Chamber of Commerce

I'm going to be heading to the chamber of commerce today, or tomorrow to see if I can setup some sort of small "free seminar" to local biz owners. My plan is to share with them how they can "Get online" and if they are online, to turn their website into a money generating machine for them vs just some shell billboard that's not doing much...then off them a consulting service (price point not set yet) then once I meet with them, offer them a unique blueprint solution for their company. So far I've received 3 calls biz related, but no appointments. Hoping something happens soon.

On another note, I was just charged 5 x for $498.37 on my debit card for some random websites.. i called Bank of America and the immediately said "We notice unusual activity" , i'm thinking they couldn't stop it while it was happening? Hell.. they stopped me from buying a TV a few months ago because they didn't think it was me.. anyway, they said the charged need to be "cleared" before they can fix it right now they are pending.. what a hassle..

Pz Out!

Got my first phone call!!

My biz line rang this morning early on, I was so excited like whoohooo, i missed the call though as I was still sleeping, anying the person left a message and it was awesome, they told me that I could be making 50,000 a month!All I had to do was call them back ~ Only if I was serious about making SERIOUS MONEY though :( ...Thanks Craigslist :-/

However, I am going to TRY* To make another 50-100 calls today..gosh cold calling businesses is a daunting task, but i'll get it done.. i think I'm giong to rely mostly on flyers and other marketing methods to get people to call ME back.

I should be getting some sort of calls from my alst mailings over the next few days though!

100 Cold Calls and 100 Flyer Sent.

Well, I'm starting things small. I want to work up to sending about 1000 flyers out advertising my webdev company, however I don't have a a system in place to handle it if I receive a bunch of calls.. so I'm building up slowly but surely.

Out of the 100 cold calls, I didnt get much GOOD responses, I did however manage to land to appointments next week, which I'm looking forward to. The mailers went out friday.. so I won't get any calls if any, until next week. 100 really isnt enough but I'm hopeing I get 1 or 2 appointments.

I know that if I meet with the owner I can close them... the product really sells itself if they truly want to increase their revenue.

I have a number of people that I will outsource the work to, so once I start getting in clients, I will be able to plug them in, so to say.. we will see how it goes!

Hope everyone enjoys their fourth of july.

Oh Ya. I'm taking a break from ebay :) I'm not going to work the eby biz all July.. I did pretty well the last few months, so I'm just gonig to take a lil vacation.

Hope this weeks goes well!

Hey everyone, after a few emails I thought it would be bessed to post a blog entry.

Well, I will just get str8 to the point. I don't want to let anyone down that's one reason why I havent really posted anything lately. However, some things have changed recently for me.

My local real estate market has been struggling a little, I have tried to put in a lot of leg work sincemy last blog entry in finding other good buyers, but I kept hitting a wall in which it didnt seem I could overcome. I am going to be on a "real estate biz sabbatical" for the next few months until things change a little.

That being said, I've since started another company.. yes another. This is a marketing company in which I'm able to help local biz owners decrease their marketing exepenses while increasing their profits. One thing I have gotten really good at over the pastyear is internet marketing. I find it enjoyable, and challenfing.

I was going to start up another blog that is my "accountability partner" for that business, mainly because I didnt want people to think I'm just giving up on RE, nor let some of my followers down that were reallypushing for me. However, my blog is about the road to freedom..

So I may change the tone of this blog from Real Estate to ,y new biz venture.. believe it or not, i do a lot of the same "logistial things" that i went through for my RE biz.. IE offline marketing, finding clients, marketing my services, presentations etc etc.

Just a heads up for anyone reading.

Thanks and talk to you all soon, i look forward to me starting to blog again!

Free as last, free at last... THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I'M FREE ATLAST!!!

Graduated Magna Cum Laude 3.47 GPA
Major: Laboratory Animal Sci. Concentration in Biology and Chemistry.
Honors and Awards:
- Golden Key National Honour Society.
- Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society
- Beta Kappa Chi National Science Honor Society.
- Gamma Sigma Delta National Agricultural Honor Society
- Alpha Lambda Delta - Freshman Honor society (for having above a 3.5 freshman year)
- Alpha Phi Omega - National Service Fraternity
- Deans list every semester (8).

