MinnieMom Campground

While out walking the dogs at lunch, I stopped to take a photo through the trees from our backyard to what will be the secure RV storage area. Then I thought about finding a photo that shows an RV storage area similar to what we plan. I posted both on the Standing Pines Resort facebook page to try to start showing current and future side-by-side.

Current Status - Back Corner that is planned as secure, gated RV storage:


Future Plan - Image from an RV storage yard similar to our intent


Maybe that's the next step in communicating our plans and intent, posting pictures of current construction state with examples of planned development. It can't hurt.


There seems to be some positive movement as additional potential investors express interest. Oddly enough, in 24 hours I went from scared to reaching back out to my friend to see if she had any other contacts I could call. So now I've got follow up calls with potential investors scheduled for later this afternoon, Monday and Tuesday. I am trying hard not to get my hopes up. Still, I hear that if a potential investor asks for a follow up discussion, that's very promising. It certainly would be amazing to head out on the Jolly Orlando Holiday Week (on a budget) trip with a few more investors on board!

Let's see, in other details the new website is coming along nicely; reservations system is ready to go live (I think I'll turn it on the day we close the construction loan); the stormwater pipe has arrived and is stored on site, ready for placement as trenching commences; issue resolution with the design/build teams; action items with accounting - - just a normal day building a new resort!

On the personal side, DD is 100% again. I'm hoping DH and I have avoided catching her flu this time. Fingers crossed!

Happy Friday all. Have a great weekend!

Hello again MO friends! Things are starting to move more quickly now. Over the past 48 hours, I made contact with a couple of realtors we've bought/sold with in the past. I don't think they will be direct investors, but a couple were intrigued enough to ask for a email summarizing our ideal investors and the opportunity itself so they could check interest for us. Out of the blue, one of the gamers DH plays WoW with started asking detailed questions about the deal late Friday. DH sent him the investor deck. The gamer friend, who evidently has a company that could qualify as an accredited investor, is running it past his attorney tomorrow.

I'm going through my personal contacts again today, thinking about how I can tailor an ask for different people I've known over the years. Yes, I've already sent out a general email or two, but now I'm thinking some very specific, very targeted follow up messages based on the personal connection with the individual. I may have already tapped this well, and granted it has resulted in almost $200,000 in funding, but it is worth a second look. I will make at least 3 investor outreach contacts per business day in December. I think we need this level of discipline to get the fund raise completed.

We ordered the welcome center building kit late on Friday. There was a discount that was almost enough to cover the GC mark up by ordering on or before Dec 1, so we took the deep breathe and said yes. One of the old hands in the business who has been mentoring me called the design the best use of space and maybe the best single design he's ever seen for a campground clubhouse. Below is not quite the final floorplan, but it is very close. Just over 2400 sq ft will house registration, camp store, snack bar, media center, guest laundry, 5 restrooms, six showers, an office and storage/maintenance/electrical space.



In other updates, the web developer has completed the migration of the new website to the www.campstandingpines.com address. We had a zoom late on Friday, as part of the package was teaching me how to edit the new site. There are some things I want to adjust before I do a public announcement for the new website, but it is worlds better than the basic landing page that was our public face until Friday.

AI continues to be an incredibly useful tool for me. Just today, I've used it to redraft email messages, create and refine social media posts and summarize a couple of research topics. ChatGPT caught me by surprise by suggesting a creative graphic when I used it to draft a post celebrating 800+ followers on Facebook. I use that suggestion to quickly create this (somewhat busy) graphic to go with the post:



Please keep your thoughts and suggestions coming on this thread! It's incredibly encouraging to think about those following the journey. I'm tempted to say something cheesy, but I'll just leave it as thank you for following and commenting. It helps more than you know.

