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HATTIE: (In the Studio) Hi. I'm Hattie Bryant. If you want to understand how businesses are built and how they grow, stay with us for the next 30 minutes. You'll learn about businesses and the people who build them. Every week here you meet a new American hero, the founder of a growing business, the brains and brawn behind work and wealth creation.

This week is unusual because Ebby Halliday is not only a hero, she is a legend who has helped define her industry. Breaking the gender barrier before long before there was a feminist movement, she has run her real estate business for since 1946. If you need a hero, Ebby can be that for you. Heroes are people who bravely confront adversity while doing for others. What the real estate busines is today is partly because Ebby was there to establish the standards and pave the way for others. Now she is a legend, the new American hero, Ebby Halliday.

HATTIE: What is it? I mean, she's like this--she's got this magic.

PETEY PARKER (Heads Relocation Department): Yeah, she does.

HATTIE: What is it?

PETEY: It's that magic.

LEONORE BERGERT (Accounting Department Supervisor): She's the world's greatest salesperson.

ROBERT DOYNA (Halliday employee): She's a legend in her own time.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Who is she? She's Ebby Halliday, but everyone in Dallas already knows that. Unidentified Photographer: (From ceremony) You gonna open it up and show it to us and be proud.

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HATTIE: (Voiceover) Since 1945 she's been selling people in Dallas houses, and she's still in the office every day. This woman has built the road to self-employment for thousands. She's created a place where customers are served and where people who want to work for themselves can learn how, and hundreds have succeeded. This may be the largest privately held real estate company in the country, reaching its all-time best this year by moving 17,500 families into homes and ringing up over $3 billion in sales.

EBBY HALLIDAY (Owner, Ebby Halliday Realtors): And let's wind the clock back to age eight.

HATTIE: All right.

EBBY: I was living on a wheat farm in Kansas. And probably my first entrepreneurial effort, I sold Cloverine Salve. I rode my little horse to the neighboring farms and sold Cloverine Salve and learned the profit motive. I made two cents on every can of salve and put my profits back into ordering some more. My mother ordered it for me out of Kansas City.

HATTIE: What would the salve do for people?

EBBY: It would do everything, according to the print. It didn't matter: snakebites, bug bites, eczema, it was a cure-all. Then I went into Abilene, which was 18 miles away, to high school and worked after school, Saturdays and summers in a department store and perfected my selling skills.

HATTIE: Now did your parents say, `Ebby, we expect you to work,' or was this just interesting to you?

EBBY: Oh, my dear, in those times when we were going into the greatest depression the world has ever known, all the banks in the nation closed the year I graduated from high school. And wheat was down to 10 cents a bushel, and even farmers were wondering where their next crop--and some, where their next meal--was coming from. So a work ethic based in that economy, you worked to eat. So I took a bus and went to Kansas City, which was the largest city that I knew about, and applied at the old Jones Store. The personnel department sent me down to the millinery department, and they gave me a job at $10 a week plus a small commission on my sales, and sent me to the basement department.

HATTIE: And that's where you started wearing hats.

EBBY: Yes. It wasn't until later that I traded my product from hats to houses. So in a year or so they transferred me to the W.A. Green store in Dallas, Texas and put me in charge of the main department.

HATTIE: You just kept coming up.

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EBBY: ...up on the sixth floor. It was wonderful to be transferred to Dallas at that time. It was still aglow with the afterglow of the centennial. The leadership of the town had declared an end to the Depression.

(Excerpt from videotape of parade)

EBBY: (Voiceover) So it was an optimistic atmosphere. I made lots of friends and lots of customers. And one of my customers was married to an oil man who had invested in a new type construction called insulated cement and had built 52 of those houses. And the experimental houses were still sitting there. He sent word by his wife, `If Ebby can sell you those crazy hats, maybe she can sell my crazy houses.'

HATTIE: Oh, I love it! I love it.

EBBY: So I turned in my resignation and headed for Walnut Hills.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) It was a good decision, even though it involved taking a risk. Did you not feel scared that `What if I can't do this' or did you just think `I'll go back,' because so many people today would love to work for themselves, but they're afraid to get away from the paycheck.