I'm so happy I'm done with this.

What next? Well take a break for 6 months, I'm going to work on my biz stuff.

January, I'm going to start a masters program to get my Masters in Public Health. I really want to be a High ranking executive in a Medical Facility.

I walked REALLY slow across the stage and Waived to everyone like I was a superstar haha, I savored the moment!


This is me and My Favorite Professor!



Me and my Incredible boo!

Friday's meeting

I was scheduled to meet at the Office at 10:00, got there 5 mins early, as usual so i can get some cookies and juice lol..no really..;) open up the door and only one person was there. (there are usually 3) The guy that was there is a broker. One of the other girls, i guess left because "there was no work" , and the guy that was there said things are just going slow lol, like no shit.. you don't buy any hosues this is what happens. My buyer wasnt even there! I asked where he was, he said he stepped out for a minute.. but I left after waiting for 20 mins. (You want to know how to REALLY annoy the crap out of me, on the verge of pissing me off.. it's me waiting for you at a time you scheduled.. i can see 5-10 mins.. but anything more is just stupid..ESPECIALLY IF YOU CAN'T TEXT ME TO TELL ME YOU WONT BE THERE!) lol.. ::rant-OFF:: ) The buyer is cool, but when it comes to stuff like this he's annoying. He won't call me EVER if he has to cancel.. he doesnt respond to emails or texts..he says they take up too much time (i know what you're thinking, he's prolly old.. NO.. he's 25!), so basically i'll just wait to pop up at the office some time this week.

I might employ some "creative and strategic buyer aquisition strategies" (sounds good right?) to get some more buyers.. Steph is off the hook cause at any given point she'll have 1 seemingly endless list of ACTIVE buyers..something i need to work on. I know what I gotta do, it's just lately (the past 2 months or so) i've been so unmotivated to get this REI stuff done.. time to suck it up and do something about it.

Went down to charlotte yesturday, it was SOO nice out, I just wanted to go cruise around, so we drove to charlotte, visited a few malls then drove home and i finally saw slumdog millionaire for the FIRST time! GREAT FREEKING MOVIE! wow..

My apartment is looking like a mess, i need to figure something out, i'm usually a pretty organized person, but lately it looks more like a warehouse then anything else. I had a lil get together on friday and I found myself just throwing crap in various closets to hide my "other life " lol (not to many people know i retail on ebay..people usually take it as a joke so I just never bring it up) I need either a bigger apartment, or figure out some sort of organizational system that keeps things more organized.

Well, that's about it for now!

Oh yea. Does anyone reading this (all 4 of you lol) have any expirience with the millitary ~~Navy? The navy has made a crazy offer to be a healthcare administrator (like a CEO of a health facility) after I get my MBA or MPH (masters in public health) ..and they will Pay for it ($60k value) .. the only thing is I would have to give back 3 years, to the Navy.. but the pay..is gooood. I'm just not sure..i hope someone can help me out here. Oh yea, and they will pay me as a "O1" while im in school..

Okay.. time to do laundry :(

i'm finding my self wanting to keep rambling.. because I know as soon as I close my screen i gotta do laundry, lol, so sorry if I'm just going on and on about nothing.. hmm what else can I think to talk about? Oh yea, my GF and I celebrated 3 years on friday :) Can't believe it's been so long sheesh! okay i gotta go, it sucks when you put off doing laundry for weeks! literally now i got SO MUCH TO DO! maybe i should invite steph (my GF) over for some wine, cheese and laundry folding later lol

Ahh, 3 more weeks!

Until I graduate!! I CAN'T WAIT!

I know I have not posted in a looonnnngg time.. it seems I always say that, but this has been the longest time since starting this blog that I have not posted.

One of the main reasons is because i'm about to graduate, and there has been exam after exam after exam it seems, i havent even had time to watch TV.. not that i'm missing anything I suppose.

