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Monday, November 26, 2012

Ghost of Christmas Present

I am not sure if blogging is the cure for insomnia, but is working for me so far.
I am going to ramble a little bit more about me and where I am at in life. For any of you that have read my earlier post this may be a small review. Presently, I have three or four main areas that occupy my time.
For those that don't know, I am a microbiologist and a chemist. I sold my company and am currently restricted from working in my field until June of 2013 due to a restrictive covenant in our sellers agreement. I am pondering several avenues once this restraint is lifted. The first and most obvious question is...should I start the exact same company again and build it up from the ground up. This is definitely my field of expertise, but it will be no easy task. A lot of money needs to be invested and I have been away for a little while. Some of the customers would come back easy and some maybe never. There would also be considerable satisfaction in taking business from my former company. I did not leave on good terms. At All! In fact I can not stand several of the people that work there and I would love to cause them some sleepless nights like they have done to me! I am also considering starting a new company that would specialize in some formulas for auto care. I know this has been done to death, but I think there are some niche markets that I could capitalize on. I even have the name thought up ...Origin Car Care! Catchy huh? I am now in the process of figuring out digital marketing and nailing down some of the formulas.
The second area involves where I live. I live on about 70 acres in west Georgia. I have a lot that needs caring for out here. I own about 17 head of cattle with about 5 more on the way any day now. Maintaining the pasture, woods, fence and the livestock takes up quite a bit of time. I also have a couple of horses that basically serve as pasture ornaments. Their names are Buckshot and Cisco. I don't name the cows.
Cisco is on the left and Buckshot on the right
The third area involves a hobby of mine that has evolved into a business. I like old cars and I am very mechanically inclined. After I sold my company, I had to find something to do with my time and I started restoring some old cars. I have restored several and in the process started selling some cars as well. I have a show winning 1970 chevelle convertible and a show winning 1969 camaro. I have a couple of 1955 chevys that are in process as well as a 1941 ford. I started a used car dealership, because in Georgia you can only sell 5 cars personally before you have to get a license. Last year I sold over 100. The problem is that to maintain this operation and keep up a decent reputation, which is hard in the used car business, I have a ton of overhead and I am not sure that it is worth the trouble. I may ride this out through tax time and make a slow but steady exit. I do enjoy working on the cars as projects and seeing them through to completion.
The fourth area that gets my attention is cycling. I know I will never make a living at cycling, but as I have posted before, I love the community and lure of road cycling. This has occupied a lot of my time over the last 3 or 4 years and I am slowly getting better. I don't really have to work and I could just retire and cycle. While this seems like a viable route to some. I am not sure I can quell my entrepreneurial spirit. There is something inside of me that needs to build something, then grow it and then sell products from this. Both of these endeavors take a lot of time and I am not sure that I can do both. Building a business is not conducive to good health. My former company had me stressed out, drinking too much, overweight and just not pleasant to be around. Cycling is the complete opposite. I wonder if I could find a balance between these two?



1 comment:

  1. I will add to this post today, because today has special significance. Today is the day that my non-compete expires. I am now free to pursue growing and selling microbes again to anyone I choose. I feel as if a HUGE weight has been lifted from me. (June 5, 2013)

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