I have never been the kind of person who sits down and says, “I need to start another business. What can I come up with?”
For me, it usually happens the other way around. I notice a problem. I spend some time thinking about it. I start asking questions, and eventually I wonder whether there is a practical way I can help solve it.
That is essentially how I ended up in land restoration, and it is also what led me to equity recovery. On the surface, those two businesses could not look much more different. One has me walking pastures, dealing with invasive plants, and helping landowners restore their property. The other involves research, phone calls, paperwork, and helping people determine whether they may have unclaimed funds connected to a tax sale.
The connection between them is not the type of work. The connection is the problem.
In both cases, I saw something being overlooked and started asking whether I could do something about it.
Land Restoration Started With Seeing What Could Be Better
Living and ranching in the Ozarks, I spend a lot of time looking at land. When you raise cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens, you start paying close attention to what is growing around you and how the land responds to different conditions.
You also start noticing problems.
I would see properties where invasive plants had gradually taken over areas that could have been productive pasture or healthy wildlife habitat. Sometimes the land had been neglected for years. Other times, the owner was trying to take care of it but did not know where to begin.
What interested me was that the land was not necessarily ruined. There was often a healthy property underneath all of that overgrowth.
The question I kept asking myself was simple. What would happen if someone actually addressed the underlying problem instead of just making the property look cleaner?
That question eventually became part of the thinking behind Ozgood Land Restoration.
I did not want to simply clear brush. I wanted to help people get their land back into a condition where it could become healthier and more useful over time.
Equity Recovery Started With Another Question
My interest in equity recovery developed differently, but my thought process was surprisingly similar.
I learned that there are situations where a property is sold through a tax sale and funds may remain after the required obligations are satisfied. Depending on the circumstances and jurisdiction, those excess proceeds may be claimable by the former property owner or another eligible party.
What caught my attention was that some people may not realize those funds exist.
I kept coming back to that.
If money may be available to someone, but that person does not know about it or does not know how to pursue it, what happens next? Does it simply remain unclaimed? How many people assume there is nothing left for them because nobody has explained otherwise?
The more I looked into it, the more I saw a problem I understood how to approach.
That became the idea behind Osgood Equity Recovery.
The work involves identifying potential unclaimed funds, locating the people who may have a claim, contacting them, and working through the recovery process when appropriate. My compensation is tied to a successful recovery, so if I am not successful, the client does not pay me for the service.
It is very different from restoring a pasture, but the reason I became interested in it feels familiar.
Something valuable may be there, and somebody needs to take the time to look.
I Have Learned Not to Ignore Problems Just Because They Are Complicated
One thing both businesses have taught me is that the obvious problems are not always the interesting ones.
I tend to become curious when I find something that makes me ask, “Why is nobody doing anything about this?”
Sometimes there is a perfectly good answer. Maybe the problem is more complicated than it first appears. Maybe regulations create limitations. Maybe the economics simply do not work.
I have learned to respect those possibilities.
Not every problem should become a business.
Before committing to something, I spend a lot of time asking whether I actually understand the issue and whether I can provide something useful. I also have to ask whether the solution makes sense for the person on the other side.
That last part matters.
It is easy to become excited about a business idea. It is harder to step back and ask whether you are actually solving somebody else’s problem or just creating an opportunity for yourself.
I want the answer to be clear.
Trust Is Probably the Hardest Part
Land restoration and equity recovery share another challenge that I did not immediately appreciate.
Both require trust.
When somebody hires me to work on their property, they are trusting me with something that may have been in their family for years. I cannot walk onto that land and assume I know everything about it. I have to listen to the owner, walk the property, understand what they want, and explain what I believe will work.
Equity recovery requires a different kind of trust.
Think about receiving a phone call from somebody you do not know who tells you there may be money you are entitled to claim. I understand why someone would be skeptical. I probably would be too.
That means I cannot expect somebody to trust me simply because I called them.
I have to explain what I found, how the process works, and what my role is. They need the opportunity to ask questions and make their own decision.
I think healthy skepticism is reasonable, especially when property and money are involved.
My Project Management Background Still Shows Up
Before these businesses, I spent years managing projects, including my time as a Senior Project Manager with Air Evac EMS and later working as a defense contractor.
I did not know at the time exactly where those experiences would lead me, but I still use the same basic thinking today.
What is the actual problem? What information am I missing? What could go wrong? What needs to happen first? What does a successful outcome look like?
Those questions work whether I am standing in an overgrown pasture or researching a potential recovery.
I have become less interested in having quick answers and more interested in asking useful questions.
I Like Work Where the Result Means Something
I do not know what businesses I will be involved with ten years from now. Experience has taught me not to pretend I can predict everything that far ahead.
What I do know is the kind of work that keeps my attention.
I like finding problems where there is a practical outcome on the other side.
With land restoration, I can return to a property and see healthier pasture, native plants, or wildlife coming back. With equity recovery, the goal is much different, but it is still tangible. If someone has funds they may legitimately be entitled to and I can successfully help them through that process, there is a clear result.
Neither business is simple. There are projects that do not work out the way I expect, people I cannot help, and situations where the right decision is to walk away.
I think accepting that is part of being in business.
I am not trying to solve every problem I encounter. I am interested in the ones where my experience, curiosity, and willingness to do the work can actually make a difference.
So far, those have been the businesses worth building.