Excerpt from Inside Indiana Business:
NORTHERN INDIANA – After selling his first proper business, Story Blocks, Joel Holland and his wife, Mary Ashley, bought an RV and started their journey from Washington, D.C. through all the lower 48 states over the course of two years.
Enjoying the freedom, flexibility and community, the couple was pleasantly surprised to learn that over 11 million Americans own RVs—a lot more people than they ever imagined. This got Holland curious about the business possibilities in the industry.
“We’d stay in these campgrounds, and campgrounds are fine but they’re like Holiday Inn Express; they all look the same. They provide a quality service but I don’t go telling my friends about how awesome my Holiday Inn Express was,” Holland said. “Meanwhile, we’re driving by all these incredible farms, vineyards, museums and I’m like, ‘Why can’t we stay there?’ They have room to park there, we support the business, everybody wins.”
Holland eventually discovered a mom-and-pop shop out of Arizona called Harvest Hosts that was executing his idea on a smaller scale. He reached out to share his vision and asked if the owners would consider selling the business. They agreed.
“They had a great concept, the bones of a great business. I wanted to make it bigger, get more RVers involved and more small businesses,” Holland said. “We bought the business in May 2018, so we’re now six years in and it’s been an awesome ride.”
Read more of the story at Inside Indiana Business.