Читать книгу AWARE - A Business in a Book - Lucille Orr - Страница 7

The right business came to me when I stopped searching.

Life has a strange way of deciding your fate for you. Even the best plans don’t always work out the way we expect. In 1994, when I went to Sydney to assist the NSW Government with its ‘Women in Business’ mentor programme I wanted to travel around Australia and overseas as a speaker promoting my book “How to Ask for What You Want and GET IT!”

It started off well and I visited all the capital cities of Australia to launch the book and spoke to large women’s conferences in Malaysia, Japan and two cities in USA, but when my son Steven joined me in Sydney and I became a single mother of a 12-year-old, all my plans of becoming an international speaker had to stop.

Steven had been happy in Adelaide with his friends, family and his father, but suddenly his whole world was turned upside down when he was put on a flight to Sydney at 6 am on a cold October morning in 1994. Financially and emotionally it was a difficult time for us both, especially when he was never to hear from his father again. I felt so guilty for many years about the loss my son had to suffer because of my decision to leave my husband.

I’d had to refinance my properties in Adelaide prior to leaving Sydney to pay off all my credit card debt. Steve and I had to live on credit for much of the time, as many of my jobs in NSW were voluntary.

When I got back to Adelaide, because of refinancing, I had to face even higher mortgage repayments on my six properties. Some had been freehold when I left my husband and moved to Sydney. Never mind, I was pleased I hadn’t sold any of them and could refinance them, to make a new start back home.

What I didn’t know at the time was that it wouldn’t matter how hard I worked in the next 18 months while I was studying for my real estate license. I would earn a very low income. There was barely enough money to feed Steve and myself and pay one mortgage. So until I started my own business I paid most of the mortgages, insurances, repairs, council rates, strata management fees and all other costs associated with my investment properties with my credit cards. Once again my credit card debt was back to $40,000.

While this sounds terrible and I know most people would never be able to live the way I did for so many years, today it’s all been worth it. If I’d taken a friend’s advice back in the sixties I could have had my own real estate company and gained my license by just working in the industry. At that time, experience gained in a real estate office was enough to qualify you to gain your own license. You didn’t have to study first and gain an academic qualification before you could apply for a license. I’d operated my own businesses for over 30 years and never before had to study and gain a Diploma before I was allowed to start my own business.

Real estate is different. There are so many laws associated with selling a home, land or a business today that we have no choice but to understand them before we can work in the industry. I was grateful for the 12 months traineeship to gain the practical experience I needed on the job before starting my own real estate business.

Location, location, location is Important in Business

In hindsight I did something right while in Sydney. I didn’t sell my Adelaide properties and they increased in value by 500% since I divorced my husband in 1994. I paid $195,000 in the eighties for our Adelaide shop front, offices and warehouse. In February 2008 a small two-storey, city office block a few doors down from ours sold for $1,400,000. A few weeks later a small upstairs strata office, opposite our building, sold for $535,000. Both sold at auction. In early 2010 a large office/ warehouse a few doors from our commercial building sold for over $2 million.

This is why I trust investing in real estate, and use credit cards when I need to get through challenging financial times.

We all need to focus on the good decisions we make in life and not beat ourselves up over the mistakes we think we have made. Keeping my Adelaide commercial property was a very good decision.

I’ve owned and operated many successful businesses in my life and have never had a more profitable business than AWARE Properties. By holding onto my early property investments it made it possible for me to finance this business and create an opportunity for you.

In my past books I’ve always said it takes two years before a new small business makes a profit. This has all changed with the Internet. It seems many of the Internet based businesses started by young entrepreneurs boom in the initial years and later disappear altogether.

In real estate it took me just over two years in the industry to make a profit, but only because I had to work for someone else before I was allowed to open my own company.

When I finally started my own business it was profitable from the first day by offering our customers help to find properties to rent and buy. It created a steady cash flow, a valuable asset in any business, and unique in real estate. AWARE Properties didn’t need to spend money buying an expensive rent roll, which is what many real estate agents do when they go into business. Our property management division grew steadily from the many clients for whom we bought investment properties through our buying service.

The real estate industry is extremely competitive and one agent told me. “You’re too friendly, you talk too much, people don’t want to get to know you, they’re only interested in themselves and how much their home is worth.” He also said, “Buyers are liars don’t waste your time with them.”

“How can I sell property if I don’t have buyers? And why would someone trust me to sell their most precious asset, their home, if they didn’t get to know me first?” I thought.

I’m so pleased I instinctively didn’t listen to these hardened real estate agents and did my own thing. I probably do spend too much time getting to know my clients and having them get to know me, at our first meetings. I’ve given away many of my books to the vendors I’ve worked for so they had a chance to know me before they gave me their home to sell.

It worked! I’ve never had to advertise to get business. I’m probably the only real estate agent who doesn’t ask vendors for a huge advertising budgets to promote my company!

Follow your instincts, it sounds crazy not to want to spend money on advertising, but I love to do business differently because it works, and I hate to waste money on unnecessary advertising.

Don’t waste money, is the first rule of good business.

Why Real Estate?

When a vendor and purchaser sign a contract for the sale and purchase of a property my company is selling it’s our greatest reward. Watching their happy faces and knowing we’ve helped to change their lives is a wonderful feeling. Our financial reward is a bonus.