Jim Beaton--The Serial Entrepreneur
, Jack Chivers Realty
Published Friday, December 4, 2009
“A real character.” That’s how Jack describes his buddy Jim Beaton. After the hour long interview and seven pages of notes, a more precise description might be a character playing the game of Monopoly. His business background is as colorful as the play money in the popular board game and his “business technique” very similar to the smart player who always ended up winning. Imagine starting with some money, rolling the dice, buying up all the good properties and having fun doing it. This is how Jim “played the game.”
Jim was born in Lemon, SD and moved to Fargo, ND with his family in 1932 when he was 11 years old. His business career started selling newspapers on the street corner of Fargo, where he literally had to fist fight for “his corner.” Later, he moved into the circulation department where he would insert the comic section into 5,000 Sunday papers, for $2.25. After high school he went into the military. When he got out, Jim recalled, “A guy came into the circulation department at the Forum, and was looking for someone to be a Blatz beer distributor. George Platt, the circulation manager, said to me, ‘Maybe you can do that and I’ll do it with you.’ Back in those days it cost about 3,000 bucks to get a car load of beer. I had saved $1,100 from the military, so I threw that in and George threw in an old International Step Cab truck—I could always tell when the weather was going to be bad,” he grumbled, “it wouldn’t start.” He went on, “George had the Fargo Bottling Works, at the time, so I rented that from him for $45 a month. I was allowed 600 cases of Blatz a month. In-other-words, I would get a car load every other month and would have to distribute that over the next two months. Beer was hard to get back then.” Even despite that, he continued to add other beer franchises to his company, The Beverage Wholesalers, which now covered the entire Fargo market and surrounding areas. Jim was on his own and recalled, “Things were tight.” But this entrepreneur was just getting started.
After 30 years in Fargo, he sold that business and set his sights on Detroit Lakes. “Jack sold me a warehouse here and I started Jim Beaton Sales. That turned out to be a real-real good business.” Jim loved the lakes area and could see the potential here and invested heavily. “When I ran into Jack, I found out there was a lot of good stuff for sale.” Jack interjected, “Jim was from out of town and saw things different. I would call him up and say I’ve got something you need to look at. He’d look at it and buy it! He didn’t suffer from ‘paralysis by analysis.’ He wouldn’t over think things and he had the cash to do it.” An example of this was a resort on Lake Sallie that Jack had tried hard to sell, even to the city. “No one wanted to buy it. Jim came in and bought 1500 front feet on Lake Sallie for $49,000. The frontage alone is worth 4.5 million in today’s market,” Jack said. Jim chuckled with satisfaction, and added, “Yeah…that one turned out all right.”
Jim bought property all over the area. As his real estate portfolio grew so did the variety of business he owned. He built the first self-storage units in this part of the region, owned a metal bending business, a credit bureau, a concrete business, car washes and even an ice cream store. “At one point, I had seven businesses. My accountant called me up one day and said ‘this guy from the IRS made a special request to meet you.’” Laughing, Jim went on to say, “There was no synergy to what I was doing. He wanted to see what I was all about.” Jack piped up and said, “He’s about the deals. Jim can smell a deal. He’s the most street smart guy I’ve ever met. He doesn’t have all the fancy degrees, but he has an incredible curiosity and loves to read. I can remember the first time I went fishing with him, he was reading this book on nuclear fusion!” Jim let the compliment go, but added, “Well...that’s what I like about Jack, he always has a deal going on and I never bought anything from him that I lost money on.”
The two of them have worked at least 25 deals together over the years. From what the two of them called, “The Frog Pond Deal” to deals in Belize. The stories were great. It begged the question however, “You’re very business savvy Jim, yet quick to make decisions. What would make you turn away from a deal?” Without hesitation he said, “The guy I’m talking to. I wasn’t going to deal with any soft-shoed boys.” Smiling, Jack said, “I remember this time a guy wanted to do a deal with us. So we met him at the Erie Jr. When he left Jim looked at me and said, ‘I’m not buying anything from him, he smelled too much like cigarette smoke!’” They laughed. I guess it goes back to the Monopoly analogy, if you have all the properties and the cash, you don’t have to make a deal with the “kid” that annoyed you.
Jim’s business life really was no game, but to the outsider listening in on these two buddies, it sounded like they sure had fun together. Similar to the board game, there were a lot of colorful pieces, skill and a little bit of luck involved. Jack and Jim can help us all remember, however, the “key element” to playing Monopoly, is the time one gets to spend with others that makes it enjoyable and worth playing. Jim Beaton is a colorful character and one of the superb players in Jack’s game.
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