Tips on getting a brokerage business off the ground.
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Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: NC
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Tips on getting a brokerage business off the ground.
Hi Everyone,
I am a 28 year old (yes I know young for this industry) owner of multiple businesses and have a pretty varied and experienced background in aviation for my age. I have my commercial license and instrument rating, and have a variety of time in everything from Pitts to Learjets. I gained a lot of experience as for about 8 years I managed a flight school and airport where I did everything from assisting mechanics to buying and selling aircraft for the flight school. During that time as well I started two business which I now operate full time. One is an Aerial Photographer business that I shoot throughout the Eastern U.S., the second is an outdoor industry marketing company. The outdoor company, although successful, I have been less than pleased with the direction the industry has gone and in return I have been slowly getting away from that business.
For as long as I can remember I have wanted to get into brokering aircraft, with the experience I do have I am smart enough to know its no easy industry to break into and when you make that step its slow going and you cannot rely on any income from it. Up until recently I was not in a position to seriously attempt to start this endeavor. About a year ago I was stable enough with my other businesses that I started researching more and more getting a brokerage business going. I was in a position where I had the time and didnt need to rely on making any set amount of money off of it in return as I can pay the bills with my other business. I began going through the process of getting the business set up.
Over the past year in my spare time I have a Brokerage business set up and ready to operate, have a contract I am happy with that has been gone over by a lawyer, have an office set up at a fairly busy medium sized airport with lots of traffic, have a website made as well as some basic promotional materials for advertising, have numerous connections made with local mechanics, detailers, and CFI's to provide services to my clients. With all this I feel pretty ready to start representing slowly but am having trouble getting my name out and finding listings. I am willing to start much lower than my normal rate would be just to get a few under my belt and gain some more experience as well as some references for future clients.
Overall my question is does anyone have any tips or wisdom on getting some initial clients to represent? I want to do things right and as I stated I am willing to take a hit on my fee starting out to gain more experience and a reputation. I also am realistically expecting to start small and not be moving jets from the start. I accept the challenges that are in this industry and realize what I am facing, but with that said I feel I have a lot to offer with a background in both aviation and marketing, as well as being a professional photographer and videographer. Any input would be much appreciated and please dont respond with negative discouraging comments, I know its a tough industry, ive been around it enough to realize the challenges but this is something I am passionate about and not in for the money. I appreciate it and thank you all!!!
I am a 28 year old (yes I know young for this industry) owner of multiple businesses and have a pretty varied and experienced background in aviation for my age. I have my commercial license and instrument rating, and have a variety of time in everything from Pitts to Learjets. I gained a lot of experience as for about 8 years I managed a flight school and airport where I did everything from assisting mechanics to buying and selling aircraft for the flight school. During that time as well I started two business which I now operate full time. One is an Aerial Photographer business that I shoot throughout the Eastern U.S., the second is an outdoor industry marketing company. The outdoor company, although successful, I have been less than pleased with the direction the industry has gone and in return I have been slowly getting away from that business.
For as long as I can remember I have wanted to get into brokering aircraft, with the experience I do have I am smart enough to know its no easy industry to break into and when you make that step its slow going and you cannot rely on any income from it. Up until recently I was not in a position to seriously attempt to start this endeavor. About a year ago I was stable enough with my other businesses that I started researching more and more getting a brokerage business going. I was in a position where I had the time and didnt need to rely on making any set amount of money off of it in return as I can pay the bills with my other business. I began going through the process of getting the business set up.
Over the past year in my spare time I have a Brokerage business set up and ready to operate, have a contract I am happy with that has been gone over by a lawyer, have an office set up at a fairly busy medium sized airport with lots of traffic, have a website made as well as some basic promotional materials for advertising, have numerous connections made with local mechanics, detailers, and CFI's to provide services to my clients. With all this I feel pretty ready to start representing slowly but am having trouble getting my name out and finding listings. I am willing to start much lower than my normal rate would be just to get a few under my belt and gain some more experience as well as some references for future clients.
Overall my question is does anyone have any tips or wisdom on getting some initial clients to represent? I want to do things right and as I stated I am willing to take a hit on my fee starting out to gain more experience and a reputation. I also am realistically expecting to start small and not be moving jets from the start. I accept the challenges that are in this industry and realize what I am facing, but with that said I feel I have a lot to offer with a background in both aviation and marketing, as well as being a professional photographer and videographer. Any input would be much appreciated and please dont respond with negative discouraging comments, I know its a tough industry, ive been around it enough to realize the challenges but this is something I am passionate about and not in for the money. I appreciate it and thank you all!!!
Join Date: Jun 2014
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I imagine aircraft brokerage isn't fundamentally different from any other brokerage in that it's entirely a network-based business. In other words, it's not what you know, it's who you know.
