Blog

October 27, 2004

Phil Taylor ~ Recreational Land Developer

Phil Taylor from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the founder and president of Taylor Investment Company and Four Seasons Realty. They specialize mostly in waterfront recreational property in the Midwest. They are superb at river and lakeside property. They also have offices in the south - in Texas, Tennessee and Georgia.

Phil came down to see Countrytyme so we could catch up on how he is doing, and he could do the same with us. We love to share experiences and ideas with Phil, and we really appreciate his advice, though we don’t always take it. Sometimes we wish we had.

Phil and I met about 8-9 years ago through our TEC contacts. TEC is an international “club” of CEOs of growing businesses.

We exchanged ideas on management of offices, compensation, hiring, training, the website, sales methods, marketing, accounting, succession, financing, debt, lenders, lot loans, receivables, politics, charities, road building, guarantees, state EPA agencies, development questions, etc.

On Thursday evening four of us at Countrytyme had dinner with Phil at the Refectory, and then on Friday about twenty at Countrytyme met with Phil for breakfast at Executive Suites.

Sometimes we hate Phil, as his margins and his sales are always higher, so his profits are higher than those at Countrytyme. But we love him when he tells us how he does it, and he is kind to tell us the mistakes he has made.

His business is recreational while ours is residential, for the most part, so we are not actually competitors.

We think Phil’s success gives us a boost, as we know we have the same opportunity, and we have a benchmark to shoot for.