Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Grand Opening...Part II

A lot has happened since my decision to transition from a corporate drone to a truly independent consultant.  Here is my story of the past 25 days, the 25 days that I said was to be devoted to updating my web site and concentrating on my new consulting business.  Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men...

On September 21st, 2010, at an ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc. sponsored table at the AITP "Battle of the Operating Systems" meeting on September 21, 2010, I officially "launched" my consulting company & its corporate website TheConsultingAce.com .  I boasted that I bought, created and updated the site in 25 hours and imagine what I could do in 25 days.  The meeting and launch went great, I collected business cards for a contest to give away a free 6 month subscription to web page on my site for either my ACE Coupon Express page for businesses to advertise their specials and coupons on the Internet, starting at under $20 a month or my ACE Career Expeditors page for people in transition and looking for a new opportunity.  I have not yet priced the ACE Career Expeditors page yet, but I'm thinking it's worth at least a $9.95 a month.

Alas, here we are 25 days later and I'm getting ready to take my daughter to the Sayville Fall Fest, and my website is nowhere near what I expected it to be and here's why...

The first few days after the launch, I spent going to networking meetings, planning for an October 16th Share-a-Day in Merrick, meeting with possible partners for my consulting company, working Real Estate leads, meeting business owners to sell websites, celebrating Punctuation Day on September 24th, (My sister Carole's birthday as well), moving out of my Syosset apartment that I was only using 1 or 2 days a week anyway, joined 2 racquetball leagues at Sportime in Syosset (Monday's at 8:30 & Thursdays at 7:00 in case anyone wants to come down and watch), arguing with my WebSite Sales Business Partner and Possible Future Girlfriend (WSSBPAPFG) about not being focused enough on selling Websites  (as if our EBS relationship issues were not enough),  having similar focus "discussions" with my family, going to court to battle my future ex-wife's (FEW) support payments and visitation rights and taking my daughter to see "Legend of the Guardians", which was a great movie and one that I highly recommend for all ages.

I got tired just re-reading what I was doing, so I decided to focus on 3 things, rather than being a jack of all consulting trades.  I had a meeting with my parents and Sally, my WSSBPAPFG, all of which thought I was crazy to start my own business and ignore corporate America.  Sally wanted me to just concentrate on Website Sales, stating that it was the fasted way to produce income for myself.  My parents wanted me to keep looking for a "real" job and forget this silly business thing that I was doing.   After a very interesting dinner conversation, I made the following recommendation...

I would concentrate on Website Sales, Real Estate and IT Recruiting, spend my week as follows...
MWF: Work on Web Site Sales, visit businesses, do cold calling, update my website, create flyer's and create processes and procedures for Website Sales, including cold calling scripts, prospecting logs and cards and organizing my A/R's & A/P's.
TuTh: Work on my Real Estate leads, update my Real Estate Website, Social Media Campaigns, Open Houses and training.
Saturday: R&R, networking meeting in any, visiting with my daughter.
Sunday: Have a Century 21 Open House or go to a Website corporate training session.
* The recruiting work would be sprinkled throughout the week as opportunities arose.

It's now October 1st and I haven't even looked at my website, but I now had a plan and could start focusing, or so I thought.  I started to work on my new plan when I get an email from Time Warner Cable at 1:04 pm, stating that they already scheduled me for interview on Monday morning at 11:00 am, and wanted to confirm that I could make it.  My first instinct was to say no, but I figured, what the heck, it may turn out to be a great opportunity and if not, I may be able to use my recruiting business to fill the spot and get a referral fee.  So I relpied that I would be there Monday at 11:00 am.  I spent the weekend going to an all day seminar on Saturday and Sunday doing something, but my CRS is kicking in and I didn't write it down. (CRS = Can't Remember Stuff, but don't worry, it''s not contagious) 

Running out of time now, but I'll continue this blog this weekend, in the meantime, remember that Life is too important to take seriously....

The Blogging ACE

Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the Internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie

Monday, October 18, 2010

Second blog from my phone...

Second blog from my phone...
Text blogging is new to me, so I don't know how many words I have.  I'm went to court today to submit some support modifications & reply to my future ex-wife's divorce papers and was told that if I didn't have a lawyer, I should run what I'm submitting by the folks at the Law Library on the 4th floor.  I allocated about 10 min to review what I prepared to submit, another 20 to review the response to the divorce papers and I'd be off to my nearby 3:00 appointment.  I arrived at 2:00, went through security and made it to the Law Library in 10 minutes.  I signed in and found out that there was only one person to help all of Suffolk County and I was third in line.  I was told each person could take 10 min or 1 hour depending on the individual situation.  I waited for 45 min to no avail.  Not even 1 name was called, so I scooted to my 3:00 appointment, figuring I could get it done by 4:00 and get back B4 the courts closed at 4:45, but alas, my 3:00 Doctors appointment ended at 5:30, with no chance of making the courts today & impacting my 5:00 appointment with my daughter. Alas, the best laid plans of mice & men...
The Blogging Ace


P.S. It seems that when you text to this blog, it saves it 140 charaters or so at a time.  Seemed more like tweets than a blog and they were randomly "chopped" up.  I guest it was my phone that breaks up large text's into bite sized portions.  Anyway, I edited the second text blog and put it all in this one blog.  The email blog worked much better and since my phone has both, I'll save the text blog updates for tweet like comments.
Thanks...
The Blogging ACE^2

The Blogging ACE
Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie

My First Email Blogging Post

To all,
This is my first email blogging post.
I just transferred my blog to blogger.com and it's so much easier to use than wordpress.
I'm writing this email/post from my Treo while sitting in front of my computer. I'm testing out the new features and planning my new consulting companies charter.

