AWARE
A Business in a Book
Lucille Orr
best selling author of
“How to Ask for What You Want & GET IT!”
Copyright 2011 Lucille Orr,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by Lucille Orr
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-6465-5521-8
Additional copies of this book and others written and published by Lucille Orr are available from;
Australian Executive Women’s Network
107 Carrington Street, Adelaide SA 5000
Telephone: 61 8 8223 2522
Fax: 61 8 8232 7657
Book Orders: www.awareproperties.com.au
Volume VI of the WISE* Series
(*WISE means Women in Successful Enterprises) All book’s in the WISE Series include;
The Net Result, Profiles of Executive Women
The Net Result II, Success Stories
Women’s Success Stories - Nine Business Executives Around the Pacific Ocean
(Published in Japanese language) Networking Games - Making Profitable Connections How to Ask for What You Want and GET IT! AWARE - Australian Women And Real Estate
A Business in a Book
AWARE - A business in a book - First Published in February, 2011
Copyright © Lucille Orr - 2011
National Library of Australia Card Number & ISBN 978-0-646-55003-9
Edited by Robert Stephenson and Jackie Davies Designed and Produced by Steven Orr Photography and Cover Design by Steven Orr Printed by Griffin Press, South Australia
DISCLAIMER:
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior consent in writing, of the author.
All the stories in this book are true, however the author has changed the names to protect their confidentiality. Quotes throughout this book are written by Lucille Orr.
This book is dedicated to all who asked for help to start their own small business after reading
How to Ask for What You Want and GET IT!
Vintage ORR!
Still bubbling, but all the better
For careful ageing.
The French word for gold is or.
Well, this Orr presents a how-to book (with an appealing blend of how-do-you-do) which is P U R E G O L D.
Read it, and savour the thrill of prospecting!
Editor; Nancy Robinson Flannery
Foreward
Australian Women And Real Estate (AWARE) is a book of business opportunities. Its author Lucille Orr is a very successful businesswoman who has spent her life educating, motivating and mentoring women in business.
Lucille helps women understand the process of starting a small business from scratch and to this end she has written and published many books that included the stories of other successful businesswomen in The Net Result series and her own books How to Ask for What You Want and GET IT! and Networking Games
– Making Profitable Connections.
In “AWARE” she shares her personal experience of going back to school at 55 years of age to gain her real estate license and then building her own successful property business.
Of all the small businesses Lucille has owned and operated (over 20), she has never enjoyed a business more than the one she owns right now. Her company AWARE Properties Pty. Ltd. has a uniquely different approach to real estate. It has been designed to assist the needs of women and their families with new and innovative services.
Lucille believes she has no competition, because she created an original concept, a way of working compatibly and not competitively with other real estate agents Australia wide. Her win/win formula has even the male diehards in the industry praising her and using AWARE Properties to find buyers and tenants for their vendors and landlords.
AWARE Properties assists sellers, buyers, tenants, investors, landlords, property developers and business operators. But Lucille’s main aim is to encourage more women to open their own real estate offices. She has created an opportunity for those who would like a mentor, to join the Australian Women And Real Estate Network and work from the comfort of their own homes with all the support and advice they need to own their own property business.
In 1970 Lucille had owned and operated the Key Punch Centre for two years when I asked her if I could leave school and come to work for her. I knew Lucille was operating a winning business because she knew when she was in the right place at the right time and this time I recognized it as well.
I’m 13 years her junior and I know her better than anyone, because when I was only 11 my mother left my father and my big sister Lucille became our mentor.
She bought a delicatessen and the three of us worked very hard in that deli. At the same time Lucille worked for IBM as a consultant to its clients and came back to work in the deli every evening after her busy days.
I attended a high school within walking distance of the delicatessen so I was able to work at the shop during the lunch rush. It was a tough time for the three of us, but we had the satisfaction of earning our own income and becoming independent. It was a great feeling. My mother and I had been so unhappy at home with my father. I have told Lucille many times that she saved our lives.
Eventually Lucille sold the deli and from the proceeds of the sale Lucille and Mother bought a two bedroom unit so Mother and me could be comfortable and secure. Lucille concentrated on expanding her computer business. She taught me every facet of her business and by the age of 29, Lucille had over 100 permanent staff (all women because they could type) working for her in three states. She trained data entry and word processing operators, managed three large data processing bureaus and placed trained and experienced operators into the workplace in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
Lucille has an incredible energy and enthusiasm for life. This life force seems to be replenished every time she works with women, improving their lives and business opportunities.
I watched Lucille in the seventies build a substantial computer business, then through the eighties and nineties when she opened and managed 19 branches of her Australian Executive Women’s Network across the country. She created and managed the national Telecom Australian Executive Woman of the Year award for nine years. Today, the award created by Lucille is known as the prestigious Telstra Business Women’s Award.
Lucille senses what women want, long before the women know themselves. She believes women need to invest in property. Many women earning very high incomes, sometimes more than their male partners, have been reluctant to invest in property. The main reason is that they don’t understand how to select, purchase and manage a property portfolio. Lucille is now educating women by selecting the right properties, buying and managing the properties for them.
In her usual way, she stopped everything