Coming to Savannah

[Stacie Corrao]

Hi everyone,

My name is Stacie and my husband and I live in NJ BUT we are coming to Savannah. We bought a townhouse there at Christmas time and will hopefully be moving soon. We are looking at buying a business and/or real estate. We have owned rental properties here in NJ. The house we currently live in is a 2 family and we plan on renting the half we live in when we leave. (already have a renter lined up)  

We both currently have jobs here (that is pretty much the only reason we are still here) but would really like to have more control over our financial destiny. I really would like to stop working for other people. :) We have been looking at businesses for sale online, I have some small business management and accounting consulting experience so I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to run one. I would like something that has only a few employees if any. I plan to be completely hands on. So far we have looked at Laundromats, storage facilities and a liquor store. I really like the Liquor store idea. I saw one that can use some updating and we could add lottery and cigars. I have a vision of adding a humidor and offering some of the great micro brews you can not get at Walmart. 

My 2 biggest concerns are having enough money stashed away to survive while we get a business going, (although I would not have a problem with picking up a cashiers job somewhere so we would have health insurance) and the financing to buy the business. I do not really want turn key I want to have the ability to make it my own. We have some equity in the 2 family here and we have GREAT credit. We do not have a huge amount of liquid assets though.

I have started reading about master leases and small business financing. We have planed a visit to savannah the first week in March and are hoping to visit some options then. 

Any information, tips, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Stacie