Over the past month, I have been exploring many consulting options for my new corporation, ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.. From IT Consulting to Real Estate Agent to ACE Career Expeditors for IT Recruiting to ACE Laundry Services to Aces Ices & more to Arbonne Sales Consultant to ACE Print Promotions to ACE Travel Services to CYO Coordinator to ACE Career Counseling to Convention Coordinator to ACE Paper Back Writer & Blogger to Web Sites Sales, ACE was going to be the place for all of your consulting needs...
I get tired just thinking about it all.
So last week I decided to see which of my wide net of consulting services had the greatest potential and concentrate on the top 3 and let my other consulting services fade in the background, but still available if anyone needs them.

So the winners are...
1. Web Site Sales
2. Real Estate Sales
3. IT Recruiting

I'll get into more detail about the winning ACE Consulting Services on my next blog.

In the mean time, enjoy my other blogs and visit my website to see its progress until it's official grand opening on October 22, 2010.

Thanks...
ACE


The Blogging ACE

Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie

First blog from my phone.

First blog from my phone.

The Blogging ACE

Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Grand Opening...

The Grand Opening…
September 20, 2010

Today is the first day of the rest of my career…

This is my Linked in post that I shared with my network on Monday morning…

Today I permanently transition from a corporate drone to a truly Independent Consultant, with the grand opening of my web site, which I bought from myself on Friday, am creating today on Monday and debuting on Tuesday at our monthly AITP meeting.  I hope to see most of you there, and if not, I’ll send out my website link when I complete it tonight.  (Yes I’m starting with a blank page at 10am today and will have a completely functional website by midnight tonight.)
Read more on my blog, which I’ll be updating throughout the day…

http://bit.ly/dqqYsF

ACE
631-374-1698
Alex C. Elie
ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009…

My transition started after my job was displaced at CitiGroup in December of 2008, reinforced with a mutual decision to terminate my consulting contract at Cablevision and culminating with last Friday’s AITP meeting when I decided to go for it and sponsor a table at next Tuesday’s AITP Battle of the Operating Systems meeting to launch my Website and Consulting Company to the world.
Look out world, The Consulting ACE is here to stay…

I called the WebCenter Design Center at 10:51 and started working with my WebCenter Specialist Michelle.  Since the demo site I utilized was a Real Estate site, she deleted all the pages and we are starting off with a new template, more closely resembling a consulting firms layout.  I described the general idea that I had for the site and emailed her my company flyer and brochure for her to use to set up my website.  She was also checking on my 10 domain names that I created on Friday to see if they were ready to use.  I then left Woodhaven and ran some errands.  I needed to return a Belkin router to Costco that I couldn’t seem to set up properly and pick up a DVD player to show my WebCenter Presentation at the AITP meeting tomorrow.  I’m updating this blog from Johnny Rockets at the Broadway mall, thanks to my optimumwifi connection, getting ready to call Michelle to see where we are at.

I bought the website & domain on Friday, www.TheConsultingACE.com and jotted down ideas for my website over the weeked and on Monday @ 10:51am est, I started to work with my webcenter design team to start building my website. I gave Michelle my idea’s over the phone and emailed her my business flyers and the CYO Hoodie flyer & she went to work.  We had a few calls throughout the to clarify what I wanted and add new pages to my site.  I finally freed up after 10 pm to look at what she did and send her comments to she could update the site prior to my Noon launch.  Turns out she forgot to publish it and it was still in her development workspace, so I couldn’t see what she did yet. When we last spoke, she said that she was going to have someone finish my ACE Commerce Express Page to sell the CYO Hoodies and when she got in at 7am, we could make some last minute changes, see if my domain name was ready & link it to the site.  I woke up at 7am to call Michelle to publish it when I realized that she works in Las Vegas, which translates to 10am est, 2 hours from my launch & I was planning on getting to & setting up for the AITP Sponsorship table at the Huntington Hilton from 10 to 12.

I tried to call Michelle, hands free, from my Company car, and got a different Michelle from the design center. She tried to find the first Michelle but she was already usy with another client and she offered to help. I explained my delema and she published the site and we walked through the site over the phone, made additional changes and republished. My domain name was finalized and she was able to associate TheConsultingAce.com to my new website.

