016: Using Crowd Funding Sources to Fund a Business with George Zweifler From Palms Asset Management

Hello everybody, its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey. The mindset, the vision, the committment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, George Zweifler. But before I do, I have got a little quote for you. Mike Wallis said, ‘I cared enough to read and look at and worry about the questions.’ The entrepreneur way asks the quesions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. George, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Oh yes absolutely.

Neil: Fantastic. George Zweifler spent 25 years in high tech. And George and his partner built one of the largest manufacturered representative companies in silicone valley. Growing to over $300 million dollars in sales per annum. George started investing in real estate, about 10 years ago for himself. And as he became more successful, many of his friends wanted him to help them. George and his partner, Michael Hillman, formed Palms Asset Management in 2014. They do turn-key income investments for people wanting to create safe passive income in real estate. George, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life to allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yes, as far as my personal life, I will be brief on that. I have been married twice, I jokingly say, I am either bad at picking partners or bad at marriage. But my second marriage lasted fourteen years. And my wife and I have been apart for the last two and a half, I have two children, one from each marriage, a 27 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. I live in downtown San Hose, California. And my life is interesting because I currently travel back and forth between Florida which is where all of my investment properties are, and California, every month. Spending about 15 days a month in California and about 10-15 days a month in Florida.

Neil: Wow fantastic.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: As far as my business life is concerned, I guess the shortest answer again is as I was looking at my retirement, I was always calculating using, money managers were telling me figure about 6 or 7% a year, on your savings. And I kept concluding that I needed to save about four or five million dollars, in order to have any type of retirement, which I started to believe I was not going to get to that number. So I continued to look for ways to do better safely than 6 or 7% and I believe I found it. And the properties that I am buying for myself and investors were averaging anywhere from 12 to 16% income on the investment. So I am in a position where I am now able to take oh probably a million dollars and live the way somebody can live that has to say 3 or 4 million dollars. I am very excited about it and my business is based on the idea that I want to share with other people.

Neil: Mmmm hmm, sounds fantastic. So can you tell us a little bit more about how people can invest with you and how it works because I am fascinated by what you just said there.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well the way they invest with us, is basically all they really need to do initially is tell me that they are interested in working with us. They don’t have to commit anything up front, it is a very flexible model and as we find properties, we put them out to the investors, and essentially we show them the property, we show them what its worth and we show them what it is renting for. And we have an entire spread sheet, we show them exactly what their returns are going to look like. Once they see one that they like, then they go forward with a traditional close. We work, I don’t know how much its like in England, but here we use a title company, the money never comes directly to us. But we will put the property in esquerel, they will get it under contract. Then the closing will take place with a title company. When they buy it, they will be buying it with a tennant in place. And as soon as we close, then they sign a management contract with us and then we manage the property for them. And they get a check from us every month, along with the p and l for the property. If they don’t like us they can fire us, if they want to sell the property, they can sell it at any time, so there is very little risk on their part. And the way we operate it is, and the short answer is we are networked into a lot of wholesalers in South East Florida. We are able to pick up distressed properties, at well below market price. We have our own cruise, we do complete rehab on the properties, we gut them. We put in new kitchens, new bathrooms, new flooring, we paint them and then we put tennants in them and then we turn around and sell it to the investors.

Neil: Mmm hmm, so these are residential lets as I would call them

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Residential properties. They are probably one of the uniquenesses of my model, is that our focus is on lower class housing. And there is a reason for that, again I will try and give you a short answer. When you think of middle class housing, what you really get in middle class and upper class neighbourhoods, is mostly people in that category can afford to own their own houses. So you have a lot of buyers and you usually do not have a ton of renters.

