Forcing Appreciation On Multifamily Properties With a Value Added Strategy

Some Before and After Pictures of Apartment Building Renovations

I like to buy apartment buildings in need of improvements, but usually not in need of major renovations. Poor management and distracted property owners often lead to deferred maintenance…simple fixes that can dramatically force appreciation by raising income and lowering expenses.

When you raise the Net Operating Income on a multifamily property (typically called NOI = Income – Expenses), you raise the value on a property. Here are some tips on how to strategically renovate a multifamily property for profit.

Major Apartment Building Renovations:

Some property renovations are costly and should be considered when you negotiate the purchase price.

Tips:

• I negotiated a seller credit for repairs for the major renovations that needed to be done on this 29 unit apartment building. During contract negotiations the seller agreed to a repair credit to redo all of the asphalt, sidewalks, courtyard and roof.
• This apartment complex is in the vicinity of a busy street. When we purchased the building the “courtyard” was a loading only zone in the back of the complex. By creating a courtyard with landscaping, barbecue area and seating for the residents, we created a quiet space the residents could enjoy. This became a marketing tool when listing the units for rent.
• This property had poor drainage after heavy rains. The new asphalt and sidewalks assured water drained away from the property and ultimately out to the city street.
• Garbage trucks used the driveway on the North side of the property. To prevent damage to typical asphalt driveways we poured concrete on that section of the drive. Heavy garbage trucks will destroy asphalt.
• We installed a bright white Durolast roofing system which had several advantages. The new roofing system came with a 15 year warranty that was transferable to new owners when we flipped the property. This was a huge selling point. New roofs are a major expense.
• Buildings with air conditioning can receive an efficiency rebate from the local energy company when they install a Durolast roofing system.

Cosmetic Apartment Building Renovations:

Not all renovations are costly. Plan for these simple improvements in your acquisition budget.

Tips:

• This laundry room renovation was a simple one yet it had a significant impact on income. A friendly, clean environment ensured the residents actually used the facility.
• Many apartment complexes come with a laundry lease in place where the owner splits the profits 50-50 with a professional laundry company. These leases run with the property, not the owner. Renegotiating the lease, or canceling before lease end, can lead to a large increase in income.

• Great first impressions are a  must. When a prospective resident enters your building you are looking for the “Wow” factor.
• Wood floors, period carpeting (as in this 1950′s apartment building) are a relatively inexpensive way to attract the right demographic of renters and to lease units quickly.
• In this property we also installed an entryway security system. It’s an inexpensive, telephone based door locking system used by residents to allow entry to visitors.
• Interior hall properties (versus exterior walk ups) can be used as a marketing tool to attract residents. You are providing an extra layer of security to the community by providing an extra set of locking doors to apartment unit entry.

• Knowing your particular “market sizzle”, will help you rent apartment units for top dollar and will help you make your renovation decisions easily.
• This apartment building is located in a market where wood floors are the top priority to residents. This particular property had oak floors throughout, but the wood floors had been covered with carpeting for decades. Of course, we knew the wood was there before we bought the property. Refinishing the floors to their original beauty was our top priority when renovating and updating the apartment units.
• A simple two tone paint job, new lighting, and the installation of ceiling fans was all that was required to create a beautiful living space for our residents.

I hope this post has inspired you to invest in apartment buildings of any size. If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to get advance notice of my upcoming book, Investing In Apartment Buildings: Forcing Appreciation On Multifamily Properties Using A Value Added Strategy! (Click the link.)

Oh! And be sure to hop over to my mentoring page for more real estate investing resources: Apartment Investing Mentoring

Or, leave a comment below!

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2. Investing in Apartment Buildings – Some Mostly Free Resources

“It is extremely important that the enthusiasm not get ahead of the evidence.”

This is just the greatest statement. I heard it while listening to the radio yesterday morning. In this case, they were discussing Vitamin D, the health supplement de jour. A few years back it was Vitamin E.

People are popping high dosages of Vitamin D, sometimes on the strength of what they read on the Internet alone. My husband and I take it every morning.

So, are we chasing bright shiny objects? Following the crowd… consequences be damned?

Although I’m a huge advocate for taking action, you will never hear me say, “Jump before you have a look”.

