We eliminated the mentality of up-charging during the sale and focused on efficiency with enthusiasm. The whole business model was eliminate the “additional charge” which you see all the time in boating most companies charge for fuel, captain, even ice. We pick groups up at the AirBnB’s, hotels, or homes they’re staying at and then our knowledgeable captains show them hidden gems of the city all while guests are dancing, drinking, and eating. Basically put: this is what we do with our friends for fun. Our company creates a boat environment that is cost-effective and enticing coupled with captains that inspire a good time. We’d love to hear more about your business. The last week of August, we suddenly had requests coming in, not many but a steady flow. Luckily our company was small and personal enough that we could offer unique incentives such as out of the ordinary times, extended trips, and even free rides to popular local businesses. We definitely lost money that month but stuck through it, altering our methods of getting the word out and locking in bookings. Both of us were fairly nervous that we made a bad investment and the company didn’t have a market. When we launched our first charters in July, we were booked the first two weekends and couldn’t believe how smooth things were running then August came… We had a 3 week dry spell and had no clue why. I would actually be worried if it had been completely smooth. Each city will likely require small modifications to its operation but can follow the company’s common goal and overall strategy. Our overall goal stayed the same: “to show people the best time on the water”, but we rolled with the punches and weren’t single minded on how we achieve our goal.Ĭurrently we are monitoring the Fort Lauderdale market to perfect our product, which we will soon scale to other cities based on the proven business model. Our key to continuous performance was tracking our failures and tweaking them on a small level until it works, or eventually dropping it if flawed. I feel like our strongest point, without ego, is that nobody can show people as good a time on the water as us. Eventually we found our niche customer to be bachelorette parties and were able to truly target this key demographic. Once we located our ideal party boat, we started experimenting with different marketing avenues in order to increase sales. Over the course of 2 months of research and brainstorming, we narrowed our idea down to creating the best party boat ever this was primarily due to equipment costs/maintenance, profit margins, and scalability. Mike approached me with the idea of buying a charter boat for diving, fishing, and partying and we ran with it. We quickly became passionate about sharing the experience of being on the water with others. Mike and I had been friends for about a year and were both very involved in all ocean activities. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there. Thanks for sharing your story with us Andrew and Michael. Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Cohen and Michael McClay.
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