The Aviation Business Is Still A Business

By David Juwel

Hello, my name is David Juwel, and I have been involved in aviation for over 50 years. Like most people, my aviation activities were primarily conducted as a hobby, with occasional business flights mixed in. The business part of my life has always been spent in some form of management or sales outside of the field of aviation.  One day I decided that I had more than paid my dues, and that it was time for aviation to return some of the money that I had invested in it. So I started looking around for a business opportunity in the field of aviation.

As I was researching the various opportunities, I started noticing a number of discrepancies in the way many small aviation businesses were operated. A lot of them seemed to be making money in spite of themselves (Boy, do I have some stories to tell...).

At first I couldn’t understand why? But then as I got more and more involved with a number of different companies, I realized what the problem was. Many of the people were in the business of aviation, but not in the business of business. What I mean is, they were usually highly skilled and experienced in some area of aviation – but they had minimal skill and experience as a businessperson. They were having a great time, and they were excellent aviators, but the money they were making was far below the real potential of their skill, product or service. The more insidious aspect of this problem had even deeper roots. Some of these people were so smug in their aviation expertise, they couldn’t even conceive of the fact that there were other areas of their business that needed improvement. Because they were making a profit, they presumed that everything was going as well as it could. I was utterly shocked to see small aviation companies satisfied with such small amounts of revenue, when they had the potential for so much more. And the potential for success is everywhere. When I was researching the aviation industry for opportunity, I found so much of it, that I now believe that anybody can get into the business and make money at it. Aviation has such a mystique and magnetism to it, that it almost allows you to gain business automatically. 

Since I had a strong background in management and sales, as well as aviation, I decided to focus on aviation management strategies. My first step was to analyze all of the mistakes that I had observed among aviation businesses over the years, and solve them in theory, by applying the various successful business and marketing strategies that I had learned over the past 30 years.

But I needed to test my strategies before writing about them, and I wasn’t interested in just testing them with someone who already had an aviation business. I wanted to start out with someone who had never been in aviation; someone with no experience or expertise. If I could succeed in helping them to become successful in the field of aviation, I knew my strategies would work with anyone. And those who already had aviation experience would be just that much further ahead. I discovered a couple of men that had a desire to enter the field of aviation, but they had no experience in aviation, and limited experience in business. In fact, they had never even flown in a small airplane before. All they had was a dream and some innovative ideas for an aviation product. And, like a lot of people in the aviation field...they had great technical skills. Their lack of training and experience in the field of aviation made them perfect candidates for my aviation business success strategies.

We agreed to team up and I spent a year helping them develop a profitable aviation business. I put them on a fast track to success. In that period of time we developed a solid track that would have sold nearly $200,000 of their product line. We did that by developing a customer base in 48 states and 10 foreign countries. We were published 20 different times in nine different US magazines and several foreign magazines. We were listed in 8 different kit built directories. We had people from all over the United States and different parts of the world calling us almost daily.  Over 600 people contacted us. We sold over 200 information kits and received commitments for several of the kit aircraft. We even started delivery of the kits. And we accomplished all of that in the space of a year with a minimal amount of expense.

If they had continued to follow my advice, I believe their sales would have surpassed $1,000,000 in the middle of their third year. But, unfortunately, they didn’t like the hard work and they sold their company for a quick profit instead.

So when I say that anyone can earn at least $150,000 in the field of aviation, I really feel like I’m being conservative. $150,000 is not a lot of income for a businessperson to generate. But I started with the low figure of $150,000 because it’s an obtainable goal for a person who’s just starting out. It breaks down to less than $2900.00 a week.

If you work as an employee for someone, that weekly figure may seem awful high to you. The reason it may seem high to you is because average employee in the United States barely makes that much in a month. But it’s a low-income figure for the average successful small business. A typical aviation business can easily earn over $150,000 every year; and many of the top aviation businesses earn well over $5,000,000 a year. Is this you? Have you started your own aviation business yet? If not, it's probably because you’re not aware of the tremendous opportunities that are available in the aviation industry today.

