Come on IO540.
Actually there is: a well above average % of aviation businesses are dodgy. The business seems to attract all kinds of characters. You find them running schools, maintenance companies, you name it.
Is this another case of "what I personally perceive is what the world is" syndrome?
For example. What IS the "avereage % of dodgy businesses" that you are referncing? And what is the percentage of aviation businesses that are dodgy? Have you normalised these statistics by region, sector, age of business, turnover, etc, etc? Have you also refernced credit reports and normalised your statistics against those results?
Unless you have some actual facts to share about this, it's important not to make over-confident statements which may affect people's judgement.
True but when a school goes down, a whole load of students lose their money all in one go.
Again.. when you say "a whole load", what statistics is this based on, and how does this refute or counter the point that more people get what they paid for than don't? And finally how does that statement differentiate the aviation industry / flying schools from countless other businesses?
It's a bit like saying it's OK to give all customers credit for £20k because, on average, most won't go bust right away.
Not at all. Your above quote is the equivelant to saying "Always give your money to flying schools in advance", which I haven't said AT ALL.
Can you please elaborate on the "business model" which relies on borrowing large sums from customers? I am quite interested.
Sure. Any business model which uses the benefit of positive cash-flow to make their USP work. For instance a company which competes in a difficult marketplace by offering discounts to customers who pay in advance. They are effectively passing on the cash-flow savings (capital costs / finance / whatever your business uses as a metric).
This is one of the many reasons why drop-ship-based online shops are able to beat the highstreet as they don't need to keep stock, or arrange credit.
Do you ever buy anything online? Do you know the statistics of online fraud / bankrupcy? How do you mitigate against that when you buy online? Are you a fool for parting with your cash in advance? Do you recomend to the world that they would be nuts to do it? If not, how do you justify slating one without the other?