We’ve got some really great friends, lots of them fact — like lemur hoards worth — who recently jumped on the stock option trading bandwagon.  Those that didn’t look closely and operated purely on blind faith, lost their money early in the game.  Often times money that was not earmarked for risk taking, in other words, “It’s a risk but it’s not going to kill me to lose this money, I’m investing to learn the game.” That’s OK. Gambling with your savings is not OK.

In high school I had a friend who used to say “Madagascar lemur, away!” whenever he got a chance.  I was never sure why he said this. I thought it was just fun to say. But now? I think maybe he knew what he was talking about.

We bought land in Mexico four years ago in a project that should have been developed in 12-18 months. We knew it was a gamble going in. It may still pay off in spades, but it isn’t going to happen tomorrow. Here’s the thing to think about though. We negotiated a huge discount before we agreed to buy and we used windfall money from previous real estate investments.  Money that was leveraged from doing other deals successfully. Money that was earmarked for risky real estate investing.

Do I have some other things I could invest that money in today for a better return? Absolutely. But it didn’t bankrupt us having it tied up indefinitely.

The lesson is, don’t get ahead of the evidence.

Have you ever been tempted to start flipping houses because you know someone who’s doing it really well?  Don’t get a head of the evidence in your enthusiasm to try the same thing. They may be doing all cash deals and have a large bankroll with little or no reliance on the broken credit market.  They may not be at the mercy of the system if they need to carry a deal a little longer than planned. Different exit strategies for different folks.

That’s the evidence. It’s important to learn and understand how a deal works before you leap blindly over a cliff. Or start experiencing really weird side effects from too much Vitamin D.

It might be time to stop following the crowd and go back to what you do really well. Listen to your heart.

So, what was the last shiny object you chased? We’ve all done it. Let’s see… our last one was probably that really great network marketing gig our friend told us about. Or those ten resale websites I put up 5 years ago. Those sites that were going to make me a fortune. Wow, did that suck up a lot of my time. Lesson learned.

I’d love it if you would share your experiences in the comments below!

Oh! If you haven’t done so already, grab my RSS feed or subscribe by email to bigfishtopdogs over on the right sidebar of this blog… you’ll be the first to receive new posts hot off the press!

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Last week I ran into a guy who, somewhat naively, asked me, “Will you send me an email on how to buy apartment buildings?”

Well intentioned, but not easily handled in a single email.

Real estate is my primary business. Specifically investing in multi-family properties. I could write several books on the topic. In fact, my book Investing in Apartment Buildings: Forcing Appreciation On Multifamily Properties Using A Value Add Strategy is coming out this spring. (Be sure to sign up for advance notice at this link!)

Buying apartment buildings is a whole new world from buying single family houses. But one thing holds true for both real estate niches. Location is key.

So, what will I tell my new friend who wants to buy apartment buildings?

It’s simple…

Study, study, study the local real estate market

You’ve heard the line “location, location, location” — the three most important factors in buying real estate.

Location holds the key when you’re talking about real estate value. You can buy a cheap property in a dead market — and it’s still a dead market. Doesn’t matter how cheap the property was, you did not make a good investment.

The “millionaire maker” multifamily, or apartment, markets are those where jobs are coming to the area, the oversupply is used up, the rents are starting to increase and the market is beginning to appreciate.

Some great questions to ask about real estate markets… and the resources to find the answers

Do you know what the job growth and employment outlook are for your target area? How about apartment demand? Is the oversupply used up? Are rents on the increase? Do you know what the average vacancy rates are for your market?

A good source of information for a specific area on housing, the economy, cost of living, demographics and more is Sperling’s Best Places and you can always see what the census bureau has to say, although that info is dated.

I recently wrote an article on Top 20 Criteria for Locating Hot Real Estate Markets — check it out.

Researching a rental market

Craig’s List and Rent.com will give you an idea for supply and demand for a particular area. You can research rental rates, volume of listings and competition for a particular submarket. Look for concessions such as free rent, free utilities, no deposits required, etc. If you find a lot of concessions they are having trouble filling vacancies.

A word of caution on real estate “market research”. It is critical to drill down to submarkets when doing your research.

Free apartment market research reports

There are some good resources online for free local apartment market data. Multi family lenders such as Red Capital Group offer free research reports and commercial real estate valuation firms such as Integra Realty Resources also have free reports on local and national apartment markets (download the IRR Viewpoint). This is a really good report.

They may be free, but they are full of valuable information.