Neil: Yeh

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: So that tends to drive prices high, and rents low. When you go into a lower class neighbourhood, most of those people will never qualify for a mortgage, so you don’t have a lot of buyers, which means it drives prices down but everybody is a rentor, so it drives rents up. So the ratio of rent to purchase price is substantially higher in lower class neighbourhoods than it is in middle and upper class neighbourhoods, and that is what allows us to get the returns. As someone once said, the sweet spot in the market is just above blighted to about $120,000 a year.

Neil: Mmm yeh, and when you talk about the income of 12-16% I assume that is rental income, is that what you mean by that? you are not talking capital gain income?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Thats not gross income, thats net income. We basically give the investor a spread sheet and what I show on the spreadsheet is, I will show them a purchase price, then I will show them the financing. This assumes that you are leveraging, and so typically an investor puts 30% down on the property, and then I show the rent, and then I deduct the mortage payment, the property tax, the insurance, our management fee. I deduct a vacancy rate and I deduct maintenance, and I end up with a net income. That net income divided into the amount that you are investing, we usually are able to get about anywhere from 12-16% net income, so somebody investing, lets say $40,000 dollars, can typically expect anywhere from $5-6,000 a year on income on that $40,000 dollar investment.

Neil: Net income that is there, yeh thats fantastic.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: And let me add something, when you add in appreciation and mortgage paydown, we are typically looking at returns of 20-30% a year.

Neil: Yeh absolutely, I call that capital appreciation on the value of the property you mean?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh we assume a 3% a year appreciation, which for Florida is below the curve. What are your histories, about 3 and a half were conservative. And remember every month, you are paying down the mortgage a little bit, so you are building an equity position. When you factor all those things in, you end up with about 20 or 25% return of investment. One other thing I will add that is interesting, your income you are able to depreciate the house against that income. So if I get you 14% in real estate, that is the equivalent of making about 18% in a normal fixed income investment, because of the tax benefit.

Neil: Wow, sounds really good actually, so do you find these easy to rent, once you have done this? I mean obviously that is the key to making the income isn’t it?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yes that is where knowing where .. is the key. We choose neighbourhoods that are next to very busy areas. FIrst of all, we are focused in only one area, we focus in Southern Florida, in what is called Palm Beach County and Northern Brower County. Where there is a lot of money, alot of jobs, a very vibrant economy, and the houses that we buy are literally blocks from very very rich neighbourhoods and what you find again, lower class people, most of them cannot afford cars. So they want to be a short commute from where the jobs are, they want to be able to take a bus to work. So we don’t go into the outskirts of town, we buy distressed housing right in the heart of the city. And we typically can rent a house in a week.

Neil: Wow that is amazing. Sounds awesome, and so George, can I just talk about a few other things with you so, what do you enjoy most about what you do?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: I would say its hard to pick out one thing, but one of course just the wheeling and dealing is exciting. You know you have to use your imagination. Every time we look at a property, we have to imagine, what is it going to look like when we fix it up, how much is it really worth? and then negotiating on the price and each one is like a project, so that part is exciting. Then the other two things are one again, I talk to people every day who have no idea how to create an income when they retire. And as I help them, as I show them how to do it, as I see the lightbulb go on, thats very exciting. The last part which is really cool, we buy distressed houses, and when we rehab them, we make them look like new. We put in new kitchens, new bathrooms, new flooring and our tennants are mostly lower class people. Alot of single mothers with children, when they walk in and they see these houses, all fixed up, usually, the first person we show the house to, rents it and we get thank you calls from them. Saying, ‘oh my god, we have not looked at a place this nice in a long time.’ So we help alot of people and that is very very rewarding.

Neil: Yeh thats awesome. So what is it that drives you george, what is it that makes you do what you do? obviously you sound like you are doing quite well there so what is it that gets you out of bed everyday to do what you do?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well of course you cannot have too much money, but that aside, a couple of things, one I will tell you something interesting, I spend alot of time in Florida where there are alot of people that are retired, I am over 60. But I see people that are in their 60’s and 70’s that are retired, they kind of sit around and do nothing, and when I talk to them, it just feels like they got nothing going on, all they want to talk about is restaurants and vacations, and I watch their brains just kind of slowly atrophying, and I am not putting it down. And I want to work as long as I can, I hope at least until I am 70 / 75 if my health holds up, because I see just my mind going, my mind being exciting every day. I read for at least an hour a day, I keep learning, I keep listening to lectures. And its very exciting, and that is really what keeps me going, it is just staying young.

