To operate amphibs you need reliable dedicated maintenance personal who will immediately start working on the plane at the end of each day. Failing that you need reliable dedicated maintenance personal (note the plural here) preferably on call and available at a moments notice.
Should you perchance be in charge of the operation or aircraft and not be a LAME you should learn, study, practice, volunteer and work as much as you can on any machinery. Expect to wake at 4:30am each day before the sun rises and finish work after the sun sets. Except for party nights you will learn to love crawling into bed by 9pm at the latest each night.
The aircraft, area of operations, customers, pilots etc are all secondary, and minor, and subservient to the provision of maintenance and all that entails. I would rather have a crap pilot with a crap business plan in a crap area with great maintenance support than a great pilot with a great business plan in a great area with crap maintenance support.
Flying skills are incidental, nautical skills are useful, a cool head is important, a conservative character is critical but maintenance skills are supremely important. The smaller the organisation the more this hold true.
Ideally your pilots should be LAMEs who want to fly seaplanes because they are cursed with seaplane sickness. At the very least they must have a deep dedication and empathy with machinery. Taking care means spending at least 90 minutes washing, cleaning, repairing, maintaining your amphib after every day it goes in the water. You'll want pilots who are in it for the lifestyle, which entails many beautiful sunrises and sunsets but also many hours of labouring in the darkness. In Smithy's days these pilots existed but I have seen very very few in this world of contracts and careerism - reference the endless discussions on pay and conditions that land lubber pilots are obsessed with.
You can forget your friends and family members birthdays but should never forget your maintenance personals birthdays as the lives of the people you fly are in their hands. If not a LAME yourself I pray your best friend is one or that your best friend won't get jealous when you spend more time with your LAME than him. Instead of looking only at nice pictures of seaplanes on beaches start looking at smudgy photos of grease monkeys swearing under seaplanes. This is the reality.
Many LAMEs can't handle seaplanes. A LAME not experienced and enthusiastic on seaplanes will screw one as quickly as a pilot who is aiming for the airlines. Interview and vet the mechanics in your area for a mechanic who is a) old b) experienced on seaplanes c) owns a boat d) will take rum in payment and share it with you e) old.
To operate amphibs you need reliable dedicated maintenance personal.
Find your salty grease monkeys before you fly your boat . . .
