Our Story

My story may help you decide if you have the basic characteristics to be an entrepreneur. I believed I was one but did not recognize it until late in life, I was taught to work for what I wanted and needed. Paper route, carpenter at 14, retail at 16, worked through college, direct sales after marriage, odd jobs etc. you get the picture. Industry positions for 40 years and then at 58 on the outside looking in due to restructuring, actually an activity that I had been a participant in for years. Although I probably had a law suit for my circumstance, I choose not to pursue that action.

Rather, my wife and I went to the Outer Banks, a favorite vacation spot for years, sat at Orgen Inlet watching the fishing boats come and go and making a list of what I was “good” at doing and what I really disliked. By the end of the day we had the list in draft form.

Wow, what a ride. I asked the question, who wants to hire a 58 year old executive? The answer is not many. You might ask that same question of an early retiree and perhaps in today’s economy the questions might span the entire unemployed group which is huge. In my case, we decided to pursue positions that were non age dependent. Although there are laws saying discremenation is an unlawful practice, in the real world it happens. Unfortunate but true.

Where to start? We had our list, on it were Professional recruiting, Real Estate (my wife hated that one), Owning a business and Working from our home. Also on the “don’t want” part of the list was working for anyone else. Once was enough, we did not want a repeat trauma and believe me there is trauma.

Here were our steps, a business associate owned a Recruiting Franchise and asked me to join him but I would need to relocate which was of no interest to us. After he bluntly said no one would hire me because of over qualifications, I listened and agreed to work with him and another associate on a 1099 basis. In the mean time I pursued a Real Estate License against my wife’s wishes and started a corporation. My logic was to have synergy businesses, find someone a position then find a house for them. That worked, our son was a builder and I sold his houses. We soon realized that I could fold my recruiting business under the corporation umbrella and work for myself, no sharing income with the Franchisee owner, that also worked.

The next step was a Construction Company, a new Corporation (Petra Construction Inc), our son was the key employee and we built houses and did sub work for other general contractors. Although we never missed a payroll, it was difficult on the investor, my wife and I. We discovered that some of our customers did not share the same integrity as we did.

Then the opportunity to purchase a LINE-X (Spray On Truck Bedliners) territory came along, through our son. We owned the Franchise for 8 years and built it from nothing to a good and profitable business. It was sold in 2008 and we needed to make a decision on what to do next, we did not wish to retire so enter the networking, work from home industry.

This was virgin territory for us; we really did not know how to go about selecting a company other than if it sounded good we might just try it or if it was recommended by a friend, it must be good. In case you are wondering, that technique just does not work. There is a lot of information on our web site www.cmeminso.com that will lad you through the steps that we now recommend. We now say to any prospect, YOU are the investor, it’s your decision. We will help you through the analysis process but in the end, it’s still your decision.

Take the short assessment survey on this site; this will give you an indication of whether or not you are an entrepreneur, a leader, one who can be successful in a business. If you are, this might be the ideal time to seek a business out and take this stem..

Is a home based business for you? Perhaps, there are thousands of opportunities available and more being born every day, some are great and some not so great. How do you tell? The short answer, do your research; it’s your time and your money that you will be investing. We found a few businesses that met our need; I say a few because we believe that you should not have all of your eggs in one basket.

We hope that our story points you in a good direction.