Neil: Its interesting you say that, actually because I have had that conversation with other people and I think for some people when they actually retire, and they lose that focus in their life, its statistics show that quite a number of people actually don’t live for much longer, do they in some cases? and there must be some correlation between having an interest and enjoying what you are doing in life and longevity of life I suppose.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh absolutely, and I will say yeh there is a big difference between working for a huge company and being cog in the wheel and going to work 9-5 every day, sitting at a computer at a desk and counting the days. Versus having your own business, and building something you are creating something, so I feel that you know, the alternative to retirement is if you have the money, it gives you the freedom to go and pursue a dream. And that is really what I am doing. I spent 25 years on high tech, 30 years, and you know I was kind of burned down on it, and now I am off pursuing a whole new career, I feel like a kid right out of college.

Neil: Yeh it sounds exciting, so how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well I love golf, I don’t play very often, but I try to play every Saturday morning and I jokingly call that ‘my oasis in the week’ and of course the networking is fantastic. I belong to a club, I make a lot of friends, I get alot of introductions. In fact some of my clients come from the golf club. So I enjoy that, my daughter is 12, and I know I am probably only a couple of years away from her not wanting to be with me. So I try to spend every free moment with her, that I can spend. I love travel, but of course right now I am travelling back and forth between Florida and California every month, so I am getting it out of my system.

Neil: Sounds fantastic, sounds like you life is like a holiday there completely. Its fantastic. So do you have any entrepreneur role models?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Oh gee, I guess to be honest I don’t think I do, because I read from a lot of different people. I don’t know that I can pick anyone out that I can say ‘wow, this is the person that I am following.’ Our model is a little bit different, but let me add one thing on that. You know, I am of a belief and it sounds obvious but I think alot of people don’t realise it, the cool thing about business is that the people that are the most successful in any industry, will always write a book and tell you how they did it. And you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. So on the one hand, I will say there is not one, but I can also rattle off probably ten or twenty books that have been very very inspiring to me. So I learn from other people, but I can’t single out any one person.

Neil: Ok and George, can we just go back to the time before you were an entrepreneur now. And talk about what difficulties you had to overcome when you started your business?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Oh yeh, ha ha ha well, I said the unfortunate thing about being an entrepreneur is unfortunately most entrepreneurs always have to look over the edge of the cliff at least once or twice in their career. And I would say in my case, it has probably been more than once or twice, its been about four or five times, so I worked for large companies like most people. Although I went to a start-up, but this was a very well funded start-up with venture capital money, so I call it the start-up, but they started out with $50 million dollars in funding. Then I went out on my own, to a small pc company, that failed after one year. I spent four months unemployed and then I decided to become a sales rep, I went to work for one rep company. Started with nothing, they start you out on a three thousand dollar a month draw, spent the year and a half building up my business. Just when I was doing well, they went out of business. I then went to another rep company, spent another year and a half building things up and then that one is the company that I ended up owning. And even as an owner, we had some fantastic years, and then when the dot .com bus came back in 2001, we went from 350 million to $20 million in one year.

Neil: wow thats amazing.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: My partner and I went a year and a half without drawing paychecks, re-building that company. So yeh I have looked over the edge of the cliff many times.