I got to the Huntington Hilton with Sally, my Market America business partner, and at 11:15 am. I was finally able to see my site after setting up my table, at 11:51 am, 25 hours after I started with my Michelle’s from the MA Design Center Team. This is the version that is up and running right now. The only thing missing was to fill out a form with ITransact to accept credit card payments and let the know which bank account to deposit the payments.

Please give me your impressions of the site as it is now and any suggestions you have would be appreciated as I get ready to customize and grow the site.

If I could do this over the phone in just 25 hours, imagine what I could do in 25 days with a computer.
Keep checking back as I will blogging about the next 25 days of updating my website for it’s official grand opening 25 days later on October 22, 2010, the day before the Sayville Fall Fest on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 in Sayville, NY.


The Blogging ACE

Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie

Thursday, July 15, 2010

How to sell your house without a Realtor

How to sell your house without a Realtor

July 15, 2010 by acerealty
In this section of my blog, I answer some frequently asked questions about the Real Estate Business.  If you need more information than I have provided, feel free to contact me at RealtyACE@Optimum.net or call me at 631-374-1698.
How to sell your house without a realtor?
This is a loaded question that I get asked a lot, both directly and indirectly.  Most people feel that they can sell their home without a realtor, and that’s true if they are willing to do the work, correctly price their home, pay for the advertising, find the right buyer, do a few open houses, work with the lawyers, negotiate a fair selling price, ect,ect.ect…  And after all that, they usually get a lower selling price than if they listed their home with a Realtor.  Realtor’s have a tremendous amount of resources available to them to sell your home, and most home buyers, especially new home buyers,  go to Realtors to find a home for guidance through the process.
But getting back to the question, here is how you can sell your home without a Realtor…
The first thing you need to do is to come up with a proper selling price for your home.  You will need to research your area and see what similar homes are currently on the market and find out how much similar homes in the area sold for.  This will give an idea of  how best to price your home.  You will be commonly be called FSBO’s, which is short for For Sale By Owner, and most Realtors will be willing to give you a free market analysis of your home, based on the competition and inventory in your area.  Realtors love FSBO’s, and are willing to help them, because after a few months, FSBO’s usually end up listing with a Realtor and usually go with the ones that have helped them in the past. 
After you have a selling price for your home, and are ready to sell, you need retain a Real Estate Lawyer and to put a sign on your front lawn, with your name and phone number so potential buyers can contact you.  Unfortunately, you can not avoid Lawyers in a New York State Real Estate transaction, so you should have one picked out so you can go to contract if you find a buyer for your home.
You will also need to make sure that your C/O, Certificate Of Occupancy, is current and that all permits for any improvements have been filled and approved so you can sell your home.  Many home owners build pools, decks, sheds, additions, bathrooms, finish their basements without filing any permits and then can’t sell their home until all their permits are up to date, or the improvements removed.  My parents had to remove their pool and 2/3′s of their deck in order to sell their home and it almost cost them the sale of the home.
A sign on your front lawn let’s your neighbors know that you are selling your home.  This is important, not because they will want to buy your home, but they may know people who want to move into the neighborhood.  Actually, my uncle move across the street because he liked the area and wanted a bigger home, so you never know.
Next, you need to build a website to showcase your home and make sure that your home is found when people are searching the internet for a home like yours.  If you don’t want to build a website, you can use Craig’s list, FSBO.com or other website’s to get your home on the web.  Some are free and some others will charge a fee.
Once you get potential buyers for your home, you will need to be available to show your home, ensure that they are qualified to purchase your home and close the deal.  Usually, as a FSBO, buyers know that you are not paying a commission and expect a better deal, so you will need to be a good negotiator.
Once you are in contract, you will need to work with your lawyer to get the appropriate paperwork and inspections completed to complete the sale.  Once you have sold your home, you also need to know where you are going to live.  Hopefully you have coordinated that and have either purchased another home or made arrangements to move somewhere else withing 1 to 3 days of the closing.

The Blogging ACE

Alex C. Elie, Realtor, MBA
Licensed Sales Associate

Century21 Prevete Real Estate
70 Manetto Hill Mall
Plainview, NY 11803-1302
(W) 516-433-5777
(F) 516-433-5490
(C) (H) 631-374-1698

Email: RealtyACE@Optimum.net

Search listings like a Realtor; visit my listingbook site at...AlexCElie.Listingbook.com

ACE Consulting Expeditors, Inc.
Alex C. Elie, MBA
Principal / Senior Project Manager
169 Commack Road - Suite 374
Commack, New York 11725-3442
(C) (W) (H) 631-374-1698
EMail: ACE@TheConsultingACE.com

Visit TheConsultingAce.com for all of your consulting needs…
Expediting your consulting needs since 2009...

Check out my Blog at...TheBloggingAce.BlogSpot.com
Get 2-35% cash back on your everyday purchases at…CashBackAce.com
For the best Health and Wellness products on the internet, click here…AlexCElie.MyArbonne.com

ACE Social Media Links...
Twitter: Twitter.com/AlexCElie
Facebook: Facebook.com/AlexCElie
Blog: TheBloggingACE.BlogSpot.com
LinkedIn:
Linkedin.com/in/AlexCElie