I don't know if these extracts will help, but I've come across many people in your position and included it in the Helicopter Pilot's Handbook:
You will need much, much more money than you anticipate. Not for nothing is it said that to end up with a small fortune in Aviation, you need to start with a large one! But it needn't be that bad, provided things are done properly from the start.
First of all, if you need to borrow money, you'll need as much slack as you can get to cover cash flow while you're waiting for customers to pay, and emergencies - if you only ask for just enough money, it will be patently obvious you don't know what you're doing and will be shown the door. When running an airline, you will find that major travel agencies can take up to 6 months (or more) to pay their bills, if they pay at all, which will cause major cashflow problems. Once the fuel companies don't give you any more credit, you don't have long to go, because people who owe you money definitely won't pay if they can get away with it.
Also, things only work out cheaper if you can afford to fork out the money from the start. Buying your own bowser, for instance, instead of positioning your helicopter to the local airfield for fuel, will probably cover all that empty flying and unnecessary landing fees inside three months, but you have to have the money in the first place - paying as you go along should be avoided as much as possible, as it will usually kill any project stone dead.
Don't depend purely on loans. In fact, you probably won't get one till the lender sees some input from another source (preferably yours), so you may need to find a Venture Capitalist who would be willing to invest in your project. These sort of people supply money in return for stock (shares in the Company), typically expecting to be free of their obligation in about four years or so with a handsome profit (although they could make a loss). The major benefit to you is that they provide ready cash and stability without your spending power being drained by interest payments. Although a business plan is important, you will find that your personality, or those of others in the plot, will account for at least half of the decision.
Use accountants, by all means (you will need one on board for the business plan), but never, ever let them run your business, unless they've either been there themselves or have gone to business school. The problem is, their training makes them very narrowly focussed, and they often fail to see the big picture. Mind you, pilots running businesses have limitations, too, since they're programmed to fly and don't always realise you can make more money by not flying sometimes.
A business plan is needed to raise capital - it is a brief sketch of your proposals, detailing how you mean to repay the money, together with how things will be run (this includes the management team). Like a resume, it should be short and to the point, somewhere between a quarter and a half inch thick and, if it is well thought-out, need not be too polished, though it should still look neat, tidy and professional.
The magic figure to survive in the small charter world is 500 hours per aircraft per year - that's revenue hours, ten a week, which doesn't include training, etc. Remember, the object of the company is not to fly, but to make a profit so that you can live, or to provide the investor with a return on his capital (not profit necessarily, although sometimes they can coincide). Far too many people forget this, set themselves up with no research, don't market their product, then expect the world to beat a path to their door because they have an aircraft. Even if work does come, more often than not by accident, the same people undercut everybody else around, thinking to put the opposition out of business then put the prices up again. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen like that - they're the ones to go out of business first because they have no cash flow, left with debts, wondering what went wrong. In fact, too many companies operate on cashflow only, and don’t put money by for the future, which is how they can undercut everyone else around. The trouble is that they have to guarantee getting the next work, which means undercutting even more into a vicious circle. There is a lot of revenue in flying helicopters - please don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s all profit and go spending it!
Many aviation companies owe their existence to a larger parent company that bought an aircraft as a way of spending excess money that can't otherwise be used (also known as a tax dodge), but it's not impossible to survive purely on Aviation without assistance from a Big Brother. Whether it is or not depends on competition, how big you expect your Company to be and the availability of work (with no competition, there might not be any!)
Purchasing An Aircraft
Whatever happens, you will have to get your hands on a machine. Expensive stuff like that (while being an asset in itself) will create massive debt which will require servicing, which in turn means interest. Which company will take care of that? If the Aviation Company itself buys the machine then it will have that much more to worry about.
What is more likely is that an outside company will own the aircraft and lease it to your Company, giving the additional benefit of the equipment being one step removed in case of disasters. Outside aviation it's common practice to place all valuable assets into a holding company that trades only with associated ones, thus insulating them from unplanned contingencies (try looking at a Pure Trust). Where Aviation is concerned, it also legally separates the registered owner from the user. The leasing cost to you will be a total of maintenance costs, spares or engine replacement costs, insurance costs plus a bit on top for contingencies (the spares or engine replacement costs are like depreciation, an accountant's way of establishing a fund for future replacement of machinery).