Maybe you already have an aviation business. Is it bringing in at least $150,000 every year? If not, it's probably because you’re not structured and operating in a manner that acts as a magnet for this type of income and more

If you are in either category and you are not making at least $150,000 a year, it might be because you're not taking advantage of the wealth of opportunities that abound in the field of aviation. Aviation is not a get rich quick industry. It is an industry where you can get rich gradually, consistently, doing what you want to do, while being paid for flying. And anyone can do it. There are even numerous opportunities for the non–flyer. If you like the field of aviation, but don’t want to be a pilot, or own an airplane – the various opportunities in the aviation support areas are perfect for you.

Aviation is a big field of business!

There are over 700 aviation associations in the world. There are over 500 different aviation publications being marketed throughout the world. There are over 300 air shows performed in the United States alone, and the larger air shows have greater attendance than almost any other public event held in the U.S. (300,000+ people in a two–day event). The two largest fly-in’s draw more than 700,000 people in a week’s time. There are over 10,000 businesses in the United States who earn money in the aviation field. There are over 1,000,000 aircraft owners in the United States and Canada alone. And based on the potential for success that’s available in the field of aviation, there is a lot of room left for new comers

If You Haven't Started Yet
We all know that the best jobs in the world are those jobs where you get paid for doing what you enjoy doing most. But few people are able to accomplish this. The average person spends their week slaving away at some mundane job, while continuously looking forward to the weekend when they'll have the opportunity to do the things they really enjoy in life.  If you are like the typical aviator, you are a person who really enjoys aviation, but you wish that you could find some way to reverse the cash flow. One of your dreams in life is to find some way to turn your love for aviation into a profit making adventure. Well... your time has arrived. There are an unlimited number of ways to extract money from aviation (I have a personal list of over 1000 ways to make money in the field of aviation). If you love flying, and you're one of the hundreds of thousands that are cash poor because of it - its because you haven't taken the time to analyze your skills and match them up with the hundreds of opportunities to reverse that cash flow.  Contrary to popular opinion, the flow of money in aviation doesn’t have to be one way! You don’t have to be rich to get started either!  There are numerous ways to make a profit in aviation, and many of them can be started for less than $5,000. You can even bootstrap your way into an aviation business...it just takes longer to make a large profit doing it that way.

Perhaps You Have Already Started An Aviation Business, But You’re Not Bringing In $150,000 a Year
If you already have an aviation business and you're not making at least $150,000 a year, it may be because you haven't worked out a business plan with a $150,000 income goal. If you want to make at least $150,000 every year, you need to put together a business plan and then work it.

I have not met a single individual in my life that doesn’t want to earn more money. But it’s difficult to find an individual who can show me just exactly how they’re going to do it. You would be surprised at how many small businesses I interact with that have never made up any type of plan. The owner operates off of a mental plan, which is usually more of a mental hope. Don't let this happen to you. The old adage still applies, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” A good business plan doesn’t just tell you what needs to be done. A good business plan will be combined with a marketing and operations plan that outlines exactly what steps to take to accomplish the primary goals of the business plan. I once wrote a business plan for an aviation business that is over 280 pages in length. Why so long? Because it was designed to take the owners by the hand and walk them through, step–by–step, to success. Does your plan do that?

And limiting your plan to $150,000 isn’t mandatory. The $150,000 is just a low figure designed to be an achievable goal that you can start out with. Once you’ve obtained that goal, it’s just a matter of upgrading the plan to the next achievable level, i.e., $150,000 gross income to $150,000 net income.

Do You Know What Your Potential Customers Want To Achieve
When you become a business owner, you're in the achievement communication business. Your job is to find out what your customers want to achieve, and when they want to achieve it. And then you must communicate to them why you’re the best solution to help them achieve it. I constantly read ads in the aviation industry that advertise the individual, their technical expertise, their product, or their service. Your potential customers are not interested in any of this. When you go to your banker with the symptoms of financial failure, you’re not interested in anything about that banker – you’re only interested in whether they can meet your financial needs! You don’t ask them what school they went to, or how many people they’ve financed, or what type of financial accounting they’re using. You just want your problem solved! Your potential customers are the same way. They’re not looking to promote your success – they’re only looking for someone to help them promote their own success.

