Never Too Old To Start Something New
—Local businessman starts real estate agency that gives back to community
By Arlene Colcombe
The Good News
October 2008- What do you do when you're 84 years old, widowed, your kids are grown and you've already enjoyed most of life's successes?
Some people would start a hobby or take a vacation. If you're Bill Ventress of Naples, Fla., you'd begin yet another business venture, just to glorify God.
Tithe and More, located in Southwest Florida, is a boutique real estate company that deals with high end real estate from Port Royal to Bonita Springs. Although the name doesn't tell you what their business is about, it communicates one of the most important aspects of their mission: tithing – or faith-prompted charitable giving – usually 10 percent of one's income.
Ventress calls it his dream.
More than Money: An impromptu meeting of some of the Tithe and More staff, left to right, Sales Consultants Gil Gelbke and Bob Lashenka, Founder and Director Bill Ventress, and Administrative Manager Maureen Grogan.
"I wanted to start a real estate company which would involve individuals who loved the Lord, had an abundance of faith and wanted to tithe."
Although the dream started with Ventress, he insists the idea did not.
"No – it was the Lord's idea!" he explains.
Ventress says all the agents working at Tithe and More have agreed to donate 10 percent of their commissions to the charities of their choice. And Ventress does the "more."
"Any income that I earn, I give a minimum of 30 percent to my favorite charities," Ventress says.
And in its first year, that has turned out to be quite a bit of money. Ventress says that the organization has donated more than $100,000 to various charities. He is proud that his company has been able to give back to the community in such a significant way.
God's guiding steps
Success is no stranger to Ventress, and he's had volumes of experience in earning his business insight. An executive at Proctor & Gamble for 40 years, Ventress also founded Naples Realty in 1992, filled appointments as director of about a dozen business, started the Lenscrafters business, and been mayor of two Ohio cities.
Yet, when he talks of his success, these are not the facts he names.
"I've been very blessed to have had a wonderful wife for 58 years. Four children – three, girls, one boy; 10 grandchildren; one great grandchild – all healthy and well. I don't know why I have been so blessed, I really don't," he says with the incredulity of a man truly puzzled by it all.
The seed of the idea for Tithe and More was planted a few years back, when Ventress was praying for his daughter who was going through a difficult delivery. Even then he knew that there would come a time when he could be able to give back more than he was able at that time.
"When my wife Lorraine died two years ago, it seemed to be the time to do more in the way of helping others."
Carrying that idea around with him, Ventress found himself at a Bonita Springs restaurant one evening. There, he was drawn to a woman he saw. They met and struck up a conversation. The woman, Kathy Gardner, said later that she was also drawn to go that restaurant that night. During the course of the conversation, Ventress shared with Gardner his dream idea.
"She embraced it totally," he said. "She became the moving force."
Both Gardiner and Ventress brought in others with similar ideals and talent. He describes the result of their first year of business as "an incredible journey."
Some of the happy results of that first year of business have included giving away 43 new laptop computers to fourth graders in the impoverished Immokalee area through One by One Leadership and making donations to Grace Place, which provides parenting aid, food pantry services and after school programs to underprivileged kids in Golden Gate City. The group has also made donations to Immokalee Friendship House, Habitat for Humanity, Naples Community Hospital and the Craniofacial Foundation.
Finding lasting joy
Ventress says that he experiences pure joy when he sees the final result of the efforts that have been made, such as the day the fourth graders in Immokalee received their new computers.
A surprising side benefit of the new real estate agency, according to Ventress, is seeing people learn about biblical tithing.
"The reaction to the name has been so much more than I expected," Ventress explains.
One restaurant employee told Ventress she found it hilarious and unbelievable that people would give away 10 percent of their money.
It has encouraged me that much more, not to wait to witness," he added.
Mentoring and serving
If the server was surprised to learn that a person would give away 10 percent of their money, she would be flabbergasted to find that Ventress also found a dozen people with a similar mind and desire to give.
Ventress enjoys talking about the great skill and dedication of the 11 agents who work with him.
"I couldn't be more blessed by the people that work here," he explains.
In addition to his role as founder and director, Ventress has taken on the role of mentor and encourager. He enjoys creating a weekly staff newsletter that focuses on work, success and offers spiritual principles to live by. Each letter is filled with praise, wisdom, encouragement and inspiration and closes with the words, "God loves you, and so do I."
In the future, Ventress wants to do even more. While the first year's result of $100,000 of charitable giving is a good start, Ventress has a supernatural goal – to be able to generate more than $1 million dollars per year in charitable funding through the business.
Ventress says he wants to see Tithe and More epitomize the saying, "The more you give, the more you receive."
(Reprinted with permission of The Good News, www.GoodNewsFL.org