One step forward, one step back - - another day in the life of creating a new business. On the positive side, a very helpful initial conversation with a potential mentor and/or investor yesterday was great. In fact, some of the points from that first dialogue were so compelling that DH and I stayed up late last night talking through a number of different options. We ended up deciding to hold the current course. However, the communication was the key thing. It's been a couple of months since DH and I had a full discussion of all the risks and options for this venture. Actually, for the first time ever, I think DH may be slightly more excited and committed to Standing Pines Resort (SPR) than I am right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm still 100% (or more, if possible). But now that the land is cleared and physical changes like the survey flags going up for the pond, clubhouse, entrance and first part of the road are happening, this is real to him. It feels like this has transitioned from my dream to our dream. That's a great thing!

On the "figure it out again" side, a potential investor who was very enthusiastic last Thursday has backed off. She may opt back in at a later point, but has pressed the pause button for now. Okay. I'll back off till January, then reach out to her again. That meant it was time to brush off my contacts list again. I reached out to three additional contacts today, people I've done business with in the past and enjoyed. This gives me a good reason to reconnect and ask what they are up to as well as introduce the opportunity with SPR. That's the intent anyway. I've heard back from one of the three, with a tentative time on Thursday afternoon to talk.

Yesterday, I made time to attend a lunch and learn at the local Chamber of Commerce. The Florence Flamingos were there, giving an overview of their sports program and pitching business sponsorship. This is a collegiate level summer baseball team, offering entertainment as well as sports somewhat like the Savannah Bananas. The owner was there, along with head of the business and the marketing person. I spoke with all after the meeting, honestly saying it was too early for us but that I saw possibilities for 2025. It may be a win-win and we have a follow up meeting booked in a couple of weeks. I think that a semi-pro baseball team 30 minutes from SPR could be a draw for guests. I see a couple of ways that could really be a mutual win, so we'll see how it develops. The first meeting was far too soon for anything but mutual introductions, but it was interesting to see the owner there. He also owns at least one more sports team. I did not even hint at investing with him, just chatted and asked him about how he came to own the Flamingos. I feel sure he will remember me when we talk again. However, he passed me to his lead guy for initial follow up, so I'll follow that hint as the start point.

This morning was my first visit to the Darlington chamber of commerce. I think joining there is basically a must-do. I'm not sure I see a clear way to get to potential investors there, but I do think doing a few lunch and learns will be a great way to introduce the next closest town to SPR. The Darlington chamber president is new to the area and new to the job. This was the first she had heard about SPR resort and she lit up. She's a mom with young kids who loves camping. I'll send her follow up information this afternoon. I'm still thinking through how much to send her that would be helpful rather than overwhelming.

I walked over to the Darlington county office afterwards to drop in on the county planning official who approved the development plan for SPR. She's been very helpful. I really only intended to wave and maybe say a quick holiday greeting, but she started asking questions so we wound up talking 15-20 minutes. It was a good visit. Mostly, I genuinely like her and would look for ways to stay in touch in any event. Practically, I can also admit that it makes good business sense to be friendly with local officials.

I've got a meeting booked tomorrow with the Florence chamber of commerce. That will be a repeat in terms of presenting some basic info on SPR, asking about chamber membership and tentatively scheduling some outreach possibilities. I'll also drop in on another Hartsville chamber event for lunch tomorrow. These are less about finding investors now and more about building awareness and starting relationships. Oh, I almost forgot - I met a couple of people from the local Hampton Inn at the Flamingos event yesterday. We chatted for awhile about the industry and exchanged cards. There may well be some ways to work together on different things as we are in the same general industry (hospitality) but realistically are targeting different segments of that market.

Hum. I've been trying for awhile to figure out how to get in front of local potential investors. When I asked my contact at the chamber, she suggested the lunch and learn approach. That's good and we have one scheduled for SPR in early January in Hartsville. She tactfully let me know that's the limit of the role for her involvement. It just occurred to me that we have several chain restaurants. The local Sonic owners are heavily involved in the community. I bet if I really tried, I could find contact info for the local owners for fast food and maybe other dining. It may take a couple of steps, but making those contacts could well be worth it. Maybe there are potential investors there, maybe not. But as other other local small business owners, I bet I could find some things in common and things to talk about productively.

