Marketing and Self-Promotion

SkiHigh2002

SkiHigh2002

New Member
To the more experienced CFI's out there...

I have been at this for almost a year now and I still haven't found my nitch as far as recruiting new students and building my business. The students I have now I either acquired from other instructors or just by dumb luck I happened to answer the phone or be standing downstairs in the flight school when they came in. I've placed several ads in local newspapers as well as Craigslist and I have gotten several discovery flights but no new students. I need to find the people who not only have the desire to fly but the MONEY to do it.

I work out of Smyrna (MQY) airport which is just southeast of Nashville (BNA). To those of you familiar with the Nashville area we have a TON of money in neighboring Williamson County (country music folks, Titans players, general rich dudes). I don't know of a way to tap into that market.

Any ideas?

Now, the obvious answer is sit out at the flight school all the time and pray that someone calls or walks through the door. The problem I have with that is that when I'm not working I'm not making money. I have to make money to survive on and pay my bills so I simply cannot afford to sit at the flight school for hours on end and not make any money.

Help! :)
 
I can't really help much, but I can make a suggestion.

Never pass up an opportunity to get a student. For example, the other day I went to a restaurant while still in uniform after leaving the flight school. (I knew it was a pretty tacky thing to do, but I was with a bunch of guys, so I couldn't go home to change.) Anyway, the waiteress come up and ask's if we're all pilots. We all say yes (and only half of us were lying), and she mentioned she'd always wanted to fly.

That's your student, right there.

So go and buy yourself a uniform, if you don't already have one, and start posing. :D
 
NickH said:
So go and buy yourself a uniform, if you don't already have one, and start posing. :D
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:laff:
That made my day.

You aren't making money without students either. So go sit at the flight school all day and answer every phone, greet everybody that comes in the door. Consider it an investment in your future.
 
desertdog71 said:
:laff:
That made my day.

You aren't making money without students either. So go sit at the flight school all day and answer every phone, greet everybody that comes in the door. Consider it an investment in your future.
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That sounds great, but as I stated earlier its simply not an option. I cannot afford to not be working right now. With gas, insurance, and rent I have to work.
 
Build yourself a website. Microsoft will give you free domain name email etc.
www.officelive.com or use google tool and just buy the domain name at godaddy.com($10 per year).
Call local Civil Air Patrol and ask if you can attend a meeting. You don't have to join but will be introduced to many pilots who can refer people to you. Take business cards (you do have some don't you?)
Visit all the hangars at the airport. Network, network, network.
When you get a student, tell them they wont get signed off until they bring you a replacement.:)

My experience is that it takes a couple of months for word to get out.
Good Luck
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
That sounds great, but as I stated earlier its simply not an option. I cannot afford to not be working right now. With gas, insurance, and rent I have to work.
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You can't afford not to either. Its a catch 22, either actively market yourself and it will take work on your part with little to no immediate return. In the long run however you will have more students than you can handle.

Run an ad on ebay. Make some flyers etc.
 
A huge part of sales and marketing in any industry is networking.

Think about your ideal student - age, income, etc. Then involve yourself in those things. Do you play golf? It's a great way to meet folks with money and hand out a business card. If you get a couple of prospective students out of it you can potentially write off the round as a promotional expense. Just casually hand them your card - let them read you're a CFI, unless they specifically ask what you do.

Advertise in the local high school papers. They are desperate for ad revenue, and circulate not only to students, but to their parents as well. They've got deep pockets. Oh, and the ad cost? Deductible.

Belong to a church or any community organizations? Meet people there.

Finally - and this may have limited utility to you, but think about some other businesses who may cater to the same people you do who are also looking for students - like golf pros, car dealers, insurance people, etc. Trade leads with these guys - build networking groups. Get a student who mentions he needs to buy a new car, and you send him to your car guy. And then he can get a favorable reference from an insurance guy on top of that.

Find out if there's someone who writes aviation policies locally - work out a reference arrangement with him. See how this can work?

Get your name out as a personable, likeable guy who's a flight instructor. You'll cull a few regular students out of a score of discovery flights.

These are a few ideas off the top of my head. Good luck.
 
desertdog71 said:
You can't afford not to either. Its a catch 22, either actively market yourself and it will take work on your part with little to no immediate return. In the long run however you will have more students than you can handle.

Run an ad on ebay. Make some flyers etc.
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Totally agree........those first few weeks or a month are tough sitting at the school all day, maybe entire days at a time without getting paid. However, that means you're always the one around when someone comes in the door or calls. After a short time, you've grabbed all the students who've come around, and you're busier than you know what to do with yourself! Then the trick is, be the best instructor you can and personable, so those people recommend you to friends of theirs, and it's almost self-sustaining from that point on. I did just this initially (and yes, there were some lean times initially), and once I'd built up a pretty good base of students, most of my new students came from referrals.