EBBY: Yes. Well, I had saved $1,000 in all that time. Had to have my tonsils out, noticed the doctor, Dr. John MaLaurin's nurse was bringing information on the stock market while I was under the knife, and so when I got my voice back I said, `Dr. John, I've saved $1,000. Where can I invest it? I want to parlay it up, turn in my resignation and go into business for myself. I've had an opportunity to take over a group of houses.' He said, `I don't advise women.' I said, `Why?' He said, `If they lose, they cry.' And I said, `Well, try me.' And so he suggested cotton futures, and I was able to get into the cotton futures market and had parlayed it up to $12,000.

HATTIE: You were rolling in it, girl.

EBBY: So that was my stake to go on a straight commission project.

HATTIE: All right. So this is advice you would give anyone who wants to start a business, and that is have something in the bank.

EBBY: Especially today. I think more businesses go down the drain because they're underfinanced.

HATTIE: But I have to understand this. Didn't you have to go back and learn more, fill in some gaps, get some education, learn what real estate's really about?

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EBBY: In those days there was no examination. If you had a warm pulse and $3, you could get a license. In the '50s, Mary Frances Burleson came in. She was a part-time Kelly Girl secretary.

HATTIE: So when you met Ebby, you thought, `This is the opportunity'?

MARY FRANCES BURLESON (President of Halliday Agency): Yes, because when I went in the Preston Center office there didn't seem to be an age barrier. There were ladies in that office of all ages all educational backgrounds. And, all took it as a great opportunity. And, I watched their coming and going. They were not tied to a desk; they were not tied to a routine. They were tied to working with clients in a very productive way, which was very exciting. And Ebby had just finished her year as national president of the Women's Council of Realtors.

MARY: (voiceover) She had traveled, she was doing a lot of speaking, and I thought, `Oh, goodness. So there are no real barriers for her.' So she was accepted as a Realtor, even though she was a woman, and was able to speak and deal with great credibility, which was a great inspiration for me.

EBBY: And she--it didn't take her long to become a real integral part of our [company]--and she is now the president and considered one of the most informed people in the business today.

MARY: At that stage I had been there long enough, and I officed next to her so I could hear her when she negotiated, when she talked on the phone. I was like a sponge. I would encourage anyone if you're going to aspire to do something, go to the best person in that field and be a sponge.

EBBY: (Voiceover) I knew right from the beginning that she had all of the ingredients. We groom everybody who has potential.

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HATTIE: It seems like you've built your organization on people who are family or people who stay with you so long they become family.

EBBY: Right.

HATTIE: But what I mean...

EBBY: We're the home team. That is the secret, I think, of our firm. We are family.

HATTIE: (Voiceover)

PETEY Parker runs the relocation department.

PETEY: First of all, we're all `Ebby-ized,' and Ebby tells us to work for her, we are an extension of her. What I've learned from her is that good standard ethics 53 years ago--we're still working with that good service. We're working with that ethical sense that says it's better to lose a transaction than do anything that would be unethical. It's better to have the respect of our peers, of the corporations we work with, of the families we work with. That's much better than the dollars we receive.

EBBY: (During gathering) Thank you. That was just wonderful.

PETEY: (Voiceover) She herself has the quality to shake your hand, look in your eyes and say, `You're at home with me.' And that's a quality. Everybody tells her their whole life stories. Everybody says, `Oh, we know Ebby,' and sometimes they've just met her. But they feel, and she makes them feel, that they know her and she knows them and she cares about them and about us.

HATTIE: And I just read that you've given 49 percent of your stock to the employees. Why would anybody do that? I mean, why don't you just take a big fat check from some outside investor and walk away?

EBBY: I didn't want to do that. I felt an obligation to the people who have helped build this business. (Excerpt from gathering)

HATTIE: You'd wrestled with this decision, and it was clear to you that it was the employees who built this business.

EBBY: Well, there was never any doubt that I didn't want anybody else to have our business.

HATTIE: Hi.

LEONORE: Hi.

HATTIE: I'm Hattie with Small Business School.

LEONORE: Oh, hello.

HATTIE: What's your name?

LEONORE: LEONORE Bergert.

HATTIE: LEONORE.

