When God Speaks

            As one grows older, one grows wiser. That’s what I have been told all my life. And surprisingly enough, I am actually coming to the realization that my elders were speaking the truth. But more amazing is that my hearing capabilities are improving as well.

            I am an entrepreneur, a professional photographer. A little over 20 years ago, it was my desire to grow my (then part-time photography) business. To do so, I needed to move into a retail environment away from my house. I started looking around for available space to lease. I found two spots that I liked and felt were within my budget, only to have my “real” job provide me with a potential promotion opportunity in Colorado.  They sent me up there for three months to check it out.

            Thinking this would be a great opportunity, I put my business plans on hold and jumped on this opportunity. As it turned out, after three months I came back home. So I immediately picked back up my plans to move my photography business out of the house. Lo and behold, neither of the two properties I had been looking at prior to going to Colorado were available – one was rented (and really too small for me anyway) and the other property was under bankruptcy. That sent me back to the drawing board.

            About a month later, I had to take a package to the local post office near my house. Upon leaving the post office, I came to a traffic light and saw a sign on a shopping center “Space for Lease”. I decided to check it out and found a “perfect” spot to rent. It would take very little up-front costs to finish it out to my specifications and the rent was far better than the previous two locations I had considered.

            Now, none of this may appear to be very much of a “God-thing”, but 1) the gentleman I rented the space from was a fellow Christian and took extremely good care of me, and 2) the job in Colorado, had I taken it, was eliminated a couple of years later in a downsizing move. That would have left me in a State far away from my family without a job.

            I may not have heard God talking to me, but I sure felt his presence in how situations were put before me. I believe he sent me to Colorado to keep from making a mistake in leasing the wrong property. He also kept me from moving to Colorado, thus preventing a job loss but at the same time fulfilling my business needs.

            My photography business flourished in the next couple of years, and we needed to move two more times to a much larger spaces and hiring a couple of people. Life was good.

            In December of 1995, at the end of the second year of a five year lease, the property I was leasing came under foreclosure, and the new owners exercised their right in one of the lease’s sub-chapters to require the tenant (me) to “subordinate and atorn to new terms” – basically, they could double, triple, or quadruple my rent and there was nothing I could do about it except take it or move out.

            I am a firm believer in paying my debts, and something in my mind told me to pay my January rent early – two weeks early. So I did. Right after Christmas, I got the letter from the new leasing agent that they wanted to discuss news rates with me. So an appointment was set up for the first week in January, 1996.

             That first meeting was a rather tense meeting. I listened to their proposal (double my rent immediately) and surprisingly enough I didn’t lose my cool. I did, however, get a chance to present my counter arguments to their proposal and I asked her to take these concerns back to her boss for reconsideration. She agreed to do so. A week later, I sent in my February rent.

            The next meeting with the leasing agent was set up for the first week in February. She brought “good news” – they wouldn’t double my rent for 18 months, but the remaining 18 months of my lease would be at the doubled rate. That, to me, was still not acceptable, but again, I submitted reasons why my rent shouldn’t be raised and she said she would take it back to her boss. A week later, I sent in my March rent.

            A couple of days later, one of my wedding clients brought in her fiancé for an engagement portrait session.  She had told him about my leasing issues. He wanted to know more – just coincidentally, he was a commercial real estate lawyer.

            After hearing the story, he asked me if the landlord had refused any of my rent checks (January, February, or March). I told him no. He asked me if the checks had cleared the bank yet, to which I told him neither the January or February checks had cleared yet, but the money was there for when they did. He responded that I don’t have anything to worry about. That got my attention! According to him, the law states that if, in situations like this, that if the landlord accepts the previously negotiated rent and doesn’t refuse to accept them or send the checks back, then they have ratified the unexpired lease I had with the previous owner. As far as I was concerned, he told me, the landlord could “wallpaper the Executive washroom with your checks”. That made my day, needless to say!

            The leasing agent came back the first week in March for another meeting with me, this time saying she had managed to get the landlord to spread out the rent increases - $500 per month, this first year, then an additional $500 per month the second year, and finally an additional$500 per month the third year.  Knowing that I had a commercial real estate lawyer in my on my side ready to write a letter for me telling the landlord he had no legal right to make changes to my lease gave me the courage to politely tell the leasing agent that I refused any change to my lease and sent her packing. A couple of days later, I sent in my April rent check.