That reminds me - I should give a guy in the city a call. He ran the Halloween give away event and seemed open to a follow up conversation, but we haven't quite connected again since then.


That self reminder is a good example of the value of this thread. Taking the time to type this up is helpful, both as a way to share, occasionally to vent but also as a way to to process through different possibilities, essentially thinking out loud via keyboard. If MO ever shuts this thread down, I'll either start journaling or blogging. The reflection is valuable. Sometimes I wonder if is the best use of time right now, but one way or another I need to do this kind of processing and action planning.

Anyways, lots planned for this week, then next week is Orlando and then we are going to be rushing right into Christmas and New Years. Wow - time really flies!

Just caught up....whew, you have a lot going on girl!

I love reading about this journey you are on. You have a whole lot of positives with this project.

Fingers crossed - I had a very positive initial conversation with a past connection this afternoon. She wanted the follow up information after a 30 minute call where we both laughed and laughed at some memories! Some of the joy from that may have carried over into the new LinkedIn post I just created. I'm pasting the text of that post here, as I bet a few of you will get a laugh out of it.

M2JRA - That's good validation to hear. Thanks for the well wishes!  I'm Amy Bashor on LinkedIn.  Happy to connect there if you are interested! 

While I now wish we had put together a strategy for LinkedIn several months ago, I'm 100% certain there are other things like that we could or should be doing. Part of the value of gathering a smart team is getting these ideas out on the table for action. So instead of beating myself up for missing it, this is more like excitement that it can be part of the toolkit now. I'm sure there will be other things we pick up as well along the way.

DH surprised me yesterday. 20 years of a happy marriage and he still amazes me on occasion. He woke me early yesterday, encouraging me to get on the road to FL. I wasn't really in a hurry, as I had tentative plans to meet a friend in Savannah for lunch and wanted to time the trip for that. As it turns out, he was trying to get me out the door. As soon as I left, he went to talk to GC and workers to make it clear that I was going to be out for a week of vacation. Craig stepped up to lead the project, directing the team to take everything except budget issues to him while I was away to give me as much time off as possible. He did in a way I both absolutely support and made for a wonderful surprise to start a trip to my home to Disney. Awwwww. I do love that man!

And I think this is a direct result of the conversation we had the other night, really evaluating what we are doing. I knew it had gone from my dream to our dream, but didn't know how decisively he was going to be all-in now. That is fantastic, as construction is where DH will shine. He knows how to build. He get along great with the guys in the field doing the work, being social and friendly while also being highly directive when needed about how he wants something done.

Anyone following my current trip TR knows about the adventure in the sketch hotel last night. Still, I slept really well and woke up with some new ideas. I mentioned a couple of them to DH this morning. He's on board. We still have a couple of small personal money moves to throw even more into this project. We will review with accountant early next week, but I think we've decided to toss everything thing in now. As much as anything else, this buys some time so we can keep moving forward with construction at a deliberate, measured pace until we close on the construction loan. I also have an idea on how I can talk to the bank about taking asphalt out of the construction loan as a way to reduce the total needed to bring to close. The question will be if that impacts the valuation that drives the total value. I don't think it will matter, but will think through how to approach this with the bank before I bring it up.

So it's been a really good day. I spent time in a theme park and my favorite DVC resort before checking into much better accommodations for the rest of this week. After dinner tonight, DH called me tonight with some potentially very good news for the business. It is only a possibility, so I can't really say anything other than I hope it pans out. It would be huge, HUGE, if it does. But it seems somewhat iffy to me. For sure we are not counting on it. Both of us will continue potential investor outreach along with everything else we are doing. Even while on vacation. Because as my brother told me a couple of years ago, small business owners never really stop working on their business.

Fingers crossed, ya'll. Fingers crossed for real this time.

That's a really interesting thought. We did some tee shirts for SPR a few months back just for the family so we had a consistent look when representing the campground at events. I had not thought about stickers. Or maybe magnets - I've seen those in the shape of the state for RVers who track their travels visually. I'll ask a couple of people who know more about this than I do for some thoughts around timeline and sourcing this kind of thing.