a slightly stronger January than we thought because typically, we have more year-end there as the budget season shifts from 1 year to the next. We saw less of that in January. We saw a little bit more of that come through in February, and then we saw more — a little bit of recovery in March.
Bill Dezellem: So in essence, the reference that Beth had made to the wins that you’re starting to see the revenue benefit from that is still ahead of us.
Beth Garvey: Correct.
Operator: And the next question will be from Steve Cole, a private investor.
Unidentified Analyst: A quick question. I wanted to talk a little bit about property management and the change in the compensation structure you alluded to. Could you speak a little bit what comp did that? And I know, Beth, you’ve alluded to the — you mentioned the proprietary database that you’re now utilizing. How is that working? So if I remember, that’s been going on for a few months now. Can you maybe give us a little bit of background and then what’s happened since you’ve rolled that out? And are we seeing higher churn at all as you change the compensation structure? Has that been a good thing? Or what’s happened there?
Beth Garvey: The compensation structure changed April 1. So this is — we’re going through the first process of seeing what the new comp plans look like. But to give a little insight into how it used to work, we had wanted to do this for a couple of years, and we did not have the ability to be able to go in and attach revenue to a person. It was always just attached to the market. So when we would go into a budget, we would say we’ve got the Dallas market, and this is the number we need you to hit. There may be 5 people that work on that Dallas market, and they all get compensated the same regardless of what they were doing, right? So this gives us the ability to really have those rock stars that are going through and doing all the production and moving in the right direction, giving them the ability to say, you know what, this is great because now I get to eat what I kill, right?
So I get to go out and I get to make more money. And the other thing it also does for us is it allows sales and the delivery teams to get outside their markets. And what that means is if there — we’re at a — there’s a market that has got no orders, they’re all full, they’re all good. Those delivery people and salespeople can pop over and start helping other markets and get credit for it and win. And we did not have that ability before. And so that all went into effect April 1. So super excited to see how that rolls out.
John Barnett: Steve, I would also mention that, we needed to transition to a plan that was — our strategy was we want it to be always relevant. We — and so our old plan wasn’t always relevant, depending on what was going on in the individual market. And the other thing was to create really that owner-operator type incentive so that they own their destiny and they can see what — if I’m in a market for 3 years, and I drive it to this level, I can clearly see what type of commissions and my total comp that I would earn.
