My name is Justin Smith. Not the Justin Smith that plays for the San Fransisco 49ers, but I often rank higher than him in Google. I was born and raised in a small village in south central Ohio. I started my first business, Verta Net, Inc. (a dial-up internet service provider) when I was 13 years old with the help of my loving parents. We gained around 700 clients in a year and a half and then DSL came into the area and dial-up thankfully became a thing of the past. My second business was also short-lived, Vibe PC, Inc. a start-up building custom computers and selling hardware peripherals via the internet.
I was working remodeling homes with my mothers General Contractor business my 10th grade summer when I decided high school wasn’t for me. I found a program in Miami Florida that allows students to test out of their remaining classes, I completed the test in two days and got a temporary job at Office Max in the electronics department while balancing a few web design clients on the side. I worked there about six months until one Friday night I was stocking shelves and I received a phone call from the president of an extreme sports distributor and manufacturer, #3 in the sport of paintball, Action Fanatics, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA. I went to work for AF and they were later acquired by a paintball conglomerate, KEE Action Sports in Sewell, NJ. There was about a three month gap between that point and when I moved to Orlando to go to Full Sail and over-ride my high-school absence with a semi legitimate college degree. I guess I was having doubts on my theory that college was a complete joke. I do feel the need to admit, I was right to begin with. The education obtained for $110,000 could be gained in under a year, completely free of charge. If you’ve got skills and you know it, trust your intuition. Besides, any good employer is going to base your employment over what you know and not what the piece of paper says you know.
I enrolled at Full Sail University with a goal of getting my Bachelors in Music Business. Before graduating I applied for one job through Craigslist, and was offered the position the same day on the spot. They were willing to wait three months for me to finish school. I was hired by a Top 30 Under 30 real estate broker who’s company was on pace for the prestigious Inc 500. Five years into my employment I had practically been running the company for a good while when I was promoted to VP and promised a vesting agreement. That promise went unfulfilled and as of August 11th 2011, I am no longer with that company. Fortunately, what started as a side-hustle in late 2010 has now become a legitimate business of it’s own, Condo Rental Ads, Inc. You can see our first of 7 network sites now live at propertymanagementads.com. In addition to Condo Rental Ads, I also provide SEO and internet marketing consulting at Xflavor and classic movies on DVD at Timeless DVDs.
I believe there are great rewards in taking initiative and pushing yourself to make a difference. A little change in yourself and everything around you starts to fall into place. In time all the hard work is bound to pay off.
My qualifications are as follows:
- Business Management
- Web Design & Development
- Mobile Development
- SEO (Certified Internet Marketing Professional)
- IT, Hardware & Software
- Graphic Design, Corporate Identity, Print
- Niche Research & Development
- General Business Consulting
- Audio Engineering (Studio & Live Sound Engineer)
- Concert Lighting Design
In my free time I like going to concerts, cooking, fine dining, hunting, fishing, working out, playing guitar and tournament paintball. I love life and live every day to the fullest. That’s just about everything. Thanks for reading my blogs, hopefully you’ve found the content useful.