You’ll also find free local and national apartment market reports at most large commercial real estate brokerages firms such as Marcus & Millichap, Grubb & Ellis, and CB Richard Ellis.

All of these reports include information on cap rates, vacancy rates, employment, construction & apartment unit inventory, housing & demographics, rents & capital markets (and more).

The grass isn’t always greener

Keep the following in the mind:

Many real estate brokers and commercial firms do not tell you the whole truth. They will try to paint the prettiest picture possible about their market and their properties. They’ll list properties with inflated prices. They mislead about markets. They will try to sell properties on pro formas (financials that do not exist today but might exist in perfect conditions). So, verify your information from multiple sources.

There are exceptions, but I’ve found few.

It’s worth checking out LoopNet while doing your research. This is the biggest online resource for apartment building listings — kind of like the MLS for single-family properties. But, again, most of the info is inflated as it is coming from the listing brokers or the property owners.

I’m not saying do not hire a local commercial real estate broker. I work with a guy I love. But as an entrepreneur and real estate investor you need to lead your team. In order to do that you need to know and study your business.

Which leads me to my next tip…

Learn about apartment investing BEFORE you buy a property

Before buying your first property, educate yourself on buying apartment buildings.

I read everything I can on multifamily investing. Books, magazines, articles online — and, there’s a lot of free stuff available.

Apartment Finance Today is one of my favorite (free!) magazines. This publication can keep you current on the financial markets. Multi-housing News is a magazine that covers markets, trends, finance, credit and other areas of interest to multi-family investors.

Both of these magazines are free and can be delivered to your door or read online.

Steve Berges is an author I’ve found who is pretty straightforward about investing in apartment buildings. His book The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings is worth checking out. (Of course you’ll definitely want to sign up for advance notice of my book!)

I realize this is a lot of information that asks you to do a lot of independent research. If you want to be successful in any business you should understand it.

Remember,

“Doing nothing is not a successful strategy!”.

And, where else can you get a group of people together to pay for your investment while providing them with a wonderful living environment at the same time? It’s why I love multifamily investing.

I hope this post has inspired you to invest in apartment buildings of any size. If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to get advance notice of my upcoming book, Investing In Apartment Buildings: Forcing Appreciation On Multifamily Properties Using A Value Added Strategy! (Click the link.)

Oh! And be sure to hop over to my mentoring page for more real estate investing resources: Apartment Investing Mentoring

Or, leave a comment below!

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2. Top Tips for Real Estate Investing

Posted by Theresa Bradley-Banta

Something I heard the other day…

“You can get committed to your beliefs because you want to believe.”

OK – as you know, I like to get inside the mindset of entrepreneurs.

Here’s what this means to me.

You can get committed to your beliefs — even though they’re wrong, or may lose you time & money — because you want to believe.

I see this with real estate investors all the time.

“My sister lives in San Francisco and I’m thinking about investing in real estate there… even though, all the numbers, market data, and research tell me this would be a poorly timed market right now.”

Yep. They did the research. They have the numbers right in front of them. Logic and the facts tell them it is not a good investment.

Yet, they want to believe.

They have some other, not so logical reason, for wanting to invest in a particular area. It’s really close to home. Or, they visit occasionally (Oh, really? Are you ready to visit two, three times a month?). It used to be a hot market, etc.

But, they say,

“This market may turn around some time!”

“My realtor says this is a perfect market for investment properties!”

Are they nuts?

Or, do they just feel like throwing away some money today?

Here’s another example.

“I’ve found a great price on a duplex and the price is just too good to pass up.”

Then, they tell me, their property manager says the only properties that are renting right now are 3 and 4 bedroom single-family homes.

No one is renting duplexes.

Here’s the belief this person is committed to; finding a great price on an investment property is the only factor that matters.

They believe.

They will be killed financially when the property sits empty.

It’s tempting to hear what you want to hear; to believe, in spite of the data.

I do it. Everyone does it.

You can avoid this trap by doing your research carefully. When in doubt, go to the numbers. Be honest with yourself about your motivations. Listen to and consult experts. Be willing to be flexible.

Lesson:

Be very careful about being committed to your beliefs because you want to believe.

Successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who have the skills they lack, or could improve on, by choosing the perfect team and knowing their own personal limitations or beliefs.

