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From real estate to business owner

AnthonyTBernard

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Jul 27, 2021
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I will admit I am not finished yet with Unscripted (3/4 in) and have not started The Millionaire Fastlane yet BUT I couldn't wait to join and I will keep devouring @MJ DeMarco books.

OK now that the disclaimer is out of the way here's my story and how I landed here:​

I grew up in Trois-Rivières, Québec and for as far as I remember I had the entrepreneurial bug, when kid's quads became popular and eBay still it's in infancy I saw an opportunity to import those at significant discount and sell them in my driveway, unfortunately my venture was cut short : after the first one landed and sold rapidly, the second one was withheld by the shipping company to their distribution depot refusing to bring it to my house, the shipping company official that called me to give me the news told me if I ordered one more of there it "would never show up" as he owned an ATV store and did not like what I was doing, being only 15 at the time that was enough to make me stop that venture, and now that I look back on this I find interesting that I didn't even keep one for myself, most kids would have but I wanted profits more than a quad.

I also joined an IT cooperative at my school, became president and completely changed the coop by selling refurbished computers to people in need in addition to the IT services we already offered.
Fast forward a few years I turned 19 years old and had just finished college in Micro-Computers and Networking and decided I had enough of Québec, I felt that people around me complained endlessly about their situations but did nothing about it, I felt that everyone around me was stuck in a loop and I wanted out of the loop, I also wanted to learn English and travel, so with a friend of mine I moved to Calgary, Alberta in June 2011.

About a year later, after getting settled down in Calgary I became obsessed with owning real estate, up to that point I had been renting and I know this was not an efficient way to grow wealth, but I was also extremely frugal and could not justify spending a large percentage of my pay on a mortgage so I bought a somewhat distressed half duplex with a basement suite, rented the basement and charged rent to my girlfriend and lived for free, this was a great start! This house greeted me with everything I needed, flooding, mechanical issues, over budget renos, bad tenants you name it! And the best part? It was right at the beginning! What's great about this you ask? Anything after seemed like a piece of cake.

Fast forward 10 years and I have acquired 4 rental properties in addition to my primary residence and self manage 14 tenants, but 10 years to achieve that? I started to realize a few years ago that I am moving too slow, if I am to achieve more autonomy, financial freedom, I need to move faster. Up to this point I have been working various IT jobs to fund my real estate investments, but I knew this was only a means to an end, and as they say "Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week." so I started to look at businesses for sale and in November 2020 I stumbled on a food delivery business for sale in Strathmore, AB and showed it to a friend of mine that aspired to be an entrepreneur and we decided to buy the business and go in 50/50. This business has been very interesting, reading Unscripted , it violates the CENTS commandment of entry, time and to some extend scale. I also found out my business partner was not truly motivated to be an entrepreneur but rather motivated by money, when the business didn't IMMEDATELY make him rich he disconnected and left me mostly alone with everything, I bought him out a few months ago and I am now in the process of selling that business.

This is my story so far and I am sure the best has yet to come, I don't regret a single moment buying Crave Delivery has it has been an extremely good learning opportunity but it is now time to switch to the fastlane!

Looking forward to meeting like minded people
 
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SethLBender

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Sep 3, 2018
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Sounds like you're doing well and like you said you need to move faster. I think that's cool you bought a delivery and maybe it didn't go as planned but its progress to learning.

I also want to move faster as i bought my only rental property in 2018 which I am about to sell but have been happy with. I will continue to do real estate and have multiple streams of income but want to focus on starting a business.

Like MJ has said stating your business will be the hardest thing you do and growing it will be second. All these learning experiences like your first half duplex you rented out prepare you for challenges ahead.

One more thing i think passive income and mild success with real estate or whatever can give a person more time freedom to transition and focus on their own business.
 

Antifragile

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Welcome!
I love your story about the first property. Can’t help but connect the dots between “charge rent to my girlfriend” and the comment on “this property gave me floods and bad tenants”! Bad girlfriend didn’t pay her rent? Hahaha

I’m biased as I’ve built everything almost entirely on real estate. Took a while but instead of just owning, we went into Development. It’s fastlane.

look forward to reading more from you. Welcome again.
 

AnthonyTBernard

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Jul 27, 2021
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Welcome!
I love your story about the first property. Can’t help but connect the dots between “charge rent to my girlfriend” and the comment on “this property gave me floods and bad tenants”! Bad girlfriend didn’t pay her rent? Hahaha

I’m biased as I’ve built everything almost entirely on real estate. Took a while but instead of just owning, we went into Development. It’s fastlane.

look forward to reading more from you. Welcome again.
Haha I'm still with that girlfriend 10 years later :) bad tenants came after we moved out. I absoulutely love real estate and I would be curious to hear about your move to development. I see starting a business as a mean to produce income that can be reinvested into real estate.
 
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AnthonyTBernard

New Contributor
User Power
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Jul 27, 2021
4
3
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Interesting story!
Growing in Real Estate Industry need huge investment. Real Estate industry is like more you invest more you grow.
As a real estate developer working since last 35 years I never feel that I have to shift to other business.
Indeed, the capital required is massive which is why I am looking for a business that can produce high income to fed back into the real estate business
 

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