BUSINESS
Anatomy Of An Entrepreneur
ADRIEN CHANDLER
Special to The Jewish News
Within the first six
months of
operation,
Hermanoff and
Associates grew
from Sandy
Hermanoff's one-
person public
relations agency
into a thriving
business.
48ERIDAYIEBBIJABD4, 1992
an Gilbert's Bing-
ham Farms' office
is filled with sports
paraphernalia, in-
cluding an Ever-
last punching bag
for "stress reduc-
tion" and a makeshift basket-
ball hoop.
Plastered to the backboard
is an athletic wear company
bumper sticker, which sums
up his business philosophy —
Just Do It.
"I love competition, achiev-
ing the next goal. I'm very
goal oriented," says Mr.
Gilbert, 29, president and
founder of Rock Financial
Corp., a mortgage banking
company. "You can't do it
unless you think it, believe it
first. Unless you say 'I'm gon-
na do it you're not going to
achieve what you want to."
Those words are more than
lip service for Mr. Gilbert.
He didn't obtain that high-
ranking position through
family connections or any
means other than hard work
and inspiration. Rock Finan-
cial is his brain-child started
in 1985 while he was still in
law school.
Being your own boss is part
of the American Dream.
Some businesspeople had
capital and other resources at
their disposal to build suc-
cessful companies. Others
were lucky enough to step in-
to a family business. But
there are those entrepreneurs
who are truly self-made, like
Mr. Gilbert, public relations
executive Sandy Hermanoff
and jeweler Howard Tapper.
Experts say it takes a certain
type of person to follow that
road from rags-to-riches.
In the last six-and-a-half
years, Rock Financial has
grown to 90 employees and
has carved out a niche in the
highly competitive and
lucrative Oakland County
residential real estate
market.
Mr. Gilbert says he always
wanted his own business. For
the first six months after
graduating from Michigan
State University, he was a
reporter for a Grand Rapids
television station.
But he decided that was no
way to make a living. Instead,
he returned to metro Detroit
and sold real estate, while he
thought about his next move.
He says he was naturally
drawn to the real estate
business since both his
parents are real estate
agents.
Without much business
training, he started a mor-
tgage brokerage company,
which brings together lenders
and borrowers. "I just jumped
in and said, ley, give it a
shot, " he says. -
He brought with him part-
ners: brother, Gary, 27; and
friend, Lindsay Gross, 29.
Now, Rock Financial is a
full-fledged mortgage bank.
That gives Mr. Gilbert and
his partners more control over
the underwriting and funding
of home loans and makes the
operation a more efficient,
one-stop-shopping real estate
outlet.
"The reason we feel that we
have excelled is that we have
Successful
entrepreneurs are
willing to make
sacrifices to
aggressively
pursue their
dreams.
a whole marketing and adver-
tising plan that our competi-
tion does not participate in.
We go • directly to the con-
sumer. We have a big referral
base outside of realtors, other
professionals who are in con-
tact with borrowers."
Like a piece of undeveloped
land, Mr. Gilbert likes to
cultivate employee potential.
He likened hiring to drafting
the best athletes and then
teaching them the sport — in
this case, banking. "No corn-
pany can grow without ex-
cellent people."
Mr. Gilbert also emphasizes
customer service. More than
30 percent of his new business
is referral. "You do a good job
for one person, they're going
to refer you a lot more people.
You do a bad job for somebody,
not only will you not get their
future business, but they'll
make sure that other people
who would have gone to you
don't.
"Customer service is every-
thing to us. If you mess some-
body's dry cleaning up,
they're upset. If you cook
their hamburger more well-