"Idea Man" in Real Estate Ready to Step It Up

Here's another entry in our Big Business Contest describing a company's personal struggle to grow, succeed, and thrive.

Judging of the entrants has begun, and 15 semi-finalists will be notified on Monday, May 5. Come back to vote on the finalists as they compete for the two final prizes -- specialized consulting from a business expert and a trip to Maui for business- and wealth-building seminars.

After working as a CPA in the corporate world for over 20 years, my wife and I started our own small business when we read Retire Young, Retire Rich, by Robert Kiyosaki. Gentor Investments was organized in November of 2004 for the purposes of investing. We have web-sites for buying houses, selling homes, and finding private lenders to fund our deals. Educating ourselves through seminars, home study courses, books and CD’s, we have found a niche in the pre-foreclosure market, but we are ready for more, much more.

Currently motivated sellers in the pre-foreclosure marketplace comprise the majority of our business. We do lease options, subject to deals, and short sales seem to be especially hot in today’s market. At our current level of activity, it is all we can do to keep the business running ourselves. We know we need to hire key individuals in order to advance the techniques and systems we have developed. We can create new opportunities and not only expend our current business but develop new related businesses. We identified what we do best and need some direction from experts in this field to over come the obstacles of expanding.

In my old job I was known as the “idea man”, always thinking, improving, expanding, training, moving on to bigger and better ideas. No area was off-limits to this CFO: marketing, product design, new product lines, manufacturing improvements, inventory control, etc. Our teams would do everything to eliminate cost and improve sales. Taking the best out of my experiences and mingling that with what we have learned in our own business, we are looking to leverage our position with new ideas to create dramatic new businesses. We see opportunity everywhere. Home staging for faster sales, auctions to sell higher dollar properties quickly, websites for wealth education through affiliate programs, and property management are just a few ideas we have envisioned. Most of these ideas are on a national level partnered with strategic alliances. We are never at an end for ideas only time, money, and connections. In order to start to leverage these ideas we have organized our own small mastermind group locally in order to put these ideas into action. I have also been seeking out a mentor on a national leveling order to take these ideas even further and on to the next level.

The next level for us may be starting something completely new, but in a whole different way. Stepping out on faith, our goal is to create the business, not be the business. Set up a business that operates on it own without us in the daily activity. Conceiving an idea and giving birth to it, inspiring others to fulfill the vision. We cultivate our connections, hire the best and leverage our time, money, experience and ideas. Going beyond our comfort zone and bring these dreams to reality. Creating new opportunities will be the next step for us.