Secondly, I havent really had anthing new and refreshing to post in regards to RE. This friday my origional buyer who bought everything wants me to come in, as he has something to tell me.. I REALLY hope it's good news :)

ebay is going great, still makeing money that route lol. I'm not making as much as I thoguht I would initially.. but i'm making pretty darn close to it, so i'm not really complainging.

hmm what else.. oh yea, MY DAD GOT FACEBOOK! ~ weird right? lol.. now I need to monitor the crazy pictures that my friends put up of me.

Well, i'm going to be sure to post some more later.. not much new and exciting going on, but hopefully friday will turn into a "DENNIS WE GOT FINANCING GO GET ME DEALS!" type of conversation lol

Talk to you soon!

D

Mexico , frustration , and $$$

Hey Everyone, it's been a lil bit since I've posted last. First week of march I was in Mexico (cruise to Cozumel) on my spring break with some friends, had a great time.. although it was some retarded cold front so it was pretty chilly, like 50deg, we went to keywest and everyone was like "This is the coldest it's been in 50 years" lol, kinda sucked for us, but we still made the best of it and had a great time.. i'll put up some pics. Oh yea,, i also learned that Happy hour in at south beach is not so happy.. I bought 4 drinks and it came upto $120 bucks! WTF! would I do a cruise again? Hmm maybe like an alaskan cruise, or world cruise or something, but not a cruise carribean. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but when we go on vacations me and my gf like to explore.. on the cruise we only had like 3 hours in KY and 8 hours in mexico.. and the rest of the time it was like staying in a hotel for 4 days without going anywhere. plus it was cold, so i personally didnt get in the pool or lay out.. but some crazies were. it was cool there, we had a bunch of friends with is

Well, the RE market in my area is about shitty right now, i've been hunting for cash buyers for some time, i put out home made signs on plastic (similar to tampastephs) ,i got some calls.. but most of the calls are from people who want to buy a house, or investors wondering if i had access to money ?? lol I managed to dump the house i had under contract to a local guy, who didn't want the house but wanted to help me out so that was nice of him, i made a whopping $500 on the deal, but time was running out, i had to get rid of it.

--warning, if you don't like to read depressing posts school past this paragraph--

I'm just really growing in frustration, i had huge plans at the beginning of the year, but now that financing has basically dried up, i don't know what to do. I honestly don't know. I can find the deals, that's not the problem, but i can't find buyers with money! Greensboro, NC is not really a hot spot for RE. There are not many people running to greensboro with a ton of cash to invest. I went to the REIA meeting last week, and the guy who i knew was buying everything.. isnt buying anything anymore.. He's one of the first guys a met in greensboro who was really out there buying up a lot of rentals and all that. He said he's just going to slow down for a little while...whatever that means. Ugh, just at a loss.. well, i hope something changes for us all soon
-------------------

Okay, ebay:
I'm really glad I have multiple streams of income. Right now, i have my first item closing that I have been working for the last 4 months on. I don't even have them on hand yet, but will have them on hand tomorrow. Basically, i was able to get manufactured this item that is selling today for $.80 cents!! You know what the current bid is?? $101!! I was thinking it would go up to $40-$50 but 101! Wow. This new venture has nearly cost me 10grand for the whole development process, but in about a month or 2 i'll make that back and everything will be gravy .. but now it's about to be gravy. I have some items that I know will sell for $300 that cost me about $5 to make. After it's all said an done, i've calculated (conservatively) I should be able to profit about $8000-$10,000) per month on these, this is on top of my current $3000-$4000 profit on my "old school" ebay biz. This is like 1 good real estate deal, but you know what lol $$$ is $$$


The Job situation:
Last week, I called and denied the offer. :) Reason being, I can get paid much more then 77k if I get an industry job not related with the government. 2) i like working for myself..so this is my plan. After I graduate, I'm going to take a year break from school (i've been in higher ed since 2001) I'm going to work on my business's and really hit it hard.. if a year goes by and i'm broke then I'll get in the job market, heck my Environmental Analytical Chemist license lasts for 3 years so finding a job a year from now shouldn't be hard. So thats what my plan is..