The only thing that will convince your customers to spend money with you is the expectation of results! Your job, therefore, is not to sell yourself, your technical expertise, your product, or your service. Your job is to be a conduit for the success of your customer, and you have to convince them that the benefit they are going to receive is more important than the money they are going to spend to achieve that benefit. Do you know how to do that? If not, perhaps we can help with that in a future article. Just let us know about your interest.

Do You Know How To Reach Those Potential Customers
You need to market smart instead of hard. The best way to do that is to identify who needs or can use your product or services. Then you identify those who can afford it. Then you need to develop a plan for reaching out to them and drawing them in. Do you know how to do this research? If not, perhaps we can help with that in a future article. Just let us know about your interest.

Do You Conduct Focused Marketing Every Day
It has commonly been said that a new company should spend 80 percent of its time on marketing and 20 percent of its time on its purpose. When it gets bigger, then it should spend 80 percent of its time on its purpose and only 20 percent of its time on marketing.
I can’t stand this kind of pseudo-management! Why quit or severely reduce doing something that was making you successful? There is only one reason why you should ever reduce your emphasis on marketing, and that’s because your outflow isn’t capable of keeping up with your inflow. Since this is just a temporary growth problem looking for a solution, it shouldn’t result in a permanent reduction in sales activity.  Marketing is something you do every day, like brushing your teeth (you do brush your teeth don’t you?). Many aviation business people are so enthused with their technical expertise, and get so caught up in the work they're doing, they either stop or forget to market. Don't let this happen to you! Just how much marketing should you do? The answer is obvious…as much as it takes to realize your income goals. If you’re not sure how to determine this for your business, perhaps we can help with that in a future article. Just let us know about your interest.

The Bottom Line
If you're not doing some of the things we’ve just talked about, you're not going to achieve an annual income of at least $150,000...much less make progress towards the middle to high six-figure incomes that many top small aviation businesses get these days. You need to take immediate advantage of all the aviation business management information we have available for you. Just let us know about your interest.

Knowledge is one of the keys to accomplishing everything you desire. It takes a balance of knowledge and experience in many different areas in order to succeed in an aviation related business. First you need aviation knowledge in the area you’re going to specialize in. Then you need to combine that with basic business management knowledge. And finally, you need to have a certain amount of aviation management knowledge. I know an individual that has acquired three different aviation dealerships in his life…and failed with every one of them. He keeps attributing his failures to problems with the manufacturer, but my analysis of the situation as he described it to me, indicates that he lacked a good deal of the preceding knowledge and experience.

The overwhelming need for this mass of knowledge and experience is what keeps a lot of people from realizing their dream of one day making money in the field of
aviation.  If you are like most people who enjoy flying, you spent your life becoming an expert in a different field of endeavor, and your flying is avocational in nature. Your spare time is critical to you. You and your family probably look forward to spending it on things and activities that give you relief from the pressures that you sustain during the week.  You certainly don't have any desire to spend your spare time studying aviation business management. But that is exactly what it will take to successfully turn your flying hobby or avocation into a thriving business.

But there’s another problem. You can look through scores of books and manuals on business management, and you can read scores of books and manuals on aviation topics, but few of them contain any information about general, experimental, or sport aviation business management! There just isn’t any place where the budding aviation entrepreneur, or the small aviation business manager can go for advice in this area (without having to attend college). The few aviation associations that offer aviation management training, all offer it along the lines of major business or commercial airline management. Wouldn't it be great if there were someone that could help you solve that problem? Somebody with a creative mind, excellent marketing skills, and a sound business management background. Somebody who is very knowledgeable in the broad field of aviation. Somebody who can offer you quality business development, management and marketing information in a condensed format.  ANN has access to qualified people that can write exactly along those topic lines. Just let us know that you’re interested.

Why Is All This Important
Because developing more aviation businesses that achieve success, helps to rebuild our General Aviation infrastructure. And we really need to do that if we’re going to survive as an industry. So we want to encourage people to develop their own aviation business, and we want to give them good advice that will help them make their business more profitable. After all, one of the best way’s to enjoy aviation is to make a profit at it. Right?

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