One creative solution is to raise a loan on something else, say, a house, and use that money to buy the aircraft - you will then get lower interest rates and longer terms.
The aircraft doesn't just cost, say two million. It will also cost what you can't do with the money having spent it - what economists call the opportunity cost. In other words, you lose the opportunity to do something else with it, even if only to sit in a bank account and gain interest. Sometimes it's better not to buy outright but to do it on a mortgage and let the interest gained from whatever you do with the rest pay the interest on the mortgage. With a little shopping around for interest rates (abroad as well) this is entirely possible.
Imagine you have the choice of two aircraft - one relatively expensive to buy, but cheap to operate and the other cheap to buy, but expensive to run. Both do the job you want - well, near enough, anyway. The difference in purchase price between the two may well, if placed on deposit somewhere, more than pay for the increased running costs if you buy the cheaper one. However, this may be low on the list of priorities, as often the purchasing of an aircraft will tend to be a personal decision on behalf of the Chairman.
So, when evaluating an aircraft, first establish what you want it to do - in many cases, a simpler, cheaper aircraft will suit. For example, if you want a helicopter for corporate transport, use a 206B-III, but for training or pleasure flying, a 206A would not only be cheaper, but more efficient, as its C18 engine is not cycle-limited.
Like with a car, look beneath the shiny paint. There's nothing wrong with sprucing something up for sale, but make a thorough examination anyway. Do not do what one buyer of my acquaintance did - took a helicopter away to lunch, leaving the engineer that he'd taken along (at great expense) alone to look at the books which were written in German! Yes, he bought the wrong aircraft; and deserved it! It sure looked nice, though. Take time to talk to pilots and engineers who actually work with the type of machine you're after - you may find that what you're looking at is OK until the turbocharger goes, which then takes at least three days to repair because it's hidden behind the engine which has to come out completely. On the other hand, another ship could have similar work done in less than half a day and doesn't go wrong in the first place because the turbocharger is not in such a stupid place. Similarly, a particular helicopter could be cheaper to run on paper, but its shorter range on full tanks means that you're paying out for landing fees and dead flying more often, thereby bringing the total operating cost nearly equal to something more comfortable with more endurance (accountants don’t often see the big picture).
You need to check the data for rotor or engine Times Between Overhaul (TBO), the Mean Times Between Failures (MTBF) on avionics equipment, amongst other things. Certainly, buy from a company that can provide support, particularly an engineering-based one, and have an independent survey by a competent engineer.
Aircraft Valuation
Actually, when it was built is largely irrelevant; what counts is the time remaining on its components, since they must all be inspected and replaced at specified times. Equally important is documentation supporting it - it can take longer to verify paperwork than physically survey the aircraft. In this respect, be especially careful when buying from the USA. There are many apparently "cheap" aircraft available, mostly confiscated from smugglers or drug dealers - with no acceptable documentation, their only value is scrap. Also, the regulations for privately owned or agricultural aircraft are less stringent than in Europe, and you may need expensive engineering and/or major components replaced before they will get a C of A. So:
There is no such thing as a cheap helicopter!
Which applies to maintenance as well; if you save money one year, expect to spend it the next. Remember that as well as shipping charges, you may have local taxes and costs of dismantling, packing and erecting when you get it to wherever you are. Shipping is normally All Charges Forward and you will cover insurance.
Depreciation
Because inspection, overhaul and replacement can ensure that a 10-year old aircraft can be as efficient as a new machine, you can't apply this in the same way as a car, or other industrial machinery. However, accountants like it, and it's useful for calculating operating costs, so take the purchase price and give it a one-third residual value, then write down the difference over 10 years. Market prices, though, may vary this. If you have a new engine, or something equally expensive, the machine's value could exceed the new cost.