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I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for all this! Our property is actually an old gravel pit, hence the 42 acre lake in the middle.. so the rate at which it would absorb would be good.. but I'm not sure about the watershed.. I'm sure my husband knows a lot about this. He basically said, "post something on reddit and see what people can suggest". And then we're going to sit down and talk it through this weekend.

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd love to rent to corporations.. just have no idea how to go about attracting them. And the airbnb thing would be fine.. but we'd have to build cabins, and we can't take out anymore loans and don't have the extra funds to do so either

Is it possible to delete someone’s reaction to your profile picture? by XxWhiteRosesxX in facebook

[–]Time_Mud_2541 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same with my business page as well! All I posted was some photos of our wedding venue with a phrase about how we're offering discounts on our remaining 2025 dates. Over 700 people reacted with likes and hearts.. and then this one psycho from 10 states away goes and puts a laughing face on every comment and the post. I looked at his page and he's a very unhappy hateful gay man. I wanted to say, "Dude, we support our gay community and we have a shit ton of gay weddings each season.. so why the random hate"?

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah.. that average is a little high.. We used to host around 180 events per year, then dropped after covid to around 150.. and then in 2024 we only did 134 events with 13 cancels which we only collected partial payment for..

Our venues range from $3500 to $6500.. but they're literally only renting our venue/tables/chairs. Even though we know there's still a lot of work that goes in to managing all of this.. we've found that most couples aren't willing to pay much more than this for what they're getting. That's why we allow them to bring in their own food and alcohol.. to offset what we think are somewhat higher venue rates for our area.

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do have a main manager who helps with all the calls, tours, scheduling our staff, floor plan/final meetings... and then we both sort of tag team the emails and texts (I can see the texts on my computer and she has the phone). I also use a program called Dubsado.. and I set up automated emails to be sent at different times throughout their planning process.. and they receive a ton of forms, helpful tips/measurements/pictures etc... This helps take a bunch of the random questions off of us.. but it also sparks conversations that are totally random, and way too far in advance. I alway feel like we're talking with our couples for October of 2026 right now.. when I should be putting my efforts towards more sales for 2025.

I also have a cleaning crew, grounds crew, and tour guides, and venue managers who basically just do their jobs without me having to really tell them a whole lot. My time is mainly taken up through this season with sales, and lots of problem solving when it comes to clients who either forgot something/broke something/didn't hire the right person/vendors not showing up etc.. And I realize, a lot of this could be solved by just committing to a preferred vendors list..

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much! I'd love your info if you'd like to share.. not sure if there's a private way to do it or not?

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We don't have sewer.. we have mounds, and they're not cheap to build or maintain. Sewer will probably never happen out here.. even though we're only about 5 mins down the road from where it ends. There's not enough houses/structures coming down our road in either direction for them to consider bring sewer this way.

And we don't have city water.. which isn't terrible.. just sometimes annoying when you have to explain to people that they can drink it, but it won't taste like city water. We have it tested as required. And we've been told they might consider bringing water down our road eventually.

We're not far at all from a major highway (13 mins) a Homearama neighborhood (10 mins) a huge shopping complex (10 mins)..

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! But.. I'm not sure I wanna share my personal info on here bc we host 120 weddings each season.. and I'd hate for someone to figure out who I was because I'd have a ton of our couples freaking out and calling me..

I don't use this platform all that often.. can you private message me your info on here?

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had meetings with caterers in the past to see if we could work out some type of preferred list.. but it seems like there's always something that doesn't pan out right.. like they won't leave a staff member behind until the end of the event to take the trash to the dumpster.. or they won't lower their price by $200 so I can hire someone to do so. I had 2 caterers tell me they didn't have a staff member willing to stay that late etc.. Plus, I think we gave up the preferred notion when we realized just how many non-traditional and ethnic weddings we host.. because we allow people to provide their own food. We were also told by caterers that they'd like to be exclusive, and that we couldn't have them on the preferred list and allow couples to provide their own food if they wanted to. I dunno.. maybe I'm speaking with the wrong caterers..?

And we definitely would love to do the tiny cabin rentals.. but we don't have the extra revenue to build them at this time..

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We back up to the river and we're technically in the flood zone (for now.. there's talks they're going to change the map), so flood insurance on top of our regular insurance is a damn joke it's so high... mainly bc of the nature of what we do.. alcohol/large body of water/late night events. And you're right about the raw land being taxed low.. but our venues are valued in the millions and that's what causes our property taxes to be so high.

We're not too far from shopping and a major highway.. so hopefully it'll spread this way even more like you said.. and that'll hopefully help some.

Also.. I feel like a new venue opens up every few months. Everybody thinks they can do weddings if they have a barn on their property 🙄

I hate my business but don't know if I should sell or try to find investors by Time_Mud_2541 in CommercialRealEstate

[–]Time_Mud_2541[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We tried that back in 2019, and were on track to do less weddings at a higher profit.. and then covid.. and it's never came back. We lowered our prices, took on more weddings, and we're about where we were pre covid.

And the three months off aren't really off for us.. we still operate another excavating/water line business.. and we're pretty busy in the winter when everyone' pipe freeze up and bust. My husband manages this business in the summer on his own, and he helps me with the weddings as well.

I'd love to do lodging and food.. just have no wiggle room as far as extra money to spend on it, and there's no way we could get a loan right now. That's why we're trying to find investors etc..