Neil: But you survived, and thats the key isn’t it?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh you just have to believe, you just have to really really believe that you are going to make it, it is hard sometimes. But you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Neil: Well I think that it is part of the journey, isn’t it really? because the fact is, there are always things happening, there are always things you have got to change, you have got to change in the market, there are things that you cannot expect, like the dot.com bubble like you talked about there. Or I don’t know, something like 2009, or 2008 or whenever it was when all the banking crisis was. So there is always something that is going to be affecting you from time to time, you have just got to learn to get through that and adapt. So George, did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: In this business, not really, the way I came into it like I said, I started doing it for myself. And then to be honest, what got me into it, is our largest line with my rep company two years ago changed their model.  And decided to terminate all of their reps worldwide. So I was faced with either rebuilding our rep company again, or doing something else, and I guess I spent about four months looking at several options, one was to rebuild, two was to go off and do consulting, three with the real estate. And after about three or four months of thinking about it, I decided the real estate was probably the best option for me. But once I started doing it, and I have had no doubts, its actually gone better than I have even expected.

Neil: Sounds good. And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Oh god, well if I look at my total career, I made one or two bad decisions, I did join one start-up that I worked very hard at for a year and they basically fell. So that was definately a set back. Thats probably the biggest single one. Other than that, I cannot really say I made any major mistakes. I feel that I did it the right way, started out in the corporate world, got a good foundation before I went off on my own. As a rep owner, as I say we grew to be the largest rep in silicone valley, so for the most part, I think we did alright. When I look back, there were things I would probably do differently in retrospect, but along the way I think we did a good job.

Neil: Ok and what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners who haven’t yet taken their first step of the entrepreneurs way?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well I think the single biggest thing, and I was lucky and I speak to alot of people who aren’t as lucky, and they really struggle, is you got to have a nest egg. You have got to know, that no matter how optimistic you are, I mean as well as my business is doing, we did not start cashflowing for a year. You have got to have at least two years of income set aside that you can live on. And I see so many people, that just go off an do it on a wing and a prayer, and they can’t pay their bills. They can’t make ends meet, they are all stressed out. Starting a business is stressful enough. You don’t want to also be worrying about how you are going to pay your rent, and how you are going to put food on the table. Then it just becomes overwhelming. So you have got to have that cushion, you have got to save your money or have a backer obviously or an investor that is going to give you the money. But you have got to be properly funded on the personal side as well as the business, before you pull the plug. In my case, when I left my rep company, I sold out to my partner, and I had enough of a nest egg, god I probably had at least 2 or 3 years of runway before I even needed to start making money, so I didn’t feel the pressure to make money, to pay bills so it allowed me to do it right.

Neil: Yeh I think when you take that pressure away, it gives you clarity of thought doesn’t it? because you are just distracted and you probably make the wrong decision sometimes because you have to make certain decisions just to pay the bills I suppose.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Absolutely, well as an owner of a rep company, we bring ourselves people on, welll we pay them a draw, but its a very low draw. So you know we don’t want it to be too comfortable, hopefully it was a commission job. And I saw a big difference, some of the sales guys I would hire are people that had a working spouse that was making a living. So they could pay the bills and they were able to build up their business right, in other cases we hired people that were the sole breadwinner and they were sweating it. They were stressing and they were taking short cuts. And again, I felt like the people that had the money behind them were much more effective.

Neil: Yeh I think that comes through doesn’t it? because when you are actually talking to somebody, if you are talking to them to serve yourself, then the person you are talking to is sort of detects that somehow, whereas if you are talking to someone and you try and serve them and you are obviously getting a benefit from that if you do well, then that means they are more relaxed and they are much more likely to take you on and do business with you.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Absolutely.

Neil: So George, what I would like to do now is talk about your entrepreneurial journey. So just a few questions here, so can you talk about whether you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Probably yes, I don’t know if you are familiar with a book called e-myth?

Neil: I am indeed, yes, it is a great book.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: He talks about the differences of why businesses fail versus franchises.  I don’t know if culture is the right word, but it certainly putting systems and procedures in place from the very beginning. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to do. So I think its crucial.

