It's happening in 2015!

[~nail in the coffin~]

We have finally decided to get this plan into gear and open next Halloween, 2015! I'm so excited, and overwhelmed at the same time. I need your help,since we are brand new.....

Here's what we have: an old school building, approximately 14,000 square feet of it can be used as a haunt. The rest has established businesses. So that means we have NO RENT!! And since we own the building, we can get started ASAP. I have tons of ideas centered around a "haunted high school." I pretty much know how we are doing all the build-outs, and I have a lot of ideas about vendors and live bands since we have a gymnasium with a stage!!

Here's what we don't have: money!! I currently have 2 possible investors, but nothing to present to them yet. So I need directed to the best place to find info on actually building the haunt, and how much money to expect to put into it to get started. Are there certain books you guys would recommend? Ebooks? Any help would be appreciated!! Any ideas anyone would like to throw out there would be great too!! I've been on these forums for 8 years now and I'm FINALLY making this happen=)

[horrorman666]

This is the best book that I know about. It is highly recommended by many, many haunt owners/operators. Good luck on your new venture!!

http://www.hauntbook.com/entrepreneur.html

[~nail in the coffin~]

OMG how could I have forgotten about Kel's book??? I bought it probably 6 or 7 years ago and started to read it but didn't finish it. I've since moved into a new house and you know how that is.....who the heck knows where it is now

Thanks so much for the link, I need to get me a new copy!!

[Jim Warfield]

How my "Financing" arrived.

I have recently begun telling my Ravens Grin audiences how I was able to buy my place, even though I had No momey.
I began by approaching a few people in this small town who had some "money". They were mostly "elderly" (that IS who lives here, mostly)
They would listen to my ideas, then laugh in my face. Some would advise me to "Go to California to do that haunted house-thing."
"Do You know anyone in California that I could bunk with for a few years, rent-free, until I got "on my feet"?
"No."
"Well, neither to do I,I'm staying right here.' (in Illinois) (Where they just trying to get rid of me?)
Then I realized that was asking The Wrong People for money. I should think of someone who once did something that most people thought was wrong, nuts, would never work,.. but they did it Anyway! It was very succesful, they made enough money to loan me, BUT more importantly, they would have the mind-set to see it possibly "working"!
I thought of such a man. The next day he called me to fix his faucet!
About the time I was being born, he did a Really Stupid Thing!
He Flooded a perfectly good cornfield!
It is Still "Flooded"!
IT's 3 miles south of this town, it's called Timber Lake Resort-Camping , boating, Summer-stock theater (oldest in this State?) a Restaurant.
What also helped was he knew my personal work-ethic.
He told me to see a certain local bank and they would make the loan (with his backing)
They said, "No., we don't loan money on condemmed propertys (anymore)
I went back to him, He said, "Go to this other bank," I went. I came back and told him they also refused to loan me money because they no longer loan money on somone else's "Say-So"(Co-sign)
I was nervous as I was visiting him for the fourth time with yet another rejection.
When I told him, he got mad, grabbed his hat from his head, threw it down hard and fast between his feet (as he sat in a chair) and loudly said:"Then I will loan you the money myself!"
After I got the house bought a retired Banker/Farmer saw me and asked if I could use another $3,000 "Fix-up" money as a loan?
"You bet!"
He became involved because around 1880 , his Grandfather used to sometime spend a night in what was now my house when it was "Mother Nohe's Tavern" because driving a horse & Buggy 16 miles in one day to go from his farm to town here and back was sometimes too much. This Banker/Farmer did not want to see this historic house torn down.
He also knew my work-ethic.. and I have now been working on this house ever since for these last 27 years!
Both of those men have been paid back now for many , many years.