HATTIE: I'm supposed to come around and say hello to you.

LEONORE: Well, I'm glad you did.

HATTIE: I'm wondering what you do here at this company.

LEONORE: I supervise the accounting department under the controller.

HATTIE: You run the numbers?

LEONORE: That's right.

HATTIE: Have you been here for a while?

LEONORE: Going on 52 years.

HATTIE: Fifty-two years!

LEONORE: Fifty-two years. Goes way back.

HATTIE: So you came right in the first year--well, the second year the company was founded.

LEONORE: That's exactly right.

HATTIE: Now are you as open with your age as Ebby is now?

LEONORE: Surely. I think when you get to my age you have to be proud of the fact that you reached it.

HATTIE: Well, how old are you? LEONORE: Yeah, well, in two weeks I'll be 83.

HATTIE: Do you still feel good coming to work every day?

LEONORE: I feel great. I love it, which is why I don't retire. I mean I enjoy it so much, and, yeah, I wouldn't think of retiring.

HATTIE: I want you to talk about the concept of retirement, to convince people not to do it.

EBBY: I'm not an authority on that. I think each person--some people are old at 57.

HATTIE: They should quit, right?

EBBY: And some people have other things they'd rather do. So I don't think that I should tell people when to retire. I can tell people why I want to die with my boots on.

HATTIE: OK. Why?

EBBY: Because there's nothing I'd rather do. I like what I'm doing. And there's certain things I haven't finished yet.

HATTIE: What haven't you finished yet? EBBY: Well, I want to build our reserves up, way up...

HATTIE: In case we get another down...

EBBY: ...to take care of--we are a state-of-the-art operation now. All of our offices are either new or updated. Our technology is great, but needs upgrading all the time. The cost of operating this business is increasing all the time because the earnings of our independent contractors are higher levels, higher levels. The bottom line is diminishing, and I want to anticipate all of that so that we'll be in good shape.

HATTIE: Do you think wanting to do more, seeing more on your agenda, having more goals to check off is what keeps you so young?

EBBY: Well, it's what keeps us digging.

HATTI

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HATTIE: (In the Studio) Ebby Halliday is one of the people who has defined the modern real estate industry. And, she's still at it, going strong at 90! We all seem to be searching for the "Fountain of Youth." Some go to Palm Springs for a facelift, some join the gym, and some megadose on vitamins. Ebby showed me exactly what the "Fountain of Youth" is.

Remember you learned it here: the "Fountain of Youth" is good work. Good work is absolutely essential to your health. It doesn't have to be work you're paid to do, but work is the most important ingredient to living a full, long and healthy life. The great thing about owning your own business is no one can make you quit. She's only 90 , and she has big plans for building up the reserves of the company and for opening new locations. Conductors and classical musicians routinely work full-time into their 80s. Find and do good work every day, as Ebby has. Then you'll be drinking from the Fountain of Youth.

HATTIE: (Voiceover): To read the entire transcript of this program, go to SmallBusinessSchool.org

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HATTIE: You're not acting like a salesperson. You're not acting like an employee.

MARY: No, you can't.

HATTIE: OK.

MARY: Not if you're going to aspire, you can't. If you sit there, you're in a box. If you sit in the box, you will remain in the box.

HATTIE: So what you're teaching anyone who's paying attention is you think like it's yours.

MARY: You bet. Our salespeople are not in the real estate business. They have a real estate business.

EBBY: They're independent contractors.

HATTIE: Right.

EBBY: They are given the tools to work with, they are given our company philosophy, they are given the training.

EBBY:To give good service, you have to know your business. You have to know your inventory. You must have seen the inventory. You must know all of the legalese of the very complicated contracts that we work with these days. You have to know the territory. That's why our company is spread out over three or four counties, because we think the people who live there, whose children go to school there, they know the area. They're better informed to help the people that come there. Schools are very important now. And I think you have to have an awful lot of knowledge, and of course now we're in a technological world and you must be able--people's time is so important, especially the transferred people here. And we couldn't live without the computer.

MARY: Ebby started talking about getting computerized in 1980. She would come back from national conventions, and we said `What?'

HATTIE: What's a computer?

