Frank Wallmeyer, who sold Safeguard Print, Promo and Design in 2016, gave away hundreds of — maybe 1,000 — ice scrapers over the years as door prizes at business meetings. He took time off after the sale and this year bought Standard Feed and Seed at 1236 Kings Road in the Rail Yard District west of Downtown, selling pet supplies, seeds and plants
Standard Feed and Seed is this awesome little piece of Americana. It’s been around since April 1, 1946. I’m blessed to be the third owner. I call it “the steward” because you don’t own this piece of Jacksonville history. You caretake it.
People come in and they’re happy to be there. We have a lot of pet supplies. We also sell chickens. Feb. 2, we get our first round for the year. The backyard flock is getting to be a much bigger deal in Jacksonville these days. People buy plants and feed. We roast peanuts every day.
I have absolutely no background in feed and seed, and I’ve killed just about every plant I ever tried to grow. My wife, Mary Pat, and I have had dogs ever since we’ve been married, but she’s the driver on that.
There were a lot of factors that went into picking this business. It was not too big, not too small. It’s successful. One of the first things I would do when a business broker would bring something to me is I would check their Google ratings. It’s 4.6 to 5 stars.
I had a printing and commercial products business. I started out as an independent contractor with my father-in-law and bought him out in 2007. It was a franchise business and the franchise owner decided they wanted to start a program of doing some roll-ups. They offered me a sum of money which made me take that offer. That’s been almost two years ago. With the sale of the business, my wife and I have been able to do a lot of traveling. Everybody should take a gap year.
I love being an entrepreneur. Ever since I was 12 I’ve been cutting grass and throwing newspapers. I’m not a good employee, I need to work for myself. I don’t take directions well. The five years I did have bosses I never liked being micromanaged and so I don’t micromanage. I try and let people know what’s expected and treat them like an adult and hope they do it.
Safeguard had some promo products they were trying to get rid of. The representative said, “We’ve got ice scrapers.” I said, what the heck am I going to do with an ice scraper in Florida? But I wanted everybody in Jacksonville to have a Safeguard ice scraper. It took almost two years after I sold the business to get rid of all my ice scrapers.
One of the things we sell is Black Kow cow manure. I’ve been told for many, many years that I’m full of manure and so my idea is to give away 5-pound bags of Black Kow, but Mary Pat’s not liking that idea. We’re going to have to see.