Michael Lissack, an agent with Downing-Frye Realty Inc., has been awarded the Small Business of the Year Award from ITFlorida.

The award recognized a software innovation that Lissack created -- “Market2Buyers” -- that helps agents incubate sales leads.

The award is presented annually to a small IT or IT-enabled business that is “achieving success through business excellence.” The business must generate less than $5 million annually and have less than 50 employees. The award recognizes a small business that has demonstrated innovation, has a solid business strategy, executes on innovation, and has acquired unique strengths and a competitive advantage.

Lissack is a buyer’s agent located in Downing-Frye Realty’s Naples office. The idea for Market2Buyers came from the fact that there were no software products on market for this segment of business. “I could not find an existing product to help people buy homes, so I decided to do it myself,” Lissack said. “With as little as a name, e-mail and phone number, this software helps you incubate that data and turn those Internet leads into buyers and generate sales.”

Lissack has been developing Market2Buyers for the past two years. The software will be launched this month in Tampa and Orlando, and he is talking with real estate brokers in Minnesota, Tennessee and Arizona.

This is the sixth software product that Lissack has developed. Others have focused on such areas as corporate intelligence and academics.