            Now fast forward to the first week in April. I was travelling on business when I got an emergency call from my wife that the leasing agent had just left the studio. Being a bit cocky, I asked what she had wanted. My wife went on to say how the leasing agent was happy to report that she had gotten her bosses to accept and ratify the lease I had with the previous owners. OK, now I’m skeptable. I called my bank and asked whether four check numbers (my rents checks) had cleared the bank yet. She told me that all four of them had cleared the day before.

            What this meant was that the landlord knew they had messed up and their only opportunity to win their case was to hopefully get at least one of the rent checks to bounce.

            But, this opened up a new set of circumstances for me. I knew I had three years left on my lease and that I certainly would not be receiving a reasonable renewal. And since I would run into similar situations with landlords elsewhere, I came to the realization that I needed to buy land and build a studio on it, thus becoming my own landlord.

            So, for the next two years, I inquired on several parcels of land, only to be discouraged that they weren’t zoned correctly, or the property was too expensive, or the property was attached to a useless parcel which I couldn’t use. Near the end of the second year of looking and being discouraged, I “saw” a parcel of property that I had driven by daily. Inquiring on the property thru an agent, it was something I could do even though it was twice as much land and twice the dollar amount I had budgeted.

            But, I took a leap of faith, making an offer of 20% less than the asking price and the seller accepted it! At the closing of the deal, I found out the name of the seller, a lady that sat one section over from me in church! All this time, God had been putting roadblocks in front of me to keep me from buying the wrong piece of land. Yes, God, I’m listening!

            We built my dream studio, moved it, and start flourishing even more. I never planned on growing this quickly; the business just started coming without advertising. I had to hire additional staff, including my daughter and we became even more successful.

            In 2002, my sister and I had thought about building a wedding chapel and reception venue on some of my unused land behind the studio and on adjacent property we would have to purchase. We each were ready to invest $100,000 of our own money, but we really wanted a third investor with $100,000 so we would have about 25-30% of the money it would take to build it all.

            Long story short, we never found the third investor. And in 2005, the wedding market “crashed”, my business was struggling, and I came to the realization that I needed to lay off two valued employees. Even with trimming the payroll, I still didn’t have a “warm, comfortable” feeling financially.

            At my “real” job in Dallas, for three consecutive days I was the first to arrive in the building at 6:00 a.m. and turn on the lights. While I waited for my computer to connect with the network, it was quite, so I sat in front of my computer and prayed to God asking for comfort, answers, and help.

            I knew God would provide, but after the third day of prayers, I was feeling down. Driving home that afternoon was hard. Traffic was a bear, construction at an interchange of two major highways that I needed to travel on was horrible, and I just felt bad.

            Then, as I’m merging from one highway onto the other highway in this dangerous construction area, I heard a voice: “Pay your building off.” I remember saying out loud, “What?” Bear in mind, there was no one else in my car. Again, I heard, “Pay your building off.”

            You can imagine my astonishment. It got me to thinking – I had that money that I was willing to invest in the wedding chapel, but I still owed almost twice that amount on my mortgage. Then it came to me that my sister probably still had the money she was going to use to invest with, too. So, that evening, I sat down with her and told her my story and needs, and she readily agreed to make up any difference in what I needed.

            Within a month, my mortgage was paid off and now I was free from a $4,500 monthly “rent”. Yes, my sister now owned part of my building.

            Six months later, God sent a buyer for the unused land behind my studio, and with that money, I paid my sister off. At that point, I became totally debt free – both personally and in business!

            I praise God daily for that sequence of events. The economy continued to worsen, but because He had laid the groundwork for me, we have been able to weather the storm and stay in business, despite businesses all around having to close up.

            God definitely spoke to me – sometimes more clearly than other times. Or maybe, I was more receptive sometimes more than other times. All I can say, however, is that in the past 25+ years, I can definitively see where God has had an influence in my path and my decision making. And I strongly feel that had it not been for Him, I would not be where I am today. I’m glad I listened.

                                                                        Dwayne Lee, Southern Flair Photography