Theresa Bradley-Banta, co-creator of www.bigfishtopdogs.com, is a musician, award winning graphic artist, blogger, chief figure outer and owner of multiple businesses. You can follow her on twitter @bigfishtopdogs.

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I’m finding that I write about business psychology more than any other topic.

It’s an elusive and slippery topic.

For example, do you think in terms of abundance? Or, do you believe there isn’t enough to go around?

When you have a goal, do you see it so clearly in your mind that it would be impossible for that goal not to come true?

Do you use the right language, even in your own thoughts?

I was mentoring an entrepreneur the other day who had a deal she was putting together to purchase an international vacation home.

She wanted mentoring on the mechanics of the deal. The numbers. The Terms. A review of her offering brochure, etc. I don’t believe she expected me to get inside her head, or thinking, as much as I did.

She wanted to make 10 small units available to her friends. This equals 10 new partners — do you know what a “PITA” is?

I encouraged her to think in terms of 2 to 3 partners. These partners would bring substantially larger chunks of cash to her deal. In addition to simplifying the deal, this would greatly reduce the PITA factor.

Do you see the difference in thinking here?

By asking for much bigger dollar amounts, from fewer potential partners, she had to overcome some personal fears.

The fear people would say “no”.

The fear her deal wasn’t good enough for someone to invest a substantial amount of money.

A lack of “abundance” thinking.

Why have 10 partners when you could just as easily do the deal with 3?

As an entrepreneur, you not only need to monitor your own thoughts — your mindset — you have to be aware of what other people are thinking and you need to be cognizant of the fact that you influence that thinking.

My friend with the deal was prepared to offer a 44% return, a return I think her deal may deliver. But, what if the deal returns 25%? This would still be a great return, especially in view of the other perks to the partners.

In this scenario, the problem my friend would have is the investors heard 44% — 25% will seem, in their minds, to be a losing number.

“What happened to 44%? We lost money!”

How you think influences everything.

Your personal outcomes.

The expectations of your teams and partners.

Your ease of doing business.

Theresa Bradley-Banta, co-creator of bigfishtopdogs.com, is a musician, award winning graphic artist, blogger, chief figure outer and owner of multiple businesses. She coaches and mentors entrepreneurs from startups to developed businesses.

If you liked this article, please share it.

And, as always, your comments are welcome!

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Here are some of our top tips for investing in real estate. Some advice, if you do not understand the tips, you are probably not ready to invest in real estate. Blunt, but true. We know far too many people who have invested in real estate in the past decade and are now wishing they had been a lot more careful with their investments.

If you are new to investing in real estate, hire and work with professionals, but be sure that, in addition to following the advice of your professionals, the deal conforms to the guidelines you set. These tips are to assist you in leading your team. Talk to mentors — people who have already had success in real estate investing — work with professionals, and get some education on your own before jumping into the real estate game.

Here are our top tips for investing in real estate:

1. Everything’s negotiable. Always.
2. Always make money on the purchase. This means you could turn around and sell it today, for a profit. If you are not embarrassed about your offer, it is too high.
3. Have a tight acquisition strategy and do not deviate. What is your financial goal for each deal? Cash flow? Equity? Flip? Hold? Refinance?, etc.
4. Understand, and apply, the time value of money when analyzing the deal.
5. Never, ever fall in love with a property — this is a business!
6. Do your market research. Know what the property is worth. Do not base market value on what other properties are listed for in the area, look at recent comps for sold properties. See our post on The Top 20 Criteria for Locating Hot Real Estate Markets to determine if your market is solid. Do your homework.
7. Run the numbers, complete due diligence and inspections. Know the true condition of the property and the true costs of needed repairs.
8. Always have the property inspected by a professional.
9. When you run the numbers, be sure you know what all expenses will be, do not take the numbers the seller, broker or realtor provide as fact.
10. Never use pro formas in your acquisition analysis and exit strategies.
11. Know what the seller’s motivation is for selling; this will assist you in your negotiations and in structuring the deal.
12. When dealing with the seller, never make disparaging remarks about the property.
13. Always be aware you are creating lasting relationships.
14. Always shop financing.
15. Have several exit strategies in place at acquisition. Markets change.
16. Know your worst-case scenarios and determine if you can ride them out. Again, markets change.
17. If you are planning to sell or flip a property, be sure you can handle carry & holding periods in the event you are unable to do so immediately.
18. In addition to working with professionals, you must know the rules of the real estate game. This includes contract language, deeds, mortgage terms, fees (such as points, private mortgage insurance), closing costs, entity structuring, potential penalties (such as prepayment penalties), etc.. This knowledge enables you to lead your team! Education is King!
19. When in doubt, ask. Be humble.
20. Have your team ready at acquisition. This includes property management, maintenance, accounting & CPA, and legal, to name a few.

