Building business?

ProtegePilot

ProtegePilot

Bid Avoids driving the Deuce
What are some strategies you fellows use to build clientele and business? I have had a bad stroke of luck lately with getting canned from a 141 school last month and then breaking my collarbone a few weeks later, effectively grounding me for a couple months at least. I've thought about getting some business cards made, and I can still teach ground lessons under 61, but other than that I am at a loss. How do you guys advertise? what steps do you take to obtaining a plane for instruction if you don't have your own? What insurance should I be looking at? So many questions...:ooh:
 
Good luck going forward. I started at a small FBO but left them for a non aviation job to better pay the bills. When I went back to instructing, I bought a plane. You don't need to spend a fortune though.

As for advertising, list on all of the organization websites (AOPA, EAA) and if possible, get a website. I advertised in a paper twice and will not do it again. First time was a ground school Adan's you wouldn't believe the questions I got. People wanted to know if they could qualify for govt money to take the class. I even had people calling asking what pilot ground school was because they needed to take a class to keep getting a check.

Second ad was in a military paper and I go no responses at all from it. Ad ran bi-weekly for 6 months.
 
Not sure where you live but look into teaching a PPL ground school at the local community college. I once created my own job by going to talk to a class. I didn't even teach it, I just went in and made a proposal for flight training and talked about how to move forward with the PPL. I got three or four students out of that class of six.

As far as finding a plane to use, if you can bring students into the picture, a school would be stupid not to "hire" you. Also, you might approach someone with a Cherokee 140 or a 150 that would like to rent you their plane. Their insurance will go way up and 100 hour inspections, but it might be a good deal for the right person. If you came to me with students and wanted to set something up with my Cherokee 180, I'd at least look at the numbers and consider it. Might be the dumbest thing I ever did, but it wouldn't be the first time.

By the way, I've known a couple of career free-lance CFI's that did okay for themselves. There was the guy at Renton that worked his way up to affording a Travel Air and I heard he went to the airlines. Then there was the other guy who worked his way up to having his own flying club at Paine, things didn't go well, and he faked his own death in a night ditching. He got caught, though.
 
My longer answer...

At a minimum you'll want non-owned CFI insurance, probably with at least some minimal hull damage coverage to take care of an "oops" moment. Budget around $250-500 annually for this, depending upon the coverage you want. This covers you when you instruct in airplanes you dont own. The best coverage I've found is from Avemco through NAFI. This covers you but leaves the aircraft owner exposed to liability issues.

A limited, CFI-owned insurance policy will cover about 4 students at a time for around $2,000-$2,500 annually for a basic low-end Cessna/Cherokee. If you have more than a handful of active students, figure on paying $3,000-4,000 annually for a regular instruction/rental insurance on the same airplane. If you're clearing $30-50/hour above fuel, oil, maintenance, and reserves on the aircraft, realize that's about 60-100 hours per year of rental just to pay the insurance man.

You could try the route of having the students all buy renters insurance (not a bad idea anyway since the above policies will generally subrogate [pay you and then sue a student if they break the plane])... but realize that isn't giving you or the airplane owner any liability protection so it might be pretty stupid depending on circumstances, and the majority of the above insurance expenses are on the liability side, not the hull coverage side.

Basically, whether you own or lease a plane for instruction purposes, you need to fly it a lot and keep up on maintenance to be successful. Have a good cash reserve and sell sell sell.

Hope that helps.
 
Good advice, thanks people. I bough the kindle edition of that ASA Savvy CFI book, I'm going to read it and see what other tips I can use. I definitely am going to get some business cards, and I'll look into starting a website sometime next week. I tried earlier posting my listing on the AOPA website but they seem to have technical difficulties, apparently. If nothing else I'm going to try applying for another job at a flight school once I get proper healed (and possibly current/multi-rated)...
 
Why stop at epaulettes?

image.jpg
 
ProtegePilot said:
not really, but I can learn and have a few friends that know how to code
Click to expand...

Steer clear from those cheap website builders, like the cheap one at godaddy. Get a real web hosting account, use Wordpress, it's easy to use for a beginner. Even better, try to get your friends to do it for you. Advertise on Bing/Yahoo and google. It doesn't cost that much. If you get a site going, PM me. I have a software program that analyzes websites for search engine optimization. (Organic SEO). Keep networking and never leave the house without business cards.

A couple questions...

Do you live in a training rich environment? Florida, Texas?
Or do you live out in the stix with airplanes and FBO's few and far between?

The reason I ask is, if you want a web/internet presence, picking the proper domain name can be really important. Answer here or PM me if you can. Good Luck
 
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