We recently connected with Victor Feria and have shared our conversation below.

Victor, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

My wife and I were invited to a family party to celebrate 4th of July. This party was hosted in a beautiful Spanish style home in the heart of Little Havana. The family friend who invited us was a very busy attorney with a growing firm and not much time in her hands. While giving us a tour she mentioned she was having difficulties renting her property and could not find reliable tenants. I passively asked her if she ever thought of making it into an Airbnb, and she mentioned she did think about it but did not have the time to manage it. We went on with the tour, and didn’t make anything of it but after a couple hours that is when the lightbulb hit!! With my hospitality background, and connections with housekeepers I can possibly help her in managing this property. I planted the seed, and confidently told her I can manage it for her for a small percent. She was thrilled, but also skeptical at first. Two days later she handed me the keys, we signed a small agreement and that is when Tangy Mgmt journey began. Our very first home!

Victor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The cliche saying, “As one door closes another one opens,” couldn’t define my life any better. Throughout my life I have always encountered different “doors” and as I’ve walked through them it’s always changed my personal life and professional life.

The first thing to ever shape me was coming from another country at the age of five. Like many, my parents made the sacrifice of leaving behind their families to bring my sister and I to the United States for a better life. We didn’t come with much money, we didn’t know English, and we didn’t have our own place to stay. From there I guess you can say that is what created my foundation. Being young, I picked up English quickly and I really enjoyed the changes here in the United States. I was really social and active. My parents had no other choice but to put me in sports as an outlet. This is when I was introduced to baseball and thought this could possibly be my future. I really enjoyed my social life and being around people, and as a teenager more expenses came around. Therefore, my father worked in a golf resort and he figured he could get me a summer job so I can make some money. Here, is where the next door opened for me and the idea of a career in the athletic realm closed.

A summer job turned into many years of growth, different positions, and promotions–like I said, doors after doors. I began to look at the bigger picture of what high position at the hotel I could ultimately be. I was really diverse in experience between managing a team, customer service, sales, and operations. As I was getting older I saw myself really trying to feel accomplished and successful in using my skills and also finding a balance with my personal life. Therefore, I did reach a point questioning myself if staying in the hotel industry is something I wanted to do forever. And just like that the next door opened and led me to work for a hospitality staffing agency, that also started to dabble in Airbnb management. Then the next, where I knew I was ready and able to start a company of my own.

Again, the idea of opportunities always presenting itself just continued even as my venture in Tangy Mgmt developed. As one property owner decided to end with our services I would get a call days later about another property. As one problem would arise I would learn directly from that and apply it on a problem the next day. I continue to welcome these paths that have helped me and Tangy Management grow to where we are today.

Today, Tangy Management predominantly services the South Florida area and some outside of Florida. We uphold the values I have learned in the hotel and hospitality industry in maximizing the potential of investment properties standardizing homes to create maximum profit for homeowners. I know what it takes for hotels to run and be successful and I ultimately implemented that in our model to run vacation rentals. We are entering our fifth year of operations and it has grown from just myself to a team of thirteen that I have worked to make more like the “Tangy Family.” Despite my amazing team that can probably run it on its own, I continue to be hands on and put a lot of time and dedication to my clients and their properties. This is an industry that is ever changing and filled with opportunities and many people have the potential to be making more on their investment and that is what I am here for.

I continue to have a vision and goals for growth with my company and as for myself, I am ready for the next door to open.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I started my career in the hospitality industry back in summer of 2009 when I was sixteen years old. I was working the driving range in a luxury golf course resort and I only saw it as a summer job where I could make money in between playing baseball for my high school team. Never did I think that it was going to lead me to where I am today. For some teenagers it’s really unclear what they want to do in their future, and quite honestly I thought I was going to do something in the athletic realm. However, from that first position to about the time I was twenty-three I grew into different roles, received many promotions, received a lot of guidance from the best, and had supervisor positions all in the same hotel. Those seven years developed me and gave me the idea that I would want to be something big in the hotelier industry such as being a General Manager. My final position in this resort was sales position, and while I was really enjoying what I was doing, the hours I was working, and the comfort of being somewhere for many years, I really was ready for more. Coincidentally, I received a phone call one day from one of my previous co-workers calling about an opportunity in a staffing agency servicing hotels and restaurants. Funny enough I was familiar with the entire team; the owner, the human resource director, and the recruiter because they were all once working at the same resort.

So, here I was working up the ladder at this establishment and really making a name for myself and probably a couple years away from a manager or director position, and I am presented this new position to work in downtown-and not even in another hotel. I was getting a lot of criticism from people around me saying, “how can I leave something so secure,” and “you’ve worked so hard you don’t know if you’re going to have the opportunity to grow,” and they were right. Hotels (especially this one) is all I’ve ever known.

Despite that fear, I took the leap of faith and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It opened me to all the possibilities in the hospitality industry and not just hotels. I was able to break out of my bubble and really take advantage of the flexibility this new position provided me and the new mentors that were guiding this new path for me. Ultimately, I was fearful of not being able to grow to this big position that I envisioned for myself. Instead, I gained something way more and it was the maturity and the confidence to know that I had all the tools and experience to start a new venture on my own. So when the time came to pivot again from working at a staffing agency to now an owner of a management company I did it without any hesitation.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I have always been confident speaking with others and I did get some experience with sales when I was younger. Yet, I wouldn’t describe myself as the best salesmen or persistent like many can be. When it comes to building my clientele and selling my services I take a more sincere approach .

I have found confidence and success in just being transparent with potential clients. I do that by trying to set up both a phone call and in-person meeting so clients get to know me. I run analysis beforehand present to them my services and show them a break down of their properties potential. Instead of skewing answers to persuade potential property owners, I prefer to be as honest and give them my experienced take on situations.

Once the contract is signed and they have decided to use our services I continue to build that relationship with the home owners and continue to walk them through any questions and updates on their properties. Through these methods I believe that I have created a clientele that trust me with their investment and a sense of comfort. This has also allowed me to gain more clients through referral which I think is a testament of my current homeowners contentment with Tangy Management’s services.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tangymgmt.com
• Instagram: @tangymgmt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tangymgmt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-feria-7a2a9693/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tangy-management-miami