Real estate entrepreneurs, what are your tips? We’d love to hear from you, please leave us a comment below!

Theresa Bradley-Banta, co-creator of bigfishtopdogs.com, is a musician, award winning graphic artist, blogger and owner of multiple businesses. You can follow her on twitter @bigfishtopdogs.

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Have you ever wondered how some real estate investors unfailingly identify the next hot real estate market or sub-market? Have you found that many of these experts keep this a closely guarded secret?

It really isn’t that hard to do your own due diligence when buying real estate. We’ve provided a list to get you started. Please add your own criteria, based on your specific needs. For example, we will not consider a real estate market unless we are willing to visit the area,  and visit often. That’s just a personal rule. You can add your own as you go.

People invest in real estate for the strangest reasons. They take the information a realtor gives them as fact. They buy into their own wishful thinking — often convincing themselves a real estate market is great when it may in fact be on the brink of disaster. They fall in love with a property and fail to see it as a very important investment, one they may have for years and years.

Simply put, many people fail to take the time to do some homework when buying or investing in real estate.

If you are considering relocating to a new area and/or purchasing real estate in a new area, the following criteria can be highly effective in identifying markets to consider further. This list will assist you in doing some homework before investing your time or money in a personal visit to a real estate market, which should always be your next step.

The top real estate markets should have:

1. Solid job growth and employment outlook – companies are hiring.
2. Growing employment base and jobs – improving economy.
3. Good population growth and density.
4. Strong rental demand.
5. High average market rents OR, rental rates on upward move (at low point).
6. Increasing leasing activity without tenant concessions.
7. Room for growth; second or third-tier city (population – million or less).
8. Mild climate; located in Sunbelt.
9. High rating in national quality of life surveys — growing in popularity.
10. Median price of homes at 3-4 times median household income.
11. Income properties selling for 10 times annual rent or less.
12. Average vacancy rate of 7% or less.
13. Low crime rates.
14. Solvent financing in cities.
15. Lower tax rates than national average.
16. Location in the county seat.
17. Cultural activities, universities, and diverse economies.
18. Well established, long histories.
19. Low housing inventory.
20. Low housing foreclosure numbers.

Theresa Bradley-Banta, co-creator of bigfishtopdogs.com, is a musician, award winning graphic artist, blogger and owner of multiple businesses. You can follow her on twitter @bigfishtopdogs.

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Money rules are a personal thing. They are your rules. You may have rules you were conditioned with (by parents, teachers, family, peers) and you probably have set some money rules for yourself. Unfortunately, there is no set formula for establishing money rules… especially money rules specific to your investments. This article will give you some ideas for setting your own money rules. You will probably continue to tweak them for years to come as your investment strategies change, as you continue to learn from experience, and, as in my case, you occasionally get burned or learn the hard way.

These rules are provided as a starting point for you to develop your own money rules. As you develop your own, we would love to hear from you. Please drop us a comment at the end of this article.

1. Remember, everything is negotiable:

When presented with an investment opportunity, negotiate terms that work for you rather than accept a deal as presented. (Click this link to see our post on the art of negotiation.)

2. Never use pro forma numbers in your cash flow or acquisition analysis:

In this rule we define pro forma as financial projections. For example, if you are buying an apartment building, you want to use the current financials for the property, not the pro forma financials. Brokers are famous for using pro forma analysis when presenting a real estate property or business for sale, and for basing the asking price on those projected numbers. Pro forma numbers will include items such as potential market rent on an apartment unit (after renovations, for example), management costs under new management, utility costs when residents pay a portion of utilities, etc. These are what we call “the grass has been fertilized” numbers, and they are, quite possibly, wishful thinking.

3. Know your exit strategies before you make the investment:

Your exit strategy is how you plan to capitalize on your investments. For example, will you sell a stock, sell or refinance a property, cash in a fund after retirement for tax benefits, etc? You need to understand your exit strategy when you make the investment! It is possible, and advisable in most cases, to have several exit strategies in place. Determine who gets paid what and when. When planning on how to capitalize on an investment, use pro forma financial analysis conservatively and judiciously.

