Five Lessons Learned Making the Brown County Barn Burner a Reality
As I’ve shared in previous posts, it was a winding road for us to go from dreaming up the idea of the Barn Burner to actually breaking ground and starting the construction. So for anyone else in the process of dreaming big and trying to make their ideas a reality, here are five lessons we learned along the way:
Before you even start, spend time determining what it is you actually want and need out of life. This will look different for everyone, but will be invaluable in narrowing down your options and opportunities.
An idea of just some of the things you’ll want to consider:
What are your personal set of skills, experiences, and interests?
Do you want a set, regular schedule? Or do you prefer more flexibility (but possibly more unpredictability)?
How much risk (financial or otherwise) are you willing to take on?
What other similar businesses occupy the space/market you’re considering? How will you stand out or attract your own customers?
Is there a certain income level you need to reach? How much time do you have to reach it? Do you have another source of income, a partner with a different job, or a source of savings to help bridge the gap as you build the business?
Get to know the role of and staff at your local government departments, and get familiar with any applicable regulations and ordinances. It might sound boring, but it will be much easier if those people are friendly and on your side and you also need to be knowledgeable about what the rules ACTUALLY say (not just what someone SAYS they say, or how they've been traditionally applied).
Depending on what you're trying to do, and especially if it's new or innovative, you need to be prepared to advocate for yourself within the framework of what's allowed, or within the appeals process that's in place. A few examples where this came into play for us include - establishing that the local "tourist rental" requirements applied to residentially zoned properties only (ours is business zoned), working through floodproofing requirements, and figuring out what specifications and furnishings were actually required and acceptable for our ADA accessible unit.
Find a partner/business friend/confidant that you can bounce ideas off of, and will help you navigate through the highs and lows of your endeavor. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart and, no matter how determined you are, you will lose hope occasionally. Having someone that you can turn to, that has some idea what you're going through, and can help balance you and offer a different perspective is critical. For us and this project, Clint and I played that role for each other, but it could be anyone for you.
No one else will believe in your dream or your abilities as much as you do. No one. If you’re going to make a big dream a reality you MUST know your numbers and your plan inside and out and be prepared to be persistent, determined, and ready to sell the vision to others. Your resolve will be tested along the way (see the previous bullet for what can help with that) but ultimately it all comes down to you.
And in the end, you have to stay flexible, think ahead to your plans A, B, C, and D, and be willing to pivot when necessary. It’s a strange balance - feeling confident enough in your idea to pursue it persistently, while also being willing to change when needed and roll with the punches that will inevitably come your way. No amount of planning can account for everything that might happen. But you can look ahead, think through the possibilities, and build in as much flexibility as is reasonable for your project.
Again, this will look different for everyone, but for us, this looked like:
Going through 4-5 major redesigns to figure out the best plan for our budget, market, physical location, and so on. And also pushing through delays in securing funding, pushed back timelines, a change in business structure to enable our financing model.
Designing all of our spaces for multiple use cases:
The commercial retail space can be split into two smaller stores, if needed
The Event Space could be outfitted as a restaurant or cafe in the future, or rented out as another retail space
Even though we knew that we wanted to focus on renting the lodging units all together to larger groups, we purposely designed four separate units that could be rented individually if necessary. Each unit also has a full kitchen and laundry with a washer and dryer, so could be rented long term as apartments if we wanted.
Dealing with the fact that within four days of signing our construction loan paperwork in March 2020, Covid restrictions were in place in full force, our kids school was closed for the foreseeable future, and we were spending hours discussing stay at home orders, what an "essential worker" was and whether we'd be able to move ahead with construction.
While not everyone will deal with a curveball the size of Covid in their project, it’s still true that you can’t predict everything that will happen so you have to do what you can to prepare, while also being ready to make the best of whatever you’re dealt and roll with it.
I hope this all helped in some small way! I’ll share more in the coming weeks of what our actual construction project looked like, all leading up to hosting our first guests on November 13, 2020.