Over the years we’ve done a lot in our community and a lot with this business. We never claimed to be perfect but we learned a lot along the way and we’re willing to share with local businesses, small (and medium) businesses (SMBs), and women-owned businesses (WBEs).
About Carl: Not for the purpose of bragging but to give you an idea of who I am and where I’m coming from.
While in high school I scored a perfect score in math on the SATs, twice, and I didn’t do badly in verbal skills. As a junior, my combined total was 1376 and the next year it went up to 1402. My skills lend themselves to proofreading both numbers and text. FYI, inconsistency can kill what is otherwise a good business plan.
In SAT aptitude tests, I scored in the 99th percentile in nine out of nine types of engineering. In five of the nine, my percentile was 99+. Putting my skills to use in the business world has been easy (for me) AND productive for my employers. As a consultant, let me know your challenges and we’ll see what’s available to help you and, if needed, let’s invent something together.
I do my own research and documentation for ideas involving intellectual property. One patent attorney wanted to charge me $15,000 for a patent application until I showed him the Prior Art Search, the description and abstract plus illustrations. In fifteen minutes, his price went down to $2000.
I’ve taught pro bono classes for Google’s tools (Docs, Sheets, and Slides)
I was Race Director for the Crooked Creek Triathlon from 2002 to 2008. The six-page planning document I inherited from the lady who initiated this popular fundraising event became 15 pages over the next eight years and was a great tool for onboarding new volunteers and committee chairpersons.
In 1996, I was foreman for a $10.5M subcontract in San Francisco out of a total project price of $110M. There are at least three success stories I could tell from that job site alone but I can also say I learned something there. One of my coworkers told me privately “You need to laugh more” and he was SO right!
I was recognized as a problem solver for many of the companies I worked for. In one situation, three other journeyman glaziers were unable to come up with a solution. I figured out how to fix the problem in approximately 45 minutes and applied my solution until lunch time. After lunch I was ready for a new challenge. Stories available on request.
During slow years in construction, I earned a real estate license in California. From 1992-94, I worked in finance to learn that end of the business. I learned directly from the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac manuals which gave me an edge over my peers. On one loan, my officer manager (also a loan agent) who had been in the industry for 17 years said “I didn’t know you could do that!”
In 1994 I switched hats and started listing property for sale and representing buyers. My first listing had been For Sale By Owner (FSBO) for a year before the sellers got serious about getting it sold. They appreciated my financial background and I coached them in a nearly risk-free strategy of carrying a 10% second mortgage on the property to attract more buyers. The risk wasn’t extreme for them; their retirement home had already been bought and paid for. Outcome: We had five offers in the first five days at a price that ended up $12,500 over the previous asking price. Bonus: The sellers had their extra 10% in hand within two years.
Although I am not yet a college graduate and might not ever earn a sixteen-year sheepskin, I believe my ad hoc research and situational problem-solving have made me a more well-rounded person. I have been a lifelong student (and researcher) and have outperformed engineers in their own field through my unique God-given problem-solving approach. As I stated before, stories are available on request.
Related pages:
- Family Fun – learn how to use Family Fun to bring you new customers and keep the old ones.
- New Memories – as your business grows, you will have stories to share and we want to help you celebrate success.
- Advertising – Local4All is the name of our business and, while Local4All placemats are great for family fun AND getting the word out for less, that’s not all we do.