Zelda Greenberg is a Jacksonville native who creates businesses. Her latest is Legacy Realty Group North Florida, co-founded with her son, Elliott, in May 2016. Also an SBA award winner and author, she served as president of Women Business Owners of North Florida in 1995-96 and will be the 2018 president of the Jacksonville Women’s Network of 300 members.
I grew up in Arlington and went to Terry Parker High School. I was transferred my senior year to Sandalwood High School. It was the first graduating class in 1972 and I was the secretary. I went to the University of South Florida but ended up graduating from the University of North Florida right here. I taught school for a couple of years and said it wasn’t for me. My parents said, “You can do anything you want in this world, Zelda, as long as you can support yourself.” I guess that was their way of saying, “We’re not supporting you anymore.”
I have been an entrepreneur ever since, opening up businesses successfully and then profitably selling them. My first company was An Ultimate Event. I had that for 10 years and sold it. It was a corporate event-planning business. Back then there weren’t very many of us. I wasn’t sure what my next move would be and my Dad said, “Why don’t you come work with the family business again?” I figured it would be two years until I could figure out something else I wanted to do. So I went to work with my family in our (Fraden’s Produce) wholesale produce company. That lasted 10 years.
We were hit by the tornado in 2004, so we rebuilt the company and then we sold it. We could feel something was happening in the economy. It was the summer of 2007, right before the recession.
A family member suggested I get a Community Association Manager’s license. Then people would ask me questions about real estate. I thought I should go ahead and get my real estate license. The first company that I worked for was out of Orlando. He liked my attitude and my hustle and he opened up an office in Jacksonville for me.
I always knew I would open up my own company because I’m just an entrepreneur at heart. My son graduated from college and got his real estate license as well. He worked for some of the larger franchises and learned a few things on his own that way. We decided to open our own firm. We now have 21 agents.
Getting together with my children and my family is fun. My family is everything to me, so that’s what I do. I tried golf. I wasn’t very good at it, People were asking me, ‘Hey, come on, golf with us.” I was like, “You don’t want me to play golf with you.”