A and C
I have no wish to make smarta**e observations, but I think anyone who is into "business" would immediately observe that you are chasing the wrong market.
Whether this is helpful is another matter; it probably isn't because what other market is there?? If you just rent out planes then you have no control over the customers. But it's worth a look at what somebody else could do, I think.
In almost any business, the spectrum of customers runs from the wonderful to the downright sh***y. So, how does one position oneself close to the nicer end?
All the time one is playing in a market in which most customers care only about price, one will be constantly be serving customers at the latter end. This is true whether it is self fly hire, or washing up liquid. I've been in my own business (hi-tech electronic design & manufacture, industrial market) for 27 years, so this is stuff I do know.
Back to the question about market positioning, the general answer is that the quality of one's customers is determined largely by the perceived quality of one's corporate image. This is a fact; it isn't from some Tom Peters slogan book. It stems from basic psychology: a man who has not washed for 5 years will end up going around with a group of other men who also haven't washed for years. (It also explains who so few women fly, which in turn means that most men with interesting lives choose to do something else; lack of women is death to most leisure activites especially ones that cost serious money).
The question then is whether there are customers in GA who are at the former end and, if so, how does one reach them?
IMV there is no doubt the way to reach such a group is to offer quality aircraft, at a higher price as necessary. I know of a few ventures that tried this and all failed - but they left out the essential ingredient: marketing the product correctly. (Some also tried with brand new Cessnas and such - a complete waste of time doing it with WW2 designed planes) It's no good doing what most schools/clubs do, which is park a few planes at the local airfield and stick an ad in the local paper for trial lessons. Especially if it is a cheap and dirty (or free) local paper predominantly read at the local council estate. Or the advert looks cheap and dirty, which they usually do. Most local papers don't reach a quality customer base anyway.
What's needed is a marketing push aimed at the more affluent pilots, using lifestyle magazines. Pitch flying as something exciting and sporty, perhaps on the aero front more than the touring front but both are essential.
What I don't know is what planes one should have. For aeros (not my field) there appear to be great choices. For going places, well the DA40TDi would be interesting if they can make the engine run further than Compton Abbas.
Additional detail would be what one actually teaches. This is going to be tricky. Obviously one has to somehow grind through the official ex-WW1 CAA syllabus, but that leaves the PPL with insufficient knowledge to go anywhere half interesting, not to mention no instrument options for when the weather is even slightly suspect. What's called for is a modernised PPL course. Nothing stops a business running a CAA-compliant PPL which incorporates the extra stuff but it could not be advertised as a "45 hour" PPL
I doubt whether anything will ever happen. The CAA doesn't appear to have any interest in this, and neither do certain other organisations because turning out pilots who can fly usefully isn't in the interest of the flight training business. Even if it is needed to make a business break out of the mould. A continual decline in GA appears unavoidable but if I won the jackpot I know what project I would have a go at
Any revitalisation of GA needs modern planes and a syllabus to match the high expectations of modern people. The current ICAO/CAA stuff is a relic from decades ago, when flying was a pursuit of exciting adventurous men and when accurate navigation and all the present-day airspace cr*p didn't matter.
This debate has been done to death here in the past, usually ending up with a number of people having a go at me resenting my suggestion that they are "low quality customers" etc.