Reflection Paul Bremer

Entrepreneurship Capstone

Hogan Davidson

February 24, 2019

Summary

Paul Bremer is a local business owner and entrepreneur who is very successful. He is the owner
of Carl’s Diner, a security business, and I believe he mentioned that he owns 49 other properties in the
surrounding area with the rest being mostly rentals and apartment units. Paul’s first purchase was Carl’s
Diner he asked the current owner (Carl) about if he was looking to sell the property. Carl responded by
saying that indeed he was looking to retire one day. He couldn’t get the nerve to ask Carl about selling it
to him. Then several months later he asked again, and he got the same answer from Carl. This time they
formulated an agreement to sell the Diner and in turn keep Carl around for a couple months until he
learned the ropes in the operation. Carl ended up staying for 7 years and knowledge and help he got
was instrumental.

Paul mentioned that one of his main flaws was that he used to not ask questions when he was
younger to get help and understand something. Instead, he would try to figure it out himself. Another
problem he had when he was younger is that he didn’t understand money and how to correctly manage
it. He used to buy more than what he had and jack up his credit cards and other debt. This changed
when he bought Carl’s Diner and met Carl. Carl introduced him and his wife to the envelope system
where money would be set aside for every imaginable day to day expense in life. This was perfect
because it kept the money out of Paul’s pocket so he couldn’t spend it. After purchasing the diner Paul
got into buying other real estate. He found that by buying a property he could reduce his expense of
living in his old house by having people rent. This type of venture isn’t a money grab but slowly and
surely the real estate gains value or trickles in profit to the point where if the process is continued over
time people can substantially increase their net worth with numerous amounts of assets (the real
estate). There are some things to look out for and both advantages and disadvantages that I learned in
real estate from Paul’s speech and I will dive deeper into those in the opinion segment of this paper.

Another thing I learned from Paul was the value of marketing and some of his interesting
marketing campaigns that he had launched over the years. This started from when he was visiting Las
Vegas (or Reno I don’t remember for sure) and he saw a vehicle with a poster on it driving up and down
the strip. It would do it all day so Paul believed that it must stimulate sales. He bought a bus and painted
it to look like a pig to promote the diner and would drive it around or leave it parked in an area that gets
a lot of traffic (see picture below). It acts as a moving billboard. It got to the point that when he would
move the pig from an existing location and customers would come into the diner worried and asking
questions about its whereabouts. The pig bus is even used in important community and humanitarian
efforts such as a food drive where the motto would be to “feed the pig.” This just shows Paul’s true
character.
 Lastly, I wanted to highlight the freedom and quality of living that entrepreneurial life has
blessed Paul. With the diner having employees and the real estate having minimal maintenance
requirements Paul has been able to enjoy life the way he wants to. He has been able to ride motorcycles
in all 50 states even making a huge road trip up to Alaska and his wife has had the opportunity to take
vacations. This is the kind of freedom I envision for myself in the future and is why I am taking the
Entrepreneurship Capstone.

Opinion

I believe that in the near future it would be a wise for myself to invest in real estate. For starters,
real estate is one of the few things that generally appreciates over time. Many things such as cars or
vehicles depreciate drastically the second you take them off of the lot. Real Estate can go through ebbs
and flows with the economy but generally goes up in price into the future. There was one apartment
complex that Paul talked about where I believe he bought it for $300,000 and everyone said he was
crazy but today it is worth three quarter of a million dollars. Another thing is real estate especially
rentals can be viewed as very risky. One constant negative associated with real estate is that people look
at the worst such as what if everyone moves the second, I buy the property and I can’t afford payments.
The chances of things like that happening are very slim and it kept Paul from buying 10 family apartment
units. He stressed that now he’s realized that the more families in a unit the less risk. You could have
one person move out of a two-person complex very easy and cause significant strain but the chances
that 5 families move out at the same time at a 10-family complex are very unlikely. Paul also has
displayed the importance of real estate to his workers at the diner where the majority of employees
own housing complexes, some of them are in their early 20’s even. Paul wouldn’t push these
investments to his employees and those he cares about if he didn’t believe that real estate was
generally safe and a smart way to build assets. Additionally, owning properties can help with instances
when you need quick and significant liquidation of assets. Paul got in trouble with the IRS and the only
thing that kept him from going under was he was able to sell one of his units and make up for the fine.
Looking at it this way, owning properties could help protect myself for future problems. Lastly, one of
Paul’s final thoughts to us really stuck with me. He said that the hardest thing for him hasn’t been
managing all his properties, but it has been raising kids and staying married.
EPS Concepts

The first entrepreneurship concept I want to highlight is the importance of creativity. To succeed
in a business where you may have many competitors such as a diner Paul needed to be very creative in
how he marketed and appealed to his customers. Like I mentioned earlier, the pig bus is a very creative
way to gain attention and recognition from people. Another thing that I think he does remarkably well is
Carl’s Diner is known for their enormous portion sizes. This is also very creative and a way for Paul to
separate himself from his competitors.

Another important concepts for entrepreneurs is finance. Many new businesses are
unsuccessful because they don’t know how to manage money or their expenses. A great thing that Paul
taught us was how that when he needed money for when he was purchasing a new property the first
thing he would try and do is secure the funds from an outside source instead of a bank. He would often
get loans from the people who originally owned the property and by doing this, if he were to fail on his
repayments he wouldn’t be in as much of a troublesome situation as the property would default back to
the owner. This outside source funding would also have interest rates much lower than the banks which
was a win, win for both parties involved.

To be an entrepreneur often involves periods of hardship. It isn’t easy to start a business on

your own or everyone would do it. Entrepreneurs have to be resilient and this is another main concept
that I want to highlight. When Paul first purchased the diner, he was unfortunate as a recession period
hit. The first five years were very tough for him but instead of running away from the problem he
strapped up his work boots and looked to outside sources such as his real estate business. This also
shows how important it is to be adaptable. If Paul would have only owned the diner, he would have
likely been able to survive and make a living but with the real estate, Paul has now created substantial
net worth where he will be able to retire more than comfortably. Future planning is also essential so
that entrepreneurs can be successful and live out life the way they envision.

Picture Resource

The Pig Bus. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://carlsoxforddiner.com/The-Pig-Bus_ep_45.html