Other than that, buy yourself a copy of "The Savvy Flight Instructor". You'll probably have to order it from Barnes and Noble, but it's worth it. The book deals more with the business side of being a CFI, and has a lot of good tips for finding students and advertising, etc.

Good luck! It's tough, but I was able to actually make a living wage (albeit, not a fancy lifestyle) while I was CFI'ing, you will too with enough hard work.
 
This may sound cheesy but you might want to work out a marketing plan for yourself. You are selling a service and presentation is everything. If you have the personality and can talk you should have no problem meeting potential students and getting them in. Here are a few things I put into marketing plans at my job(non-aviation) that have worked out well for me.
A typical marketing plan would consist of the who,what,where and how followed by your objectives,strategy and action. You already know what the objective is now look for a strategy that will work well for you and execute it. General aviation is a small market and trying to sell a potential student on an expesive service is even tougher but it can be done if you find your method.
Strategy to Action- Create a demographic (Smyrna/Nashville arena) Build a website with your qualifications and a bio how you got started ect. Get business cards made up. Dont be affraid to make fliers and create a mailing list. Hit up local places that might have bulletin boards where you can post up a flier. Hit up the local community college/university or library. They always have advertising boards. Keep this in mind also coming from a student pilot. The student wants a professional and a friend. DONT BE A ROBOT.

There are a ton of strategys you can create just find one that fits your personality. Good luck :)
 
The ones with the money and desire to become pilots? Go to the local PRIVATE SCHOOLS and see if the headmasters (principles) will allow you to give a presentation to the student body about aviaiton. Dress and act the part of the pilot. There are bound to be several 16, 17, 18 year olds about to finish their year in a couple months who would like to spend the summer getting their PPLs. Most importantly, the parents backing up the kids just might get interested in taking some flight training too....and presto...you are dialed into the more affluent circles. The parents are usually professionals - doctors, lawyers, and dentists. While you're at it, go to the hospitals, dental clinics, lawyers' offices, meet the professionals and give them your card. Dress and act the part of the professional pilot and you'll be sure to get a few clients. Image is KEY with these guys.
Good luck,
DDMow
PS If it doesn't work out, and you're convinced you've given it your best over the last year then perhaps you should consider working at an academy where they can't get instructors fast enough. FlightSafety and PanAm are both hurting for CFIs. So is International Flight Training Academy (www.ifta.aero). There's a thread about it in the job section called "Desperately Seeking CFI's". IFTA puts you on a salary of $30Gs 1st year and $40Gs the 2nd. Full benefits.
 
As some of the previous posts have mentioned, networking is a large part of it. Being at the school can help. There is no immediate financial gain by staying at the school waiting for a student, but if youre not there then that student cant be picked up. capiche?

here's also what worked well for me. Ask to go through the schools database of students. Anyone who hasnt flown in 3 months needs a call from you. at least this way you can be productive while youre at the school.
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
That sounds great, but as I stated earlier its simply not an option. I cannot afford to not be working right now. With gas, insurance, and rent I have to work.
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I totally agree with you man! I'm 22 myself and it has been an absolute uphill battle with rent, gas and insurance. It's tough not knowing how your going to pay your bills week to week. That's why I do this part-time now.
 
Well what I did was keep a second job in the evening. Basically I worked at Office Depot. I met a ton of people that said they would help me out, even a senator gave me his card and told me to send him my resume. Everyone is interested just ask them do they fly alot? That's my starting phrase.
 
SkiHigh2002 said:
That sounds great, but as I stated earlier its simply not an option. I cannot afford to not be working right now. With gas, insurance, and rent I have to work.
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As others have said - you can't afford not to sit at the airport. That's how the majority of instructors and students find each other. Here's the dirty little secret, marketing to the kind of targetted niche you need to find is very hard, very precise, very expensive and not worth the effort (because the return on investment is horrible).

By all means get a Web page, by all means make up some "flyers" and post them around, but they'll do you very little good (believe me, been there, done that). With the exception of a few career instructors who have spent a LONG time carving out a specific niche for themselves, most instructors don't spend the time as an instructor to build up the kind of reputation that has students seek them out.

People who are serious about wanting to learn to fly will find the airport and the FBO and the instructors. Anybody you have to "entice" into the airport with the promise of a Discovery Flight isn't serious, doesn't have the money or the commitment to actually become a student. The people who want to fly and can afford it are a very small percentage of the population and they will self-select into your FBO based on location and very little else. If you want to become those people's instructors then you must be at the FBO when those people walk-in or call.
 
