In continuing with my new opportunity...
Dallas grew up on an 18,000 acres ranch in West Texas. His family was in the horse transportation business though he seemed to be some kind of self styled entrepreneur. He was well bred and spoke of much business experience but drove an old Ford Explorer, lived up stairs in a barn and had none of the trappings of success. It was really hard to tell if he was real but he was so earnest and nice that I trusted him effortlessly. He wanted to build an Olympic quality barn, stable and breeding facility for $1 million dollar horses but claimed that he needed help pulling it all off. He spoke of legions of possible investors that flocked around the posh equestrian facilities that his family managed in Palm Beach and in Del Mar, California. It all sounded interesting even though he offered no concrete plan to actually get it all done. I supposed that was why he needed me. For my part, I have lots of second hand experience managing relationships involving successful people and their ventures. I could do research as well as anyone and arguably the most important thing; I believed in myself. I was hoping that there might be just enough meat on this bone to build an enterprise around. I was willing to give it a shot, not even fully knowing what I was getting into.
Dallas grew up on an 18,000 acres ranch in West Texas. His family was in the horse transportation business though he seemed to be some kind of self styled entrepreneur. He was well bred and spoke of much business experience but drove an old Ford Explorer, lived up stairs in a barn and had none of the trappings of success. It was really hard to tell if he was real but he was so earnest and nice that I trusted him effortlessly. He wanted to build an Olympic quality barn, stable and breeding facility for $1 million dollar horses but claimed that he needed help pulling it all off. He spoke of legions of possible investors that flocked around the posh equestrian facilities that his family managed in Palm Beach and in Del Mar, California. It all sounded interesting even though he offered no concrete plan to actually get it all done. I supposed that was why he needed me. For my part, I have lots of second hand experience managing relationships involving successful people and their ventures. I could do research as well as anyone and arguably the most important thing; I believed in myself. I was hoping that there might be just enough meat on this bone to build an enterprise around. I was willing to give it a shot, not even fully knowing what I was getting into.
A professional associate suggested to me the I talk with Chuck, a well known land broker to discuss properties that might be for sale, as a first start. With only a little trouble I found the guy and pressed him firmly enough to get an appointment. Providence seemed at work as this turned out to be one of the most important associations of this effort. Chuck and I met at Starbucks in Atlanta early one morning and talked about what it was that we were going to try to do. That being buy an existing horse farm and manage it to a much higher level. My new friend, Chuck was unconvinced that we could make the math of such a venture work but he liked my description of Dallas so he agreed to take a meeting. The 3 of us met a week later and spent several hours talking about horse farms, land availability and other options. Chuck, a disciple of Eastern medicine - so much so that he and some partners of his just leased a farm in China offered us advice that not only sounded plausible, it sounded like the basis of a business. He suggested that we not buy a farm but a "broken subdivision." Find land," he said, "that is zoned and platted for many homes that can't be developed due to the ever worsening economy and crashing home building market. He then said, "put a conservation easement on the property, secure, then sell the tax credits that Georgia allows for such conservation and we might have enough money to capitalize our efforts." I believe, and this seems especially important to note, that I understood immediately the full sweep of the possibilities and went to work enthusiastically
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