As Tom told you Friday, he’s on vacation, so I’m going to write to you this week. Here goes…
I was 7 years old the first time my family and I visited America.
We went to Disneyworld and I was super excited to meet Mickey Mouse.
It was a memorable trip and I remember like it was yesterday. We flew to Orlando, rented a car and off we went to the Magic of Disney. I still remember where we parked our car: Pluto 21.
On this trip I started my first successful business.
My dad gave me $20 and told me to spend it however I wanted.
I bet he thought I was going to buy toys, a Barbie or big stuffed animal just like every other 7 year old kid.
But nope. Not me.
Instead I went to the candy section and bought as many boxes of “Nerds” candy I could get with $20.
When my mom saw the cart full of nerds she was shocked and figured I was going to try and eat them all. Imagining all the tooth decay, she tried to persuade me not to buy them.
My dad just asked “Why are you buying so many and where are the Barbie dolls”?
I responded: I’m not going to eat them. I’m going to sell them to my classmates when we get back to Bogota (my hometown). My mom and dad gave a strange look, but as supportive parents as they have always been, they said ok!
See, back in the 80’s we didn’t have Nerds, Milky Ways or any American chocolate at every single grocery store.
Nerds were unique, precious, hard to find, and only accessible to people that had been to the States.
(Nowadays, you can find pretty much anything in Bogota, like iPods at the corner store, but not back then.)
My first business idea actually worked like a charm.
I went back to school and sold all my Nerds to my classmates in Bogota on the very first day.
I doubled my money in just one day since I sold them for twice the price I paid for them. I knew they’d pay that price since they were hard to find and very expensive elsewhere.
I was basically flipping candy!
Seeing a great opportunity there, I asked an aunt living in the States who was visiting Bogota the next week to buy me more boxes of Nerds.
She did and I repeated the process again and again.
Pretty soon, I was well known in my school for my candies and I was generating more income than my monthly allowance.
This taste of business at a young age made an impression. I knew I was an entrepreneur and I knew someday I would have my own business.
These days my business is not candy anymore, it’s real estate.
Now I flip houses instead of flipping boxes of candy.
And I treat it like any other successful business I’ve had.
I may have stopped selling Nerds, but I haven’t stopped selling a valuable service to a niche group who needs it. Now I focus on motivated sellers and their distressed properties.
Just like candy, it’s a sweet business.
Ready to taste how sweet it can be?
Join us here:
https://tractionrealestatementors.com/strategy
Carolina Zeeb
Traction Real Estate Mentors
