Brian Richardson ⋅ Columbus, IN U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Edward,
Matt makes some valid points. If you are wanting to build AND open a park, I am guessing the need for large sums is required. Just buying the land would probably be a large investment.

Are you able to offer any details as to why you do not want the investor you mentioned? It is very important to vet out a potential partner/investor. You will be bound to them for the life of the business unless there is an exit strategy in place.

It could take years to become profitable. Are you prepared for that. As Matt mentioned, a business plan will help you focus on the process as well as be required for any type of outside loan.

Don't give up...but be aware that there is a lot of work to do BEFORE you pull the trigger on a loan, partnership or other cash venture.

Here are a few articles that may be of interest to you.

http://vetlaunched.com/5-reasons-never-business-partner/
http://vetlaunched.com/5-reasons-always-business-partner/
http://vetlaunched.com/my-business-needs-cash/

If I can be of help, feel free to reach out. Good luck.
Brian

David Eastman ⋅ Gresham, OR Gamma Therapeutics, Inc. ⋅ 35 years experience

Hello, Edward

Nice idea and with my baby boomers retiring and buying RVs to travel around in, it is good timing.

Money is always the hardest hurdle to overcome when starting a business. You could bootstrap it, asking your friends and family make an investment in you and the business. You could go to a commercial bank and ask for a business loan, but usually they want some good, solid and valuable collateral, which you may not have. You can get a government Small Business loan (SBA) and usually there is a branch of this department in any US city. You could go on the various websites designed to get you money through networking, like Crowdfunding or Fundme. I had a friend who recently quit his job working with young teenagers. He still wanted to do it, just a paid consultant. He went on FundMe and in a single afternoon of responses raised $1700. Obviously, you need hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you have to start some where and so if you could ask A CrowdFunding site to raise you $25,000, you might be surprises how easy that is to do.

Good luck and much success with your venture. If that is your dream, do it. There is no more satisfying job in the world than working for yourself.

David

Ward Garrison ⋅ Russellville, MO Confidential Restaurant Solutions ⋅ 30 years experience

Edward, do you have an aerial view of your land. It would be best to see your location before I comment on your ideal.

Sincerely:Ward Garrison

Matt Garley ⋅ Elm Grove, WI NextHire Recruiting ⋅ 30 years experience

Hi Edward...

It's impossible to provide a simple answer to this question/your situation. The very best guidance that I can provide to you at this stage of your endeavor is to develop your "business plan", which is a 3 to 5 year outlook of how you plan to be successful in developing, launching and managing your new business.

Not only will any lender/investor want to see this before funding your project, is an essential tool for you to understand exactly what it will take to be successful.

(I have included some Links to excellent guidance from the US Small Business Administration (SBA) at the bottom of this message.)

The other thing you should do is go outside of your geographical area to seek RV Park owners--especially those with newer RV parks--and develop a relationship with 2-3 of them that appear to have successful/thriving businesses to pick their brains and find out:

- The things they did to achieve their success.
- What mistakes they made.
- What they would do differently if they were building the business from scratch again.

The insights that you will glean will be worth their weight in gold in helping you leverage their best practices and avoid some of the pitfalls that can be the difference between business success and business failure.

I say go outside of your geographical area, in that any local RV Park owners will rightfully see you as competition to their own business and will not be very willing or excited about sharing their experiences or helping you.

Here's a good starting point for you: www.sba.gov/writing-business-plan

You should also read: www.sba.gov/thinking-about-starting

In developing a well thought out business plan, you will have a much greater probability of success in both obtaining funding needed to start the business AND In creating a business that will thrive.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your service and good luck to you.

Matt Garley
Navy Vet
Small Business Owner/Small Business Consultant.