You don't have to sit at the airport the whole time if you have people around that will refer you the business. Cultivate those people.
Follow up leads. Set times to meet, sign up students to AOPA, anything to keep them motivated. People that can afford it are generally busy, so defining when they return will help.
Call people that you haven't flown with in 2 weeks.
Do you teach a ground school? It can be an easy way to get people that are interested into aviation without a massive financial commitment on their part. Plus no one really wants to teach ground so other instructors will recommend you and it makes you very good at explaining things. Many adult education facilities will help you market a ground school (or hit up the FBO owner, it will help his business too)
 
Present a WINGS safety seminar. The safety officer at your local FSDO can help, the Air Safety Foundation will send you free material and you will get lots of publicity from the FAA. Many older pilots use the WINGS program instead of a Flight Review and will use you to do the 3 hr flight portion.
There are lots of ways to get the flight time, you just have to work a bit.
 
I agree with waiting around at the airport, but some of us need to pay mortgages and can't afford to wait around 6 days a week like a 22 year old fresh outta UND living back at his/her parents' house. Therefore, we must find a balance between spending time at the field at the "targeted marketing" as mentioned earlier and maybe working a second job.

After meeting anyone for the first time, ALWAYS promptly hand over your business card after you've shaken their hand. List the normal info on front, and put a copy of a flight plan on the back. Kinko's can pump it out in an hour. Print it on heavy paper, and they'll be FORCED to carry it with them, as we always lose those dang flight plan sheets.

It might sound cheesy, but there's this great video AOPA put out about recruiting students. Basically it says that you have to sell the idea of "challenge and adventure" when you're talking to potential students. If you're an AOPA member the link is: http://flighttraining.aopa.org/cfi_tools/

The only other thing I've done to snag students (over other CFIs in my position) is to tell potential students that I am accessible 24 hours a day and am free to answer questions over email or by phone (no ground charged...within reason). Many CFIs treat the job like a 9-5 job and could care less about students after they've gone home. But the offer of accessibility makes the student feel more valued.
 
gredenko said:
The only other thing I've done to snag students (over other CFIs in my position) is to tell potential students that I am accessible 24 hours a day and am free to answer questions over email or by phone (no ground charged...within reason). Many CFIs treat the job like a 9-5 job and could care less about students after they've gone home. But the offer of accessibility makes the student feel more valued.
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:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Unless one is a very well-established, highly experienced CFI with a large student base (in other words, busy enough that they can afford to turn away business), CFIing is not a 9 to 5 job. It just doesn't work that way.

When I was CFIing full time, that was a huge key to my success...I took Saturdays off, but otherwise I made sure people knew I could fly whenever they wanted. Usually the late morning and early afternoon time slots were slow, but from late afternoon until about 9 or 10 p.m. I was booked every day. I had a lot of the "fly after work" crowd. It got to the point that I once had to fly a cross country with an instrument student from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning because there was nowhere else we could match up our schedules.

Coincidentally, that instrument student is now a busy CFI himself and flies at all hours of the day and night. He was just telling me a few days ago about how he's picked up some students from another instructor because that CFI is very much a "9-5" kind of guy, yet this other CFI's students want to fly after hours and on the weekends--so they come to my buddy looking for extra lessons.

If you limit your schedule, you can manage 50-60 hours/month usually. If you make yourself completely available, you could probably double that and fly 100-120 hours/month at a busy school.
 
jrh said:
:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Unless one is a very well-established, highly experienced CFI with a large student base (in other words, busy enough that they can afford to turn away business), CFIing is not a 9 to 5 job. It just doesn't work that way.

When I was CFIing full time, that was a huge key to my success...I took Saturdays off, but otherwise I made sure people knew I could fly whenever they wanted. Usually the late morning and early afternoon time slots were slow, but from late afternoon until about 9 or 10 p.m. I was booked every day. I had a lot of the "fly after work" crowd. It got to the point that I once had to fly a cross country with an instrument student from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning because there was nowhere else we could match up our schedules.

Coincidentally, that instrument student is now a busy CFI himself and flies at all hours of the day and night. He was just telling me a few days ago about how he's picked up some students from another instructor because that CFI is very much a "9-5" kind of guy, yet this other CFI's students want to fly after hours and on the weekends--so they come to my buddy looking for extra lessons.

If you limit your schedule, you can manage 50-60 hours/month usually. If you make yourself completely available, you could probably double that and fly 100-120 hours/month at a busy school.
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i tell all my students what you just posted there, it helps a bit, but i don't have many students at the FBO i work for. at UND i have 5 students, but i want more at the FBO since it pays more. too bad my area of the country sucks for students unless they are affiliated with the college, and if so they have no desire to fly at an FBO
 
build a website. mine is www.fly-oregon.com. it's far from pretty but it has gotten me so many students almost all the inquirys i simply hand them off to the other CFIs at my school. Try to get it linked to the search engines and put it on your business cards.
 
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