Today we’d like to introduce you to Beau Brands.
Beau, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After graduating from The University of Texas at Dallas, I found myself being proactively recruited by Geico to join their management development program. The “MDP” program was essentially a fast-track program into becoming a manager at one of the various sectors within the company. I decided it was a great opportunity to learn how one of the top insurance companies in the world ran their business and had a blast. After having moved up the ranks within Geico, I ended up leaving the insurance industry to join a team of residential realtors operating as “The Heyl Group”. Within my first two months, I had closed four transactions and felt on top of the world! It didn’t take long before I set out to grow my own real estate team, The Brands Group.
During my first year, I received awards like #1 rookie by listings taken, #1 rookie in sold volume, #1 rookie in written volume and #1 rookie in closings taken. I attribute that success to being relentlessly proactive, outworking my competition, but most of all, to having an incredibly supportive network that I could turn to when I had questions on a transaction. Watching other agents who I respect very much experience huge swings in their production was a problem I knew was worth solving. I viewed learning how to consistently acquire clients looking to buy homes as my ticket to a stable future. With that, I set out to learn everything I could about customer acquisition and lead generation.
My days consisted of cold calling fsbo’s and expired listings while my nights were spent researching marketing case studies and learning how to run high-level lead generation funnels through Facebook, Instagram and Google ppc. My sphere at the time consisted of many 20-30-year-olds who wanted to rent but couldn’t afford to buy. After learning that 90%+ of property management companies throughout the D.F.W. metroplex were willing to pay a commission every time I referred a client to their property, I set my eyes on the apartment locating industry to as the perfect platform for implementing my newly learned “niche” skill sets. After lots of trial and error, I was able to combine various third party softwares and my knowledge of a lead generation to create a solution for providing the business consistency I as look for in apartment locating. Fast forward two years later and I’ve now grown a successful apartment locating company called “The Apartment Saver”.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s definitely been a roller coaster of highs and lows. Starting your own business is expensive! I was prepared to invest in my dream but if I knew all the adversity I’d be facing along the way, I’m not sure I would have seen this through. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so thankful that I did and feel extremely lucky that it has turned out the way it has but apartment locating is a very tough business. Locators typically don’t get paid a commission until a client has lived in their new apartment for 2-4 months. Combine this “wait time” with paying for systems, marketing, employees, gift cards, etc and the fact that most clients are looking to move between one and three months out… you can imagine how scary it was weathering the “start-up” phase.
The biggest turning point in my life and business came about five months into starting The Apartment Saver when my good friend (and first employee), Darienne, passed away unexpectedly in a car crash. I was crushed and went into a really dark place for a while. My best friend had passed away, I had charged up credit cards, and had very little money coming in from the business. I think most people wouldn’t have blamed me if I had chosen to call it a day but I coped with loosing Darienne through immersing myself in my business. I worked 20 hour days 7 days a week, I had to take on jobs outside of apartment locating just to afford the basic systems required to stay open, and I had to lean on organic marketing techniques for a while. I was a man on a mission and it took a LONG time but eventually, the sleepless nights and weeks of living off ramen noodles began to pay off. I was able to afford moving into a new office at Thanksgiving Tower in Downtown Dallas where I found myself being surrounded by other small business owners who really pushed me to scale The Apartment Saver from just a “side hustle” into the company it is today. I’d be lying if I told you it’s been easy because the amount of work has only seemed to increase haha but we did learn to work “smarter” and got really good at asking for help!
Please tell us about The Apartment Saver – what should we know?
The Apartment Saver is an apartment locating company that helps people save time and money finding an apartment. We have access to exclusive rent specials throughout the DFW metroplex and save most of our clients between 4 and 8 weeks in rent, along with offering them a $200 Visa gift card to utilize our free service. Once a client leases an apartment through my company, our utility concierge will price shop cable, electricity, and internet services to make sure they’re saving money on the basics. They’ll actually even set up the utility services for the client when requested! We have fantastic relationships with credit repair companies, moving companies, packing companies, insurance agents and even furniture companies that our clients can leverage to save additional money. People joke about our name sounding like a superhero but it really couldn’t be any more suiting for what my company does… we help people save on apartments in every way possible! Although we’re always looking at ways to add more value, I’d like to think of The Apartment Saver as the “one-stop-shop” for anything related to apartments.
Over the past few years, I’ve helped hundreds of clients move into a new apartment. During this time, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity of sponsoring UFC fighters, speaking at entrepreneur meet-ups, sponsoring various events, and even helped put together an event offering free helicopter rides in Downtown Dallas. We are currently mapping out what will soon be our first satellite location of The Apartment Saver in Austin Texas and look forward to announcing this in the near future!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.aptsaver.com
- Phone: 2142732366
- Email: aptsaver@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theapartmentsaver/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheApartmentSaver/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AptSaver
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
