Real Estate + Technology + Business
Entrepreneurs
Mayor Leppert says Dallas Entrepreneurship Day is November 19th
Oct 29th
Mayor Tom Leppert has officially named November 19th as Entrepreneurship Day in Dallas!
On November 19th, Entrepreneurs’ Organization will be holding an event to celebrate EO24 and Global Entrepreneurship Week – to inspire entrepreneurial activity in Dallas and around the globe.
Our event will bring together prominent Dallas area business leaders and entrepreneurs for a panel discussion on entrepreneur activity in Dallas, the economy and other topics of interest to business leaders.
Entrepreneur Lessons from The Container Store co-Founder & CEO Kip Tindell
Aug 14th
Recently I invited Kip Tindell, the Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of The Container Store to speak to the Dallas Chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
They hosted our event at their corporate headquarters, including a tour of their amazing logistics facility, from which any item that is in one of their stores originates.
A true entrepreneurial story, Kip has grown The Container Store from a single 1,600 sqft location in Dallas to 43 locations throughout the country, that average 25,000 sqft in size.
The big take-away from his talk was over-communicate to your staff, your partners and your vendors. If you put your employees first – revenue and profits will follow.
The Container Store philosophy is that 1 great employee = 3 good employees, and 1 good employee = 3 bad employees. So only hire great employees and over-pay them compared to the market.
Kip also says he gives the same power-point presentation on the company’s status to his board of directors and his employees. Employees feel they know what is going on in the business and won’t be surprised.
Maybe that is why Fortune has named them one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For – 10 years in a row.
Being an Entrepreneur
May 20th
This is a great video put together by a fellow company in Entrepreneurs’ Organization that does a fantastic job of telling the story of why we do what we do.
Plus, it’s not a bad bit of ‘viral marketing. Enjoy.
How Entrepreneurs Beat Insomnia and get ROI from rest
Aug 27th
The title is a little cheesy, but CNNMoney recently interviewed 8 entrepreneurs on how they cope with insomnia and ensure a good nights sleep.
My tips included writing everything down before you go to bed and doing something “mindless (watch TV, read a novel) that helps your brain wind down and disengage. As an entrepreneur and business owner it is easy to let your mind go wild thinking of all the things that must be accomplished the next day, most of which nothing can be done about right now
Getting good sleep is critical to operating at your peak and being creative. There are some great suggestions in this article and its a quick read. Here is the link to the full story.
1-800-Cashoffer & Credibility
May 25th
It is true that the best ideas are sometimes driven by necessity!
We recently launched a company called 1-800-CashOffer because we saw a huge unmet need in the marketplace.
Residential real estate investors serve a very important function in the real estate economy. By purchasing, fixing up and selling property that is in disrepair they improve neighborhoods, increase property values, and provide an outlet for property that would otherwise sit vacant. They purchase homes going into foreclosure and both save a person’s credit in a tough situation and provide an outlet for the bank to quickly sell the property (banks do not want to foreclose, they do so because they have to).
Unfortunately, because of the actions of a few un-educated, un-professional, and un-scrupulous investors that have gone to a get-rich-quick seminar – the industry has started to get a black eye. The increased rate of mortgage fraud some so-called investors have been involved in has not helped any.
1-800-CashOffer was created so that scrupulous, honest investors that have the ability to purchase a home for cash and close quickly, can operate under a national reputable brand that consumers can trust.
Home sellers can feel confident that they will be treated right and that the real estate investor is experienced and will follow through on their commitments.
We have combined 1-800-CashOffer with our “Certified Professional Homebuyer” program that certifies an investors experience level and ability to purchase a home quickly for cash, in addition to holding them to a higher standard of ethics.
Ken Blanchard – The One Minute Entrepreneur
Feb 12th
I recently had the opportunity to meet Ken Blanchard and his wife Margie Blanchard, son Scott Blanchard and Scott’s wife Madeleine Homan.
What a talented family They were speaking to a group of entrepreneurs about Ken’s upcoming book – “The One Minute Entrepreneur” that is similar to “The One Minute Manager” in format but focused on helping entrepreneurs think through the skills needed to create a successful company.
I was able to review a manuscript and I believe it will be a great resource for those thinking of starting a company. It covers a lot of the basic skills and “common sense” things that unfortunately aren’t as “common” as they should be. The forward is by Michael Gerber, who has an amazing track record of helping small businesses to
create processes and systems to succeed.
