Making it Real

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AXlgFLIa7WNOO_UAXRJdJ6fU5YdJT3yAeagR5aWrons/edit?usp=sharing

Exit Strategy

I would plan on selling the business in as little time as possible to help pay for flight training and college. I don't have the drive to run my own business for a long period of time. I want to fly for a living and running my own business would be more than just flying, I would have to work other jobs. The only influence this has had on my plans is that I only want to get the business up and running, I wouldn't be looking ahead at the future of the company.

Celebrating Failure

This class has made me fail several times. With the length of the Summer C semester and working a job and having other commitments, my time has been stretched thin and I often forget or willfully neglect assignments for this class. It is embarrassing that I may end up with a poor grade in a class that should be easy to do well in. At times, it makes me want to drop the course. The main thing its taught me is to not stretch myself too thin. I thought I could handle all of these responsibilities but instead it has decreased my performance in all of them. In the future, I will only accept what I am capable of doing to the best of my ability. This class has made me fail in a stupid way, and I need to push myself harder.

Venture Concept

Opportunity:

Problem: There is a lack of aerial sight-seeing tours or charter travel by air within the Cayman Islands and neighboring islands.

Who: Tourists and residents within the Cayman Islands or who plan on visiting the Cayman Islands and would like to travel in a unique or privatized way. Also tourists or residents who would like a new style of touring the islands and surrounding areas.

Where: The Cayman Islands specifically, but neighboring Caribbean islands as well.

Current Solution: There is currently a helicopter tour on the island, but one helicopter with one pilot will not sustain the mass influx of tourists during high season.

How long will it be open: Someone will surely recognize this problem soon and given the right person, would be able to exploit the opportunity.

Innovation:

Seaplane tours are very popular among tourists or by travelling residents in small islands. Seaplane charters to neighboring countries and islands or sight-seeing tours would be something that could be very profitable in the Cayman Islands.

The customer would be paying for travel or tours by seaplane. The money would specifically be used for operating costs of the airplane and the pilot’s time. The price would be too difficult to determine right now due to the different operating costs of airplanes and the different taxation system in the Islands. My best estimate would be a flat rate of $150 per hour and an extra $25 per person.

Venture Concept:

Applying seaplane tours and charters in the Cayman Islands would be an easy task. It would offer an alternative to airline travel between the 3 islands and be a more interesting way to travel. Tours would be able to reach places that would take boats too long to get to and cars can’t go. The most difficult part would be competing with the long established helicopter tour pilot, but in season there will be plenty of business to be going around.

Unfair Advantage: Being a citizen and having the right to work in the Cayman Islands is something that eliminates several competitors and having my seaplane license is another advantage.

What’s Next: The company would initially start with one small airplane but in 5 years it would be incredible to watch it grow to multiple planes and pilots or to larger planes for large charters.

What’s Next: I want to be a big name in the aviation community, however that comes to be. If this venture would help boost me into a prominent aviation figure, that is what I would like.