Oh yeah,
i'll upload a few pics (read the captions :)

Den

PS: before i finished uploading the pics , i checked out the auction and it's upto $127 with 2 hours left..i'm simply amazed


This is what it looked like in greensboro NC when we left. All seeason, we asked for snow.. well we finally got it at the worst time... to make a LOOONG story short it took as 6hours to get to the airport which is 45mins away.



this was during the "captains ball"




my and my good mate greg


This is the REAL spong BOB..found him in key west


This was the bar in cozumel where we spent a conciderable amount of time at.. :)



we don't have one of these where i'm from



ignore steph's hair..she been swimmin all day lol


My friend, who we now call scube steve haha


our boat is on the right.. i never knew how big these things were


i have never seen manicans with breast implants lol, only at south beach i guess??



some friends we met, they were on rollar blades , they showed us all the hot spots


i was mad that my GF's drink was bigger then mine haha yes.. these were the $30 drinks (i guess i should have listened to my inner self "Den, there are no prices on the drinks.. they will cost you a pretty penny" lol


These are some of the friends we went with. See the white guy with the sport coat on? I beat him in the ping pong competition :) he was pretty good to i knew he was gonna beat me, but i was more consistent then him, but his slams were crazy i couldnt keep up lol, so really he beat himself but hey, his loss :)

Job Offers and Crazy Deals :-x

Alright, i've been so busy on the road back and forth lately. Well, to make a long story short, I applied to a job with the EPA as a Analytical Chemist back in December, last week I went out to the EPA for my last interview.. and today I got the phone call.. I got the job :) $77k , full benefits all that good stuff, the position is upto 115k so it's pretty on paper.. the only bad thing is, i'm SCARED, i don't want to settle for mediocrity.. 77k is okay, but i want more then that.. i'm worried that i will end up and settle for the 9-5grind.. I know I can make more then 77k between my companies if i just hussle fulltime (once i graduate) so i'm at a cross roads..

gotta figure some things out..

REI Deal goin crazy.

Well.. I got This house under contract.. remember the buyer who wants to buy a ton of houses? I tested him out.. and he backed out..said he didnt want the house.. the crazy thing is this is a CRAZY deal like, if i had the cash i would buy it type of deal.. and i called my number one buyer to see where he's at.. if you remember he's having some financing issues.. and guess what.. he still is having finance issues.

So, I have 30 days to find a buyer, well now its like 25..so i hope i do, otherwise i may just finance it myself..if i can LOL!

anyway, my thoughts are kinda scattered now, sorry for the incoherent post. Thanks everyone for wishing me well.. Steph, the soup helped ;) I got better AFTER i gave it to my girlfriend and my mom :( oops!

anyway, got school work to do, LATA!

Dennis

Totally Sick man :(

Last weekend I started to work out (spring break coming up soon) , and you know how after you work out hard you feel kinda sore? Well Monday I was feeling it.. but Monday night the soreness was turning into full blown achiness and a headache.. I went to bed early in an attempt to sleep it off.. well Tuesday morning, I could barely move.. i was so stiff, cold sweating just really bad.. so I called my GF after laying there helpless for hours to have her take me to the Dr.. I went to the dr and they did a throat swab on me (that crap made me puke) and nose swab.. but it all came up okay. I didn't have TOO much congestion, just a little because my sinuses are going crazy now..anyway after about 3 hours at the Dr office they told me i had some crazy virus infection. The Dr wrote me a note to be absent from school the whole week..you may be thinking that's awesome.. but really that means I need to make up a weekend worth of work and hardly have the time as it is.. so anyway, my energy is coming back a little I'm still really achy and go through spurts of being REALLY cold, last night i was so cold i started to tern blue..the dr said there wasn't much medicine he could give me for it, just fluids, rest, and Tylenol to manage the fever.

I checked my phone a little bit ago (this is literally the first time I've been on my laptop since Tuesday night) and I have a number of missed calls.. damn I hope I don't loose a deal over this. I can't really talk now my voice sounds really crazy :(

Well, i think i gotta go lay back down im startig to get cold again lol

Dennis