By Kevin D. Thompson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WELLINGTON — Good business opportunities often come when you least expect them.
Ask Lee Hughes.
For years, Hughes had been working the Winter Equestrian Festival as a show jumper and horse show manager. He spent time listening to wealthy businessmen in Wellington for the festival complaining about how they couldn't find the right company to manage their properties after they left town.
So Hughes, born in England and raised in Canada, said he would do it.
"I told them I'd be happy to work for them," Hughes said. He recalled thinking: "It can't be that awful of a job."
Five years later, Hughes and his business partner, Adam Blauweiss, a real estate agent, are still running Wellington-based Grand Prix Estate Management, a property management firm.
Starting with six clients in 2007 - all friends of Hughes' - the company now works year-round and has more than 40 clients, 80 percent of whom are seasonal Wellington residents.
Hughes said he has a few A-list movie star clients (he declined to name them) as well as some who are billionaires.
"The new-money clients are often very rude," Hughes said. "Sometimes in the customer service business, people are ungrateful for all your efforts."
Grand Prix Estate Management does whatever a homeowner needs, including pressure-cleaning driveways, installing hurricane shutters, overseeing landscaping projects, arranging airport transportation, providing pest-control services and cleaning pools.
Hughes, 33 and Blauweiss, 32, will even handle dry cleaning, food shopping and picking up prescriptions at CVS.
"I don't want us to come off like we're gofer boys, but we will do anything our clients ask us to do," Blauweiss said.
He recalled when one client, who was a little tipsy, once asked him to buy a pack of beer because the client was too drunk to drive and do it himself.
"We'll charge you $35 to $45 an hour to go do that as opposed to you crashing your car and having to spend $10,000 on damages," Blauweiss said.
Terri Nusz owns a $3.9 million, 4,500-square-foot home in Wellington with her husband, Thomas, CEO of Oasis Petroleum in Houston.
Terri Nusz, who lives in Wellington six months out of the year, hired Hughes last May to look after the Nuszes' property, which features 12 barns and sits on 5 acres.
Grand Prix Management has worked with landscapers to keep the property in pristine condition as well as supervising construction projects.
"They're basically our eyes and ears when we don't live here," Nusz said. "You want to feel that you can leave your home and that it'll be perfectly taken care of the way you would take care of it."
Grand Prix Management is a bare-bones business. It has only one employee - a full-time handyman who oversees renovations and handles deliveries. But Hughes said the company works with licensed plumbers and electricians who perform many of the jobs.
Sales fluctuate, depending on the year. Last year, the company earned $150,000, Hughes said. The most it ever made was $250,000 in 2010, he said.
While Hughes, who's married to Blauweiss' sister, handles the customer service part of the business, Blauweiss takes care of the billing and invoicing.
"This is not just a business," Hughes said. "We want people to feel comfortable with us and we don't just want to be a run-of-the-mill property management firm. We're almost like a concierge service."
WELLINGTON — Good business opportunities often come when you least expect them.
Ask Lee Hughes.
For years, Hughes had been working the Winter Equestrian Festival as a show jumper and horse show manager. He spent time listening to wealthy businessmen in Wellington for the festival complaining about how they couldn't find the right company to manage their properties after they left town.
So Hughes, born in England and raised in Canada, said he would do it.
"I told them I'd be happy to work for them," Hughes said. He recalled thinking: "It can't be that awful of a job."
Five years later, Hughes and his business partner, Adam Blauweiss, a real estate agent, are still running Wellington-based Grand Prix Estate Management, a property management firm.
Starting with six clients in 2007 - all friends of Hughes' - the company now works year-round and has more than 40 clients, 80 percent of whom are seasonal Wellington residents.
Hughes said he has a few A-list movie star clients (he declined to name them) as well as some who are billionaires.
"The new-money clients are often very rude," Hughes said. "Sometimes in the customer service business, people are ungrateful for all your efforts."
Grand Prix Estate Management does whatever a homeowner needs, including pressure-cleaning driveways, installing hurricane shutters, overseeing landscaping projects, arranging airport transportation, providing pest-control services and cleaning pools.
Hughes, 33 and Blauweiss, 32, will even handle dry cleaning, food shopping and picking up prescriptions at CVS.
"I don't want us to come off like we're gofer boys, but we will do anything our clients ask us to do," Blauweiss said.
He recalled when one client, who was a little tipsy, once asked him to buy a pack of beer because the client was too drunk to drive and do it himself.
"We'll charge you $35 to $45 an hour to go do that as opposed to you crashing your car and having to spend $10,000 on damages," Blauweiss said.
Terri Nusz owns a $3.9 million, 4,500-square-foot home in Wellington with her husband, Thomas, CEO of Oasis Petroleum in Houston.
Terri Nusz, who lives in Wellington six months out of the year, hired Hughes last May to look after the Nuszes' property, which features 12 barns and sits on 5 acres.
Grand Prix Management has worked with landscapers to keep the property in pristine condition as well as supervising construction projects.
"They're basically our eyes and ears when we don't live here," Nusz said. "You want to feel that you can leave your home and that it'll be perfectly taken care of the way you would take care of it."
Grand Prix Management is a bare-bones business. It has only one employee - a full-time handyman who oversees renovations and handles deliveries. But Hughes said the company works with licensed plumbers and electricians who perform many of the jobs.
Sales fluctuate, depending on the year. Last year, the company earned $150,000, Hughes said. The most it ever made was $250,000 in 2010, he said.
While Hughes, who's married to Blauweiss' sister, handles the customer service part of the business, Blauweiss takes care of the billing and invoicing.
"This is not just a business," Hughes said. "We want people to feel comfortable with us and we don't just want to be a run-of-the-mill property management firm. We're almost like a concierge service."