Neil: Mmm well that is exactly what I was thinking there actually with that question because I think some people, they employ people at the beginning in a business, and they almost abdicate responsibility to someone else and say, ‘thats your job, just sort it out and if you don’t have certain perameters and define how you want to do things then you might get less than the predictable outcomes. And obviously the e-myth talks about actually systemizing the whole thing doesn’t it? So it is actually a great example of how to create the right culture in a business. Or I think it is. So, knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: No to be honest, its probably an unusual answer. And I will tell you why I say that.

Neil: Ok.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: I got very lucky because I came out of the rep business, but the partner that I partnered with, had been in real estate for 15 years. And that is why I chose him as a partner. So on the real estate side, where I had a lot to learn, I was able to stand on his shoulders. And at the beginning, I let him make a lot of the decisions, and then as I came up to speed, I was able to be more involved, so because I chose someobody with the right experience, we were able to grow alot quicker than if I had to learn it all myself. But I see people all the time that want to go into real estate, and don’t have the benefit of a partner like I had and just start learning from the beginning. And I see the learning curve is painful for them. I just felt lucky.

Neil: Ok and in your business, how much does gut feeling influence your decisions?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Oh god, probably alot. Let me turn the answer round a little bit. In fact I just read a book by William Keller the founder of Keller Williams, one of the largest real estate brokers in the nation. More than gut, I think knowing exactly what the criteria are that I am looking for, is very very important. Because you have to make alot of quick decisions, in other words, when you say gut feeling, you can’t go off an research every decision for hours and hours, especially in real estate, the good deals are never on the street that long. In fact, usually when we see a good property, we have got about fifteen minutes to pull the trigger on someone comes in and grabs it. So you really need to have thought out, what are the right neighbourhoods, what are the right price points, what are the types of houses you are looking for. You need to have all of your criteria well thought out in advance, so when you see a good deal you know it immediately and you can act fast on it.

Neil: Absolutely, George, life is made of constant change whether we like it or not. And some would say the only constant in life is change, how do you try to keep up with change?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well part of it is being flexible. Another part of it is constantly reading. And not just books but really staying on top of the news and trying to anticipate it. And the more you can get out in front of it, you know in the case of real estate. Obviously the market is always fluid and my partner and I are always talking about ‘we gee, if this happens how will we react?’ If that happens, how will we react? If that happens, how will we react? So we try as much as possible, there are always black swans to anticipate what are the things that can happen that can change the way we do business and how will we react to them?

Neil: Actually just thinking actually with the real estate, how is it doing now, in terms of the market, because obviously it took quite a hit a few years ago. And its presumably on a bounce-back now to some extent, is it? Steady increase?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: In most cities in the US, it has fully recovered back to what they call 2007 levels. A few cities are actually above the old peak, most of them are at the old peak. Florida with the market I play is still about 25% below the peak, but continues to recover. Actually for my business, I don’t want to see housing prices recover that gut, continue to rise. Because I am focused on income as opposed to price appreciation. And as prices go up, it hurts my returns. Because the rents might not go up the same as prices, so the ratio of income goes down.

Neil: Yeh mmm and what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development and leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it? Now you said you have read quite a few books here, so if you want you can add more than one.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh there is a lot. I think in real estate, alot of people will tell you the bible is ‘rich dad, poor dad’ by Robert Kiosoki and thats what I tell people if you read any book, probably you should read that one first. Recently, Tony Robbins put out a book, god I am losing the title of it, but Tony Robbins in it, something about making millions, and he talks about the whole neutral fund industry. And he talks about different ways to invest your money. Its a major undertaking, it was about a 600 page book. But I think it was very very very informative to me. And then lastly was the book about Steve jobs. The Steve Jobs biography, which is almost a major undertaking, I think it is about a 6/700 page book. But you know following Steve Jobs career, probably I would say to me, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation has to be Steve Jobs. Because he just did not do it once, he did it like four times, I mean and he bought apple back from the dead. Most people in the valley, silicon valley thought Apple, there was no way that company could be ressurrected. To this day, I don’t even know how he did it, but he did it. And to me, reading about his life, really really really inspired me and taught me alot.

