We were lucky to catch up with Gina Mackovic recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
We really wanted to change the perception of petting zoos. We are educational and fun! Our primary focus is the animal – human connection. We built a place where guests can come and get hands on with the animals in a controlled and safe manner. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff are ready to answer all questions that come their way.
While at Lil’ Buckaroo’s Petting Zoo, you can spend time with each of our animals! From feeding our friendly goats and our sweet miniature cow to scratching the miniature pigs’ bellies, guests are sure to find an animal that they connect with.
On your adventure through the zoo, our staff are happy to tell guests funny stories about the animals and show guests the best way to interact with each animal.
The animals at Lil’ Buckaroo’s Petting Zoo are so special. Every animal is therapy trained and used during therapy sessions with a licensed therapist.
One story that sticks out about how special these animals are is, a family came in with a little girl, about 4 in age. The little girl was nervous about being around the animals. The parents were trying to get her to go into the stall with the animals, but she refused. The manager saw this and pulled our smallest goat, Snickers, into the barn aisle and held the goat. The little girl loved Snickers! She was happy to pet him, give him treats, and even give him a hug. After Snickers went back into his stall with the other goats, the little girl decided that she would go into the stalls to pet the animals. The family had a great time and the little girl left smiling!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My husband and I were cooped up in the house during the beginning of the pandemic with three small children. We started to realize how much we rely on grocery stores, Amazon, etc to get everything we need. We decided we wanted to get back to our roots! But how? I had only seen most farm animals in a book. I wasn’t much of a gardener. Luckily my husband had grown up on a farm and was a bit more savvy than me about how it was going to get done. We started looking for the perfect property. Once we found our farm in Erie, we realized we had so many exciting ideas. This was going to be more of a project than we had originally thought. It always is right?! Just like myself, our kids, and all of the families we knew, we hadn’t experienced “farm life” and there began our dream of a petting zoo and interactive farm. We built an 8,400 sq ft barn and brought the sweetest animals from around the US that we could find. These animals are very special, unique breeds, with calm dispositions (well, except for the rowdy goats ). We set out to create a fun, interactive, and educational experience for children and adults alike. Our farm allows visitors to interact with our animals, learn about environmentally sustainable practices, and we implemented an animal therapy program which is an invaluable asset for our community.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
We bought Horse training program and horse boarding facility in Erie Colorado. We wanted to move into an agriculture space and love animals. It seemed like a nice way to expand our business portfolio but also have a passion project of our own. This acquisition was unlike any business we had ever owned and took a huge learning curve to keep up with the demands that a business like this entailed. Luckily we were up for the challenge! It included many buildings, fencing, and facilities that we had to update and maintain. We also created a new business model as the one that was in place was failing. After a year of heavy manual labor and full attention to the business model and its nuances we had finally started to see the financial reward!
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
We sold a landscaping business in the Denver area. We learned many lessons along the way but these two were key: 1. Patience is a virtue – selling a business is exciting and incredibly stressful. Many deadlines to meet and lots of “tying up loose ends” and then a period of waiting for the right buyer. If you can stay focused and have patience, the pay off is great!
2. Your business is worth what someone will pay you for it- You can use any sort of calculation you wish to set a price and you may think you have the best business around but if someone won’t pay for it then it’s not priced right. Luckily, we knew going into the sales process that we had set up something good. My husband and I set a “lowest scenario” offer we would take and if we didn’t get that price we would keep grinding and go to sale the next year. There are many ways to get creative during the negotiation process and if you feel like you aren’t getting what the business is worth you can do things like:
-Stay in the business working for a stipend
-Offer services after close and be compensated for those such as business mentoring, lower up front money and pay out over time if the business hit profit goals set in place, Lead the sales team etc.
-If the right scenario, offering owner financing.
Contact Info:
- Website: buckaroospettingzoo.com
- Instagram: lilbuckaroosfarm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilbuckaroospettingzoo/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lil-buckaroo-s-petting-zoo/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lil-buckaroos-petting-zoo-erie
- Other: TikTok: lilbuckaroosfarm