No SBA Loan and $75k Out of Pocket

And I, I would just let them know that I was local and I used a couple things to, to let them know I was like local. I would tell them the neighborhood that I lived in that I had gone to Darden and you know, trying to meet at this local coffee shop, not just a Starbucks or something like that.

So I kind of like use some keywords to let them know I was a legit local person and I, that my, I think I probably even said that my fiance is a farmer at this, he works at this property that people would know and, and so just kind of developing a local credibility through that.

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I tried, you know, also at this point I was working part time at Darden. So that was really helpful too.

I think that brought a lot of credibility to my name is everyone wants to meet with somebody who works at Darden. I know that that might sound, I don't know if that sounds bad but you know, in our, in our town, like that's a cool thing is that I worked at the entrepreneurship center at Darden. And so for, even if it was for that reason of why they wanted to meet with me. They, they met with me.

Yeah.

Yeah. So you want to talk about how I found guest houses?

Well, just before we get there, one question for you about the businesses you targeted. Did you consider going after pest control, a business that you knew so well and which is a. Something of a darling in home services because of the recurring nature of it and so on.

So this is an interesting story. This is. Now, let's go back two years to my search, my traditional search. About six months into my traditional search, my dad calls me one day and he said, Megan, I, you know, at the time he was looking, he was loosely starting to have conversations with people about selling his business. He had been approached, you know, numerous

times and by a bunch of annoying searchers.

Yeah, yeah. And so he calls me one day, I'm about six, I'm a couple months into my search, and he says, megan, I'm about to sign an loi. This is your last chance. Do you want to buy my company?

And I took, I immediately took the day off and I went, and I went paddleboarding on Ragged Mountain Reservoir to like meditate and reflect on it because it was a huge decision.