MARY: Yeah, what's a computer? What's a PC? What's software, hardware? At that stage there was not software that was specifically generated for real estate, so we started scratching our heads. We started by hiring our own person to do our own internal software. We didn't start with accounting. We started with marketing, the heart and soul of this company. Nothing happens until somebody sells something.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Robert Doyna takes time to teach classes for his colleagues. He also shows us how he uses technology to attract and serve customers.

ROBERT: (Voiceover) Well, I had a situation where I worked with a man all weekend from Corpus Christi, Texas.

I spoke with him on the telephone yesterday. And what I did was I used this digital camera that allows you to take pictures and put them on a three-and-a-half-inch floppy disk. I brought the disks back...

(Voiceover) ...I put them in my computer and I e-mailed them to my client. And I put on my headset, and we interacted for about an hour and this is what I have here. From the time that I got in my car to the time that I was on the phone to him was less than two hours.

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MARY: We now have Your Home Team mortgage company. We started it a year ago November, and we're very excited about that. It's doing very well. We started this as a service for our clients. Our associates were able to buy units because it's a limited partnership, so it's an opportunity not only for our clients but for our associates. So making that better, more efficient, we now have desktop underwriting. So we're using technology and laptop computers.

HATTIE: Now are you telling me that if I want to buy a house from Ebby Halliday today, that you'll also do the mortgage?

MARY: Yes, indeed, with Home Team Mortgage. Yes, we will. We can get you with a loan officer, take your application and do desktop underwriting, order your credit report while you're sitting there and, with certain restrictions and prices, we can get you approved immediately, that day.

HATTIE: What are you doing now to lay the plans for the next level of success?

MARY: We're looking for people who have the fire in their heart the same way. In the last three years we have physically moved half of our offices. In each case, we're hoping to improve the location for better visibility for better access for the public.

HATTIE: Are you telling me that you can't sit still?

MARY: You bet. If you rest you rust.

HATTIE: Someone watching this maybe is in a job, they're bored, they're stuck. They maybe don't want to do real estate, but they've got an idea of something they want to do. And you could give them some advice about how to be successfully self-employed.

EBBY: Well, first of all, I think they need to have a sound idea, and they have to have a product for which there is a market. And then they have to be able to present that product to enough people to make enough sales to pay the month's rent. For that it takes some going-in financing, and then it takes some very astute management and saving but at the same time being willing to put some profits back into the business. That is a point I haven't touched on, but in 53 years we've gone through the highs and the lows. And the lows have taken every bit of ingenuity that our management team, our people, could employ. And the independent contractor in real estate with a good sound company has it made because they get the education, they get the client acceptance, but they do have to be in charge of their time. Time is their--management of their time. And they have to never forget the basics of service and of tying a bow on a transaction so those people will tell their friends about you.

HATTIE: Tying a bow, leave them feeling wonderful.

EBBY: That means not letting them go to the title company for closing alone. Go with them see that everything is as it should be, whoever you're representing, whether it's the buyer or the seller, or in certain cases it's possible to do both.

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HATTIE: But, Ebby, this is making me tired. Isn't that a lot of work?

EBBY: Well, it is. That's why I've got so many wrinkles. But it's fun and it's stimulating and it's wonderful.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Many entrepreneurs refuse to deal with the future and won't put a succession plan in place or relinquish power to younger leadership. This is not the case with Ebby. The future is clear. With Mary Frances Burleson, Ebby Halliday Realtors will go on and on and on.

HATTIE: You don't need to do this any more, but you still do it.

EBBY: Of course. Nothing I'd rather do.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) There are others, like Ebby, who are members of the zero-to-a-billion in lifetime club. There's Tom Stemberg of Staples, Michael Dell of Dell, Howards Schulz of Starbucks and Neil Clark Warren of eHarmony. While it took Ebby decades to reach 3 billion in revenues, Neil Clark will probably reach a billion in less than five years as the premiere matching service on the web. Neil: And so I do think that idea of just keep working your dream and just keep trying as much as you can and wait for your moment where the line opens up and you see some day light.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Opportunity abounds for the bold who have a product or service that adds value to the lives of its customers. Think bold, think billions.