Lena Guirguis is an asset management consultant, a serial entrepreneur, a public speaker, a wife, and a mom with businesses and brands spanning North America.
Born in Iran in the early 80s, Lena immigrated to Canada with her parents at the age of 3. Lena and her family settled into one of Scarborough’s rougher neighbourhoods with limited resources and no relatives or friends. Surrounded by gang violence, drugs, and crime her parents did all they could to create a sense of stability and normalcy by enrolling her in sports and music.
From an early age Lena began developing a fierce passion for competitive swimming. She worked part-time through school and quickly became the highest producing salesperson in whatever position she decided to pursue. At the age of 19 she became the youngest to be promoted to club manager at a women’s fitness club downtown Toronto. Yet despite her performance and drive, she soon began to recognize that a standard job with a fixed pay rate was not the best way to earn.
Lena’s goal was to pursue a career where she could not only live and breathe her true purpose, but to control her financial destiny. Her determination to thrive allowed her to quickly accelerate into the world of real estate. In January 2003, she met a budding entrepreneur whom she partnered with and together, co-founded numerous businesses including New Venture Management a Business and Real Estate Investment consulting firm established to provide business owners with proven organization structure and workflow and, NV Property Management, a boutique-style firm founded to provide full asset management service offering its investors maximum returns, and tenants with quality, safe and, cost-effective homes. By the age of 25 Lena had amassed a multi-million-dollar investment portfolio.
It was during the early years of her business, gentrifying neighbourhoods that once tipped toward a state of distress that she observed a major gap in the support and financial education provided to women. So in 2013, she founded Stilettos & Hammers™, a growing investment network focused on educating women, providing them with resources necessary to help them take control of their finances. Since inception, the network assists and educates women and their families in selecting the correct investment strategies to meet their short and long-term goals so their wealth is managed and preserved.
While buy, fix and hold of multi-family residential properties has always been Lena’s preferred investing strategy, she has amassed multiple Rent-to-Own transactions over the last decade and developed a RECO approved RTO investment process as well as completed land severances and fix and flips both in Ontario and the US.
With the expansion of her family, Lena’s focus shifted to commercial investments namely in the medical sector which resulted in the opening of her first Pharmacy.
With a portfolio spanning Ontario and various States in the US, she has developed a solid management system that allows her to remotely oversee the successful management of her investments regardless of its location.
Lena has always made time to given back to the community by serving on the board for several non-for-profit organizations in Ottawa and the GTA.
Lena lives by the philosophy: “It doesn’t matter where you come from; it’s where you decide you want to go.” She understands what it is like to work hard for what you have. Her business answers her calling to provide women and their families with the tools and knowledge needed to excel in whatever they embark on, while ensuring that their futures are secure so that they can live the lives they desire.
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