Chris Krimitsos and TBBO is changing Tampa’s Business Community Landscape

March 14, 2012 - PRLog -- TAMPA, FL – There are those who can, and there are those who teach.

Then there is Chris Krimitsos who does both through the recently renamed “Tampa Bay Business Owners” association he founded five years ago.

Originally formed as The Wealth Building Annex for a group of real estate professionals to help them survive the down economy, Krimitsos found other business owners needed new marketing skills to thrive. He filled this need through weekly e-marketing classes, business field trips and all-day workshops.

“We quickly found other business owners that needed our help and we have grown into a community that focuses on cultural fits. We look for business owners with a positive mental attitude and integrity, as well as the desire to grow their business and in the process themselves,” said Krimitsos, 33, who will be getting married this May.

“The Wealth Building Annex was recently renamed by its members to become TBBO and is growing by leaps and bounds doing community outreach, helping young entrepreneurs like Ricky Sailor and raising the bar for local business owners everywhere!” he said in a recent interview.

Sailor is a perfect example of the impact Krimitsos and TBBO is having on young entrepreneurs in Tampa.

Fifteen years ago when Sailor was a high school athlete who regularly ditched class and ignored his grades.  Then he became part of Tyrone Keys’ All Sports Community Service Foundation, which offers students and student athletes the opportunity to pursue higher education through community service and mentoring.  

That changed Sailor’s life forever. Through All Sports, Ricky earned a scholarship to play collegiate football in California and Texas and earned his bachelor’s degree. Since then, Ricky founded his own company, Unsigned Preps, which helps coach and mentor young athletes to gain exposure for potential college athletic scholarships and act as a liaison for the entire recruiting process.

But Sailor knew he needed help to take his business to the next level. In 2011, he became active with the Tampa Bay Business Owners.  

“The Tampa Bay Business Owners is one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of in my life!” Sailor said.  “I am full of energy and passion and desire and have what I believe is a great idea, but I have no business sense whatsoever.  Not only am I a first generation college student, but I’m a first generation business owner.  So, I don’t have a clue as to how you run business.  What TBBO has done for me, is they’ve taken this clay and they’ve molded it.  They’ve molded me into a business man.  It’s amazing what the organization can do for somebody.

“All the other business owners in this organization have helped me so much and opened up a whole other world for me...there are no words for it.  I love TBBO!”

Now, after only two years in business, Unsigned Preps has helped more than 100 athletes play at the collegiate level and earn their college degrees, adding up to more than $10 million in scholarship money.  

“I would really like to see that [Unsigned Preps] be a franchise one day,” said Sailor, “and not just for personal reasons as far as how much money I can make, but I want other kids to see how far you can take something if you just have the right people around you and take your idea and just let it manifest.  That’s what I want to see.  I know I have kids watching me and I may be the only person who they see in this arena who looks like them, who talks like them, who came from where they came from and say, ‘hey, I can be successful, I can be a business owner, I can do this.’  I’m very conscious of that.”

Krimitsos is proud of the role he and TBBO have played in Sailor’s life.  He sees TBBO making this kind of impact on others in the Tampa business community in the years to come.

"Watching Ricky grow as a business owner and write down every nugget he learns in his journal is really satisfying to know that in turn he will go out into the community and impact scores of young people throughout the Tampa Bay Area," he said.

“In the next five years we see TBBO becoming the largest organization of its kind focusing on business owners,” he said, “and growing to include much larger businesses while we retain our rich eco system of smaller businesses and building a bridge for all of them to do business in the Bay area!

“TBBO fills the void by providing peer-to-peer mentoring groups to a section in the market that is not being served. We also take field trips and offer experiential learning as well as operate the largest eMarketing Association in the bay for our members as well as the entire business community of the bay!
 
TBBO is sponsoring on March 16th an all-day Writer's Summit:  Planning, Publishing, and Marketing your Written Works from 9-4:30 p.m. at the Ramada Westshore Hotel. Cost is $129.

For more information about these events and TBBO, you can contact Krimitsos at 813-489-5585, e-mail at chris@tbbo.org or http://www.tampabaybusinessowners.org.

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Chris Krimitsos’ Tampa Bay Business Owners is building a community of entrepreneurs who are teaching and learning e-marketing through weekly seminars, business field trips and all-day workshops. TBBO is changing the business landscape of Tampa one business owner at a time.