I was up in the middle of the night last night - not unusual for me but this is really eating at me - thinking about this situation. When is it going to be appropriate to go back to work?
They are supposedly coming out this week to install the gravel and then? My finances are going to take a nose dive. Frugality only takes you so far and you can't skimp on certain things.
If I want to advertise the walking trails as a prominent feature of the park, I have to install signage to show people where to even find the trail head. I mean, if you just started wandering around back there you'd find a hill on all sides and if you wandered down the hill, then yes, you'd stumble upon them.
That doesn't sound fitting for a feature that is advertised as one of the compelling reasons to come to my park.
So today, I'm ordering all the signs I will need. Internet, yes internet. Locally, they do a great job but it's not cheap and I can get a much better deal with an online sign company. I like to try to keep things local, but there is a limit to that desire. If local means paying a third or more again for the same thing you can get elsewhere, I'm not going to do it locally.
My main street sign being the notable exception. I'm very pleased with the outcome of that and I think it was money well spent. I'm still waiting for everything to dry up before mounting it. It rained for over 24 hours and the quick crete still appears to be wet. I did order an entrance sign at the local sign shop, made out of aluminum he said it would last a long time - but he also charged me $250 for it.
I'm battling in my mind with which campground reservation software to go with. Pricing is top of the list, but features are also important.
And I'm going to shop for insurance. A man from a large rv insurance company is getting back with me hopefully today, I want at least a second quote to see where I stand with the first quote. It will be $800 down just to get the first company started up. It's 3k per year, so the sizeable down payment was a bit strange. I don't get to make the terms.
But yes, When do I go back to work is the big question. Soon, I can say, but how soon? Well obviously if I'm about to go completely broke that would force the issue. It's just amazing that even after getting that second 401k cashed out, I'm still going to be facing this question soon enough.
Gravel is the biggest expenditure left to go. After that it's small stuff comparatively speaking, but it all adds up. And even just driving around town eats up the fuel. Eating out has gone by the wayside, occasionally but nothing like what I was doing. If I go try to do more work on the driveway today - which I think I will, not sure yet because I am still coughing and still not feeling the greatest yet - I will come home to eat, not go to applebee's for salmon or whatever lunch.
Some of the habits I got into making the kind of money I was making baffles me now. I could have saved a lot of money instead of just wasting it. But, I guess it comes with the territory. Your whole mindset changes. Oh, and yes, I can go out and make the same money now. In fact, even more. I would be on the road all the time.
If there was such a thing as a part-time trucking job, I would definitely take it. But there isn't - none that I know of anyway or can find. Work 3 days a week, home the rest. Take care of my monthly bills and have time to continue work on the park. The local jobs around here are fast food and low paying junk that I won't be fooling with. If I'm going to work, I'm going to make the money regardless of how long it keeps me out. And if it does come down to that, I at least have the reassurance that it won't be forever. Just long enough to get the park running, keep it running for a while and then apply for that big loan.
I intend on having the property appraised after I get the gravel in, the grass started and the fire rings on each lot (or every lot where it looks like I can put one without hazard of setting RV's on fire anyway). With what I'm reading and with the current pricing of RV parks for sale (it is a hot market, surprisingly and a lot of people with little or no experience want to get into it, they just don't want to start from scratch like I am, they want a turn-key business venture), it should appraise from 300 to 400k.
Yes, even small parks are going for a mint. And if it's in a good location - such as a beach, national park nearby, river, etc - even higher. I don't have any of that tho there is plenty nearby. I'm pretty confident in my assessment. Put that up as collateral for a half million dollar loan and they won't need a cash down payment. Now that I've got my feet wet and have been through the process, I have an idea of how to write up a business plan of how the park would be built out.
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Very long phone call (I don't do long phone calls anymore and that mindset is just going to have to change if I want to get anything done, I'm working on it lol).
It was the web designer. He is a true expert, there is no questioning that and I am blessed and lucky to have found him. He has a heart to serve and help people, it's not just about the money. I know this because he's already done a lot of stuff for free, even tho I did offer to pay him. He said his policy is to "not charge if it takes 15 minutes or less". He went on about the analytics and the way Google works and how they penalize you for some things and reward you for others (moving up on the search results).
Some of it got into technical stuff that I admittedly don't even understand.
And we went into campground management software. Again, this man has amazing knowledge of everything web related, whether he knows about a specific subset (RV parks) or not, the methodology is the same. He went into the hidden costs of the software I was wanting to use and said he had found something better.
Just really a lot of information that I need not go into detail here, just to say it was a very interesting phone call. He backed up my thought that I need to have this campground software installed on my website soon. I'm thinking within the next 7 days. He said he would go through several different software options from different companies and then give me the top 5 that he thinks would be best and keeping costs down. Yes, let's keep the costs down.
He also said he would design one of those small signs you see on the side of the road everywhere and order it for me. The point is to have something that says "coming soon" and have it in place along the highway up the road from me. For $3.99, I think it a worthwhile investment.
With his knowledge of setting up websites, I wondered if it would be possible for him to duplicate a blogging journal I used to be a part of that was maliciously destroyed by a disgruntled ex-employee. It was named Journalspace and tho it wasn't an internet sensation, no one wanted it to be. It was a large community and it was set up in such a way that people could and would interact with each other within the community.
A lot of friendships were made because of the design. I was wondering if it could be duplicated, but I need pics of the old setup to give him an idea of what it was like. It might be worth attempting to resurrect.
Anyway, today is Halloween and I'm pulling my trailer - at a very slow speed thank you - for people to sit on while the group is trick or treating. We are meeting at 6:30 pm, I hope it doesn't go on more than a few hours, I'm still not feeling the greatest but I think I can manage sitting in my vehicle pulling a trailer at 3mph.
With that, I am off to do more research on various things that need to be addressed before any park opening can take place. I'm working my way up to buying Quickbooks and getting start on that..wish me luck lol.
....and my poll. So far, 18 votes and a vast majority say a slope (for tent camping) is ok.