4. Diversify your portfolio:

Establish what type of diversification you desire to have in your portfolio. For example, you might target diversification as follows: Real Estate 40%, Business and prom notes 20%, Stock Market 15%, Oil and Gas 10%, Cash 15%. Having a strongly diversified portfolio will protect you from short-term fluctuations in each asset class. These percentages are only examples, you’ll find wildly differing opinions depending on whom you talk to.

Have short-term and long-term plans for your investments, to include cash flow, passive income, equity growth and capitalization on your investments (how you get your money out).
One other important item to consider here is your liquidity needs. This is one reason why we suggest you have cash as a part of your asset portfolio. You do not want to find yourself in a situation where you badly need funds and they are tied up in a long-term hold.

5. Decide if you are going to be an active or passive investor:

Do you need to feel in control of your investments? How much time do you have for hands on management of your portfolio? We’ve been able to find a good balance through experience and have, over time, decided on what we enjoy doing. For example, we invest in oil and gas, which has been a fairly passive investment involving very little of our time. When we began investing in real estate, we started with single-family properties and found it took too much of our time because of the hands on management involved. We later moved to apartment buildings which supported the hiring of a professional management company, thereby freeing us up to continue to acquire assets and to manage those assets rather than being involved in property management on a daily basis.

6. Decide what ROI is acceptable to you:

What type of return on investment do you require? Are you comfortable with a 7% annual return on investment? Your rules might state the following; prom notes must earn a minimum return of no less than 10% ROI per annum, while real estate must produce a minimum of 5% cash flow and an equity gain of 10% annually. Once you establish these rules don’t vary. If a deal comes your way that does not satisfy your minimum requirements, don’t do the deal.

7. Don’t follow the crowd:

Never invest in a deal just because everyone else is doing it. This rule speaks for itself. It is easy to fall into the trap that if everyone is doing something, it must be good. The danger here is that you are unlikely to do your own due diligence if you believe the group, or crowd has already done it.

8. Verify, verify, verify:

Always complete due diligence and inspections of numbers, books, reports and data. Obtain everything in writing. Speak to others that have experience in a particular asset class and compare numbers. Ask for references and follow through by contacting those references.

Run the numbers and make sure you believe they make sense. If you are not confident in running the numbers get someone on your team to do this for you and have them give you their evaluation of the deal. Have the proper tools and know how to use them (or a team that does). These tools will include analysis and financing spreadsheets, due diligence checklists, etc.

9. Take advantage of tax benefits:

No matter what you are investing in, you need to clearly know what the tax implications and benefits are (both on your investment and your current income). When you invest, be aware of the tax implications not only for the current year, but also for the following years and for the day you exit your investment. With a well-diversified portfolio you will be allocating the tax advantages over many assets. Use a CPA or tax attorney to assist you in reviewing how your investment returns will impact your tax rate and your regular income.

10. Be certain you fully understand the investment:

Read the documents provided. Create a list of additional documents required by you. For example, when looking at a business investment ask for all financials in addition to an offering memorandum; documents such as cash flow statements, balance sheets, profit and loss statements, pro forma analysis, etc., will assist you in understanding how an investment will perform.

11. Don’t try to time the market:

This is just too hard to pull off. By this we mean, don’t try to second-guess the timing in a market. Don’t try to guess when a real estate market has reached it’s peak or bottom, the same is true of the stock market. By the time you realize a market has moved, most of that movement has already taken place. No matter how tempting, do not forgo diversification to jump into a “hot” asset class with a large portion of your investment dollars.

12. Don’t invest more money than you can comfortably afford to lose:

Know your worst-case scenarios and determine if you can ride them out. Take calculated risks. Be sure you have an emergency fund. Follow your money rules religiously.

Always remember, no one knows your investing psychology, goals, priorities, risk and comfort levels more than you do. This can be a fun exercise if you realize it does not need to be done over night, and can be a fluid, learning process.

Theresa Bradley-Banta is a co-creator of BigFishTopsDogs.com, musician, award winning graphic artist, mentor, entrepreneur, blogger and owner of multiple businesses. You can follow her on twitter @bigfishtopdogs.

To become a contributing entrepreneur see our contributor page.

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