If you ever have the opportunity to hear any of the Blanchards, especially Ken, speak, I highly recommend you do whatever you can to attend. They are all highly sought after speakers who do an excellent job of engaging their audience while
providing a lot of in-depth data and analysis.
And when “The One Minute Entrepreneur” comes out, be sure and pick up a copy!
When NOT to go public by GoDaddy’s Bob Parsons
Aug 31st
It seems that nearly every business owner out there has dreams of taking their company public. This is especially true in the technology industry where you can be losing money but generate a windfall of cash by offering shares to the public.
An article earlier this month by Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com outlines why, after doing all the filing needed and receiving SEC approval, he decided to withdraw his registration with the SEC to become a public company.
One of the primary reasons cited in his post are the stringent accounting methods that the SEC would require them to use if they wanted to be public.
With the ridiculous Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements, many companies (and their the CEOs who are now ultimately responsible for financial errors) are deciding to either not go public, or to go public in a foreign market to avoid the overbearing requirements of the US market.
SOX was a typical over-reaction to the Enron/Tyco/etc scandals of the past few years. Just like preventing you from bringing hair gel on an airplane probably doesn’t make you any safer, but makes you feel safer because “at least they did something“, many of the SOX requirements don’t do anything to stop fraud, while making it much harder to do business as a public company.
Do we really want US companies to feel like that have to go to foreign markets if they want public investment? Business is what drives our economy. Let’s figure out how to make it easier for business owners to operate, not hamstring their efforts to grow (and create jobs, and buy buildings, and pay taxes).
Bob Parsons of GoDaddy – 10 Rules
Jul 20th
This is a great posting by Bob Parsons, the founder and CEO of GoDaddy, and former founder of Parsons Technology (sold to Intuit for $64 Million).
One of the interesting things from his business history is that with both of the companies he founded he was the sole investor. He never raised money and created two companies with revenues in excess of $100M.
Of the 16 rules Parsons has come up with, here are a few that are my favorite:
1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not
much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear
people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is
simple: “Security is for cadavers.”
7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop
improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop
improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be
better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese
concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge
advantages.
8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton
said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than
a perfect plan tomorrow.”
You can view Parsons’ entire post at Bob Parsons – My 16 Rules.
Fast Home Offers – Web 2.0
Jun 28th
Over the past weekend we completed the launch of our new web site over at Fast Home Offers.
The primary catalyst for this move was to create a more streamlined presence that uses the latest “Web 2.0″ type of design methods and is easier for home owners and investors to use.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, Fast Home Offers is the largest lead generation company for real estate investors in North America. We have nearly 10,000 home owners each month contact us to sell their house and we connect them with professional investors around the world.
If you have any web development needs, be sure to contact The Murph Group. They have designed may of our web sites and I highly recommend them.
Real Estate Investing System
Jan 24th
Do you have a system?
I met with a large investor the other day and he (like me) is very systems oriented. What I mean by this is that if you are running a business (i.e. real estate investing) you MUST come up with a documented, reproducible system for everything you do.
So many small business owners “wing it”. While this may work while you are a company of one or two, your growth will be limited because you will not be able to delegate critical tasks to employees.
In the context of residential real estate investing you’ll spend a lot of time analyzing deals, lining up contractors, deciding what repairs you want to do and figuring out how to sell.
Here are a few ideas for investors on things to systemize:
- Do the same basic repairs to every property, using the same products (same carpet, same paint, same cabinets etc. in every rehab)
- Setup rules around what offers you’ll make on properties. While most investors have a basic formula in their head, clearly define them and write them down.
- Know your exit before you enter. You should have a very clear idea of what
your exit strategy for the property is before you buy.
- Documents/contracts/forms. Most real estate investors are in the dark
ages when it comes to automating the many documents required in a real estate transaction. If you are entering any information more then once (sellers name, property address and legal description) you are doing it too much. Technology can be a great tool here.
- The offer process. If you make an offer how soon do you follow up? How do you counter if they say no? If they decide they want to wait a few months how do you follow up?
An excellent resource for business owners that want to create systems are The E-Myth Revisited and (if you really want the details) E-Myth Mastery. I highly recommend both of these books!