Neil: Yeh very inspiring guy actually. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time that you may be doing other things. Such as driving, or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up, you will qualify. George, we are now going to fast forward into the future. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: The main thing that I want to do is I want to scale it as fast as I can. And the way I am scaling it frankly is borrowing money. Right now I am working with crowd-funding websites. And as long as I know that we are going to be successful, I will take on more and more leverage, and put more properties in the funnel. Right now, we are averaging, we are trying to do about three a month, I would like to scale up to about 10 a month.

Neil: Ok and what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well like I said, the main thing is access to capital and then the second thing which is the skill that I am working on the most is to get better and better at using the internet, to market for investors around the world. Right now most of my marketing is just based on networking, I go to functions, and I am getting alot of word of mouth. But I would like to be able to expand my exposure into Europe, into the far east and to do that, I think you need to get better at internet marketing and thats a skill that I am trying to develop or trying to buy.

Neil: Actually just one thing you talked about George in the previous question, you talked about crowd funding and raising money with that, can you just give us a brief overview of how that actually works?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh there are websites like there is one for example called reality mogul where basically they screen the, this is another way that people could get better returns on their investment. So, they are offering investors anywhere from 7-10% returns, because they are lending out money, these are short term loans, they are construction loans, but they call hard money. And they get involved in projects and they are able to lend money at it, anywhere from 9-13% but to borrow from them, its not just qualifying like with the way you would qualify for a home loan, you qualify as a person they are willing to work with, in other words when I got into reality mogul, we submitted a resume, we showed our background, then we had to show ten documented deals. We showed documenting that we brought the price showing what we spent re-habing, showing that we sold the house, showing that we made a profit to prove that we knew what we were doing. Then once they had approved us as an investor, then we can bring them deals and they can fund them very quickly.

Neil: Yeh well its good that they do that obviously, because otherwise people would lose lots of money wouldn’t they?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh, so right now I am working with three different crowd funding sources, and it has changed my whole business because the banks have just gotton so concerned, its hard to get money from them. And I feel like what is growing up in the US is almost an alternative banking system, there are a lot of new companies getting into this, and I think it is an investment source as well as a funding source of the future, and it is going to be huge.

Neil: Yeh I think its not just the US, its happening here as well, in the UK. I think it is happening, probably happening everywhere I would assume, so the banks, they are a bit slow on this aren’t they? and it will catch them eventually possibly, I don’t know. In five year from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well I would think the main thing I would like them to say is that we have a lot of satisfied customers, and that they feel it would change their lives. That would be the single most important thing.

Neil: And we are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us, so George, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: My favourite quote, god I’m going blind, and I hate to say it. Well my favourite thing is just putting one foot forward, one foot in front of the other. Someone once said to me, ‘keep your eye on the ball’ and it is not a quote from a famous person but actually just a phd psychologist that I’m very good friends with, who is always saying, ‘keep your eyes on the ball, keep your eye on the ball.’ Because I think that there is so much distraction, and as you and I said, there are so many highs and lows. And the thing that keeps you going is just to stay focused on the goal and not let all these other things get you down and I think that is very very important in succeeding in business.

Neil: Try and avoid the shiny objects.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Yeh, you know now that you mention it, I will tell you something, I don’t want o ramble but one of the things that I am finding from alot of entrepreneurs that I am reading lately, they all come back to the same exact thing. That focus is very very important, actually I will give you a very interesting quote that came from the ceo of Apple, Tim Cook, that I read in a book. At a board meeting, supposedly about a year ago, not a board meeting, an analyst meeting, he gathered all the analysts in a conference room, with Apple and all the Apple products on the table. And supposedly he looked up at the Analysts, and he said, we are a 200 billion dollar company, and all of our products fit on this conference table. And he looked at the investors and he said, ‘you have no idea how many good ideas I turn down every month.’ And I thought that was so profound.

