Swing, located in Fairburn, is a Black-owned and operated miniature golf course and food truck experience.
Swing officially opened June 2023 and became the only Black-owned outdoor mini golf course and food truck experience in Georgia. Swing features an 18-hole mini golf course with a natural-rock waterfall and stream as well as a fun outdoor eating area.
There are four owners of Swing; Nekeidra Taylor, her husband Richard Taylor, Jonathan Phillips, and Masika George. The ownership team are neighbors, and brainstormed the idea together one afternoon.
“We live in Princeton Lakes and during Covid, the guys were working out together. They would ask each other about different ideas and one day it was kind of like, ‘let’s do a food truck park’,” Nekeidra Taylor said.
The idea behind Swing was originally only a food truck park, however, Taylor said the conversation turned into wanting to add something to help sustain the business.
“When food trucks go away, we still want to be able to have something. In 2021, we started looking for places and came upon this place and we liked it,” she said.
Taylor also said the reason, at least for her and her husband, for wanting to open Swing was because they have younger kids and there’s not a lot for them to do as a family.
“Our business partners have older children, and our kids are 8, 10, and 12,” she said. “One of the things that’s unfortunate is there’s not a lot of things for us to do and we always would have to drive to the north side, to Buckhead or Norcross, and we decided if someone is not interested in you having a seat at the table, then you make your own table.”
Appreciating success
As Swing approaches a year of being in business, Taylor said it’s hard sometimes to acknowledge what the four of them accomplished.
“When you say it, it’s like ‘oh okay’, but when you’re in it every day, you probably don’t even recognize what you’re doing because you’re in it,” she said. “Sometimes I think because we’re so close to it, we don’t recognize what we have done, and when we sit back and take a moment to say, ‘wait a second, like we actually own a miniature golf course and we’re black, not a lot of people can say that.”
Taylor said it’s a good feeling to be almost a year in and to have reached their primary goals with opening Swing.
“We must take a step back as the owners to recognize that because we will have people walk up and they’re like, “thank you so much for bringing this because we didn’t have anything’ and that’s everyone, not just people who look like me,” she said.
Alongside co-owning Swing, Taylor has been running her own Public Relations firm called Niki Taylor PR for 25 years, which has aided her in Swing.
“The good thing is with my background; it helps with things like this and trying to get people interested. My background is communications so that’s my piece of the puzzle and what I bring to the group,” she said. “We all have our own individual areas of expertise.”
Additionally, Taylor said the community has been welcoming since opening. She also said everyone who comes to Swing says they are glad there’s something on the south side because there’s relatively nothing to do between Camp Creek and Newnan.
“We’ve had people come up from Newnan, Palmetto, Sharpsburg, Peachtree City and Peachtree Corners because it’s a golf community already. People have come and asked if we’re going to do golf simulators because there’s a course right up the street,” she said.
The community, Taylor said, has been welcoming since opening Swing, especially when they find out it’s black-owned.
“It’s been a great experience, just learning different things,” she said. “My husband and I had a barbershop before this in East Point, and this is a whole different animal. One is a lot more responsibility because you own land, but it’s been good owning a business, operating it, and being here all the time. There are ups and downs, but you just try to work through them and get past them.”
Swing ATL and beyond
As far as 2024 plans for Swing, Taylor said they will be adding phase two, which includes ax throwing and a bar.
“We are hoping to expand the back area where the umbrellas and furniture are and that’s probably going to happen over the course of the next 60 to 90 days. We just got approval for our liquor license,” she said.
Taylor said hopefully those will be done by early mid-summer. Phase three will probably start around 2025 or 2026, which will include expanding the miniature golf course and possibly a zip line and go karts.
For advice to future business owners, Taylor said have a plan.
“When you do have a plan, think about it from the standpoint of like one, two, three, or five years and really think stuff through because it’s really hard to operate in a business and own one,” she said.
She also said future business owners should be mindful of the stuff that could come up unexpectedly.
“Just jot it down so that when it comes, you’re prepared. Obviously, there are things that happen that you just cannot prepare for, but it’s always good to have backup plans,” she said.
Additionally, Taylor said if you’re going into business with partners, make sure you know your partners and know if they have similar mindsets as you.
“Everybody needs to start on the same playing field because you don’t want to have any internal things where you’re fighting over things that you just don’t have the time to, because you have to keep moving. You got to open the doors, you got to keep the lights on. You got to keep the people happy,” she said.
Furthermore, Taylor tells future business owners if you must invest into the business,
“What happens sometimes is we don’t recognize it’s better to spend the money now than have to double it later, because you didn’t put it in the beginning and now, you’re backtracking. It’s hard and this is where I think the struggle comes with black-owned businesses. Sometimes we don’t recognize that,” she said.
For more information, visit https://www.swingatlanta.com.