Today was the first day our doors of City Center Mail were open for business!
I want to share how we got to this path, and thank a few special people who have helped Shane and I on our way!
Lets start back in February of 2011, Shane and I were lucky enough to go to an amazing 3 day seminar hosted by the James Smith Company that really changed our lives. We learned more in 3 days from Ryan Smith than I could ever think possible. Our minds were blown open to new possibilities in real estate, stocks, and most importantly how to take care of each other; the human race.
I was forever changed by the end of that third day, and I knew that our path in life was to become successful, and that by taking that path, we were going to be leaving some old friends behind, and meeting some knew ones along the way. I knew that I definitely wanted to follow in Ryan and Jaime Smiths’ footsteps of giving as much (and more) as yourself as possible, (and therefore becoming blessed with more, so you can give more).
When the final day was finishing, Ryan said something along the lines of only 1% of the people here will actually use this information and change their lives. And when the seminar was done, Shane and I started talking to the guy sitting next to us in the front row. We found out his name was Tommy, and we both commented about how much we learned from Ryan, and how ready we were to go buy some trailer parks! I remember us saying to him, “Don’t you feel like WE are the 1% in this room that are going to do something great” and He replied, “YES!”
Months later in May, Shane and I were really trying to get going in the Real Estate area but were kind of lost as to where to go, so we went to M5 to get exactly what was promised, ( which is so much information you don’t even have time for sleep)! There we met and really connected with Jared Osmond, who took time out of his exhausting week, and let us pick his brain for hours over lunches, dinners, and midnight meetings outside the conference rooms.
I learned from Jared to get really creative when it comes to business. You have to have an open mind about every property and idea, and figure out how it could work. I also loved his ‘SPF’, Spiritual, Physical, and Focus, if you don’t include God in your plans, you are going nowhere fast, and if you don’t take care of yourself physically, you wont have enough energy to hang on as “opportunity” comes flying by. and focus, focus, focus on the goal and make it happen!
My goal, my focus = make money, so I can give it way.
When we got back we were ready to rock! We started www.Sandiegohousesforrent.net with Tommy, which creates an incredible amount of leads everyday, ( if we could keep up with the pace of the folks who need to rent houses in the San Diego area, we would be closing on 2 houses a day!) with the volume the website was/is bringing in, we needed to rent a PO Box in Downtown San Diego. We sent Tommy downtown to find a mailbox store in the center of the city, (the closer to the center of the city, the better for our search engine rankings.) the store right smack dab in the center was closed up, and dark, but still full of ALL the stuff you could need for a mail box store. Tommy talked to the leasing agent, (and figured out that the DEA had actually taken the previous owner away), and whoever took over the lease got to keep everything inside.
->Here’s the extra special thanks to Ryan and Jared for teaching all of us to look for opportunities in every shape and size, get creative, and make the deal work in a way that is beneficial to everyone.
We didn’t know the slightest bit of running a Post office box store! But I know retail, and customer service from all those years at Starbucks, Shane is the marketing genius of these parts, and came up with about 100 ways to make money from that store in ways other than renting Post Office boxes, and Tommy is great at getting creative with the financing and terms, aka making the deal happen!
Heres how we did it without using our own money!!: (well, ok, we have used our own money, but we didn’t have to, Ill explain…)
Financing:
Tommy got financing for the deal from a friends IRA (see, you do always know someone who has more money than you!) that covered the rent, insurance, some small set up costs, and employees first month of pay.
We hired an employee to manage the store, so we dont have to do the “work” ourselves, (we also made the stipulation that she wont get paid until the 30th day of employment, giving the store 30 days to make enough money to pay for her salary. (and she’s excited about the big lump sum check!)
the inventory in the store that we didn’t want, didn’t need, we sold ($) or donated (tax write-off $)
Due Diligence:
Everything needed to run a functional store was in the store but is was dirty, old, and musty. (But it was there)
We looked over search engine searches for post office boxes in San Diego, and found 1000′s of searches per month, if we could snag 10% of those, we would break even in just mail box rentals.
but
of course we wanted to increase our other businesses as well, so out of the store we offer SEO services, business coaching, meeting room facilities, and we will be hosting weekly mastermind and entrepreneur groups.
this is where we started spending some of our own money.
We can’t do anything just Ok, all of us are Do-It-Right the first time sort of people, so we ripped out the ugly green carpet, and put down hard wood floors, painted the greys and blues White Red and Black to stand out. We tore down a divider wall to make a huge meeting room, and added a key-coded secure room so we can also eventually buy and sell gold and silver out of the store.
Today was the first day, we opened at 8:45 am, and our first sale came in around 3pm, and we made 6 copies for a gentleman for $.60, its a start!
So here’s to the future, and great things to come!
Ryan and Jared, you are both amazing, thank you for the motivation you gave Shane and I to change our lives, and I sincerely hope that we get to have dinner again soon to tell you all about it in person! I know you guys are both really busy, but THANK YOU for taking the time to listen, teach and motivate people like Shane, Tommy and myself! Thank you and God Bless!
Tomdizzle- you rock, I’m so glad that we sat next to each other in February! Thank you for all your hard work, even during a very hectic time in your life.
Shane- I love you with all my heart! You are my other half, thank you for continually giving me love and support, and letting me have lots of time at the barn!
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