Neil: Absolutely, and it is interesting you say that because I used to be in consumer electronics, and if you look at companies like Sony or Panasonic and you look at their ranges or Samsung. The have got huge ranges, and then you look at someone like Apple, and they have got such a small range of products and that is obviously part of the key to their success.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Whatever market they get into they own, they are always the best. They find the market, and they are always the best when they jump in to a market.

Neil: They also define the market as well, because they become, if you look at the mp3 players for example, even people who have not got an apple product, people will talk themselves about having an ipod when its not actually even an ipod that they have, or something like that, and it is probably the ultimate in any sector, to have people referring to your products as the category.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Absolutely, so in my business, people come to me all the time, and say, ‘oh how what about houses in this market, or what about this type of property? And they are all probably good, but I think what makes us good is our focus. We have picked a geographic area that we know backwards and forwards, we have picked a price category that we know backwards and forwards. And I think its our focus that makes us effective. And I think that is probably one of the single most important things that an entrepreneur needs to do, and it does not necessarily mean one thing, and its funny now ten minutes later I got my quote. My favourite quote is, and I forget its Kennedy, Dan Kennedy said, ‘one is the worst number in business.’ And one of anything in business, is bad. You know, one customer, one market, so you should have multiple things going on but then at the same time you need to be focused, which may sound contradictory, but I don’t think it is.

Neil: Yeh so, I mean really what you are talking about there is obviously picking your niche isn’t it, and trying not to be everything to everybody? I think thats the message.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: and owning it, owning it, being the best at it.

Neil: Yeh absolutely. So, do you have any favourite online resources that you could share with us that would be useful to our listeners?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: God there is a ton. It depends what you are trying to accomplish. You know I use Podio as a CRM tool, and I think it is fantastic, I just discovered a new tool that I love called Zappia. Have you ever heard of it? Do you know what it is?

Neil: I think I have, but I cannot remember what it is.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: It allows you very easily to create things that they call zaps. That allows you to automate your workflow. So for instance, I have created a workflow, where I can enter a name into my database, and then it automatically transfers the information to my contact list and it automatically transfers the information to my mailing list database, which then automatically sends a thank you letter or an introduction letter out to a customer. And its a really really amazing tool, that just allows you to automate anything. And I am not even that computer savvy and I am setting up zaps left and right.

Neil: Yeh that sounds quite interesting. I am sure I have heard of it, but I have never used it, from what you are saying there, but yeh I will have a look at that. And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well my best advice again is I really think in the end it is about focus. That you need to choose a niche or something that you, you don’t get rich being a jack-of-all-trades. You get rich being a master of one. And whatever you choose, if you focus on it, and you become the best at it, people will start to come to you and that is the key to success.

Neil: Thanks for that. Everyone, if you didn’t manage to get a note of George’s favourite resource, or his favourite books, you can find the links on George’s shownotes page, just go to the entrepreneurway.com and search for George, or seach for George Zweifler, in the search box. George, is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Well if anybody is interested in finding out more, I don’t know if its on the shownotes, but we have two websites, our main website is palmsassetmanagement.com and then on the property management side, it is TCSMGTFlorida.com. And we are always interested in talking to new customers. And it has been a great journey for me and people that are interested in being entrepreneurs. Like I said, make sure that you have the right funding behind you, but then go for it. Its really a great way to…Much better to me, live your life than just being a number in big corporation.

Neil: We will put those links on the shownotes page, so people will be able to find them. George, it has been an absolute honour having you on the show, you have really provided some great insight into being an entrepreneur. Its been such a pleasure, so thank you very much.

George Zweifler, Palms Asset Management & TCS Management Florida: Thank you for having me.

Neil: You are welcome.