Good news story - Airspeed Aviation wins!

[Jabawocky]

Announced tonight at the NSW mining industry and supplier conference, the winner of the Small Business Achievement Award was a GA charter company. :D

Not a bunch of lawyers or finance constants but some real world aviators!

Well done you guys and girls! :ok:

[gerry111]

And obviously, all the best and congratulations to Airspeed Aviation.


But who still really takes these small business awards seriously? For they are invariably a creation of advertising agencies and sometimes Fairfax Media.


Having run a small business in the Hawkesbury for 29 years, I've seen fellow business people waste a part of their advertising budgets on this sort of tosh. They have their black tie presentation nights with pretty girl staff and all that.


But I reckon that it's a commercial wank and it relies upon the egos of the proprietors.


A major NSW Leagues Club achieves such awards. Guess where those came from?

[tail wheel]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/Woomera/PPRuNe/Business%20Award_zps4n7iz9xx.jpg

[Squawk7700]

Will the regular pprune poster and proud owner / operator of Airspeed Aviation please take a step forward? .....

[Jabawocky]

He is too shy….:O

[The name is Porter]

Shy is not what I'd call him!

Onya Airspeed :D

[Horatio Leafblower]

Shuks.... thanks team. :O

Never would have happened if the team didn't keep going above and beyond, every day, to deliver to the customers. GA can be a hard grind - Thank you KG, TD, TA and all those past pilots who have helped build us up. :ok:

Gerry 111 is partly correct, but for the record we paid nothing to participate in the awards. It cost us $440 for my wife and I to attend the dinner and I reckon that's cheap publicity.

What sort of targetted exposure would $440 buy you in the local paper or even through Google Adwords?

Interestingly many of the speakers talked of the over-regulation of Mining and the pollies were falling over themselves to assure the audience they were changing the rules.

I was able to tie in a reference to the fact GA is a major enabler of Mining in remote areas, and we are also struggling under similar (and greater) regulatory pressures that simply don't attract government attention like mining does. It was primarily a State Government audience and Aviation is a Federal jurisdiction, I know, but I had to have a kick.

[aviationadvertiser]

Congratulations AIRSPEED AVIATION! Well done mate and keep on charging!

[PLovett]

Well done HL. Its great when hard work is recognised. As a thought to us all, wouldn't it be great if the mining industry got behind our attempts to get the regulatory burden recognised for what it is - a bureaucracy gone mad? Food for thought.

[megle2]

Congratulations, yes well done

Now back to reality where on Monday when the office reopens, the first quote request comes in from BHP, the award sponsor no less. You shoot off the quote, BARS compliant and the reply comes back " Thank you for your prompt reply, BHP are commencing a new review ( the 27th ) of supplier costing and request that you reduce the cost by 15% to comply with our stated supply policy bla bla bla "

Our computer generated auto payment lodgement system continues. Please ensure lodgements include the correct job reference / order number / Department / Branch reference

Our revised terms are payment 60 days from end of supply month.

[RadioSaigon]

...if the mining industry got behind our attempts to get the regulatory burden recognised for what it is - a bureaucracy gone mad? Food for thought.

Having worked both in and alongside the mining and aviation industries for many years, it strikes me that it is often the BHP Billitons' and Rio Tintos' of the world that are amongst the very very worst of the nonsense over-regulators and micro-managers of the world. Particularly at the interface between mining and aviation. Moving solely to aviation a few years ago cut the bull**** reg burden in half, at a stroke. Committing aviation in Indonesia has revealed the nonsense and futility of most regulation for what it is... although that is not necessarily a positive, particularly in this environment.
Sensible, effective, affordable regulation... ain't that a nice thought? Doubt I'll be around to see it. If I live to be 100, it'll never happen. Lawyers, Politicians, Regulators and special interest (self-serving) Lobby groups have been dining out on this for far too long to allow their gravy-train meal-ticket to fade into oblivion.

EDIT: Whoops! Congrats HL, I'm sure you've lost a lot of blood, sweat & tears on the way to achieving this recognition. Well done.

[Horatio Leafblower]

BHP are commencing a new review ( the 27th ) of supplier costing and request that you reduce the cost by 15% to comply with our stated supply policy bla bla bla "

You make a good point Megle2

Someone once said to me "make sure your "best" customers don't ever become your "worst" customers. I think that was good advice.

[gerry111]

Horatio,

I apologise to you and your staff if I came across as a wet blanket regarding your award. I have no knowledge of the NSW Mining Industry & Supplier Conference. Nor how the awards are judged.

As before mentioned, congratulations on your award.

My reference was more to a local (now Fairfax Media) newspaper here that has conducted "Hawkesbury Small Business Awards" for more years than I can remember. In that case, small business proprietors are encouraged to increase the level of advertising in that newspaper. The aim being to make one's business more widely known. That's fine but it may or may not be the most effective form of advertising for the particular business. Votes are made supposedly only by customers but the system is easy to rort. The real prize for some proprietors is getting their photo in the paper if they win an award. Plus winners are invited to advertise their businesses on the pages detailing the awards night. Whether that's the best way to spend part of their advertising budget, I have no idea.

[Jabawocky]

Our revised terms are payment 60 days from end of supply month.

Simple……do what I do and add the typical credit card interest rate to their quote for payment outside your terms. Yep, One Steel, Hj Heinz, several others who I fail to remember, because……I do not care.

You do not go to ANZ/NAB/CBA for <insert type of service> services, we don't do financing bad businesses.

I run our business, positive cash, zero debt based on a simple policy…the John West policy. The customers we reject make us the best.

I think Leafie seems to follow this kind of idea too.

[gerry111]

Jaba,

I agree with you. Over the years, I've seen the arrogance of some large, medium and small businesses. As if to say dealing with them is some sort of privilege?

(I'm fortunate, as for some years now my business has had only one local competitor in what I do.)

So if I'm going to be faffed around, I simply become unavailable. Then sometimes call up a mate in Canberra to go Bonanza flying together. It's worked for quite a few years! :ok:

[Horatio Leafblower]

My personal favourite is the line:

"We're going to be doing a LOT of flying. If you give us a good rate we'll give it all to you".

Common traits:
- they actually do f* all flying
- they string you out to beyond 120 days to pay the (little or no margin) invoice;
- they ALL weigh 130-145 kg
- they ALL go broke in the end.

....I cottoned on to the pattern eventually :rolleyes:

[Lookleft]

Well done HL. Given your success at running an aviation business and the current CASA Chairman had similar success, can we envisage an eventual role for you in the "Halls of Doom"?

[mcgrath50]

Given your success at running an aviation business and the current CASA Chairman had similar success, can we envisage an eventual role for you in the "Halls of Doom"?

This horrific sledge against the good character of HL surely deserves a long ban from these forums mods!

;)

[aroa]

Onya Leafy. I'll roll one and smoke it for ya.!