Owning your own DZ

[quade 4]

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Years ago Roger Nelson authored a business plan regarding the formula for where, and the logical proven how-to on starting up a dropzone.

From what I understand it went into population centers and travel times, economic conditions and the availability of discretionary income for the target market, how to lease what and when to buy, when to expand etc.

Of course, it also doesn't hurt if you use your planes during the down times to transport, uh, stuff.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[skydived19006 4]

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Never more than the time it would take to drive to the next nearest dropzone without a long wait. At two hours that gives you more than 100 miles to work with.

Where that's not an option and wait times are averaging two hours it may be time to stop being a local jumper and start spending long weekends at the nearest (California, Florida, Airizona) destination DZ once a month.

There are other options;

Simply avoid the middle of the day rush, arrange with three like minded individuals to get out of bed and be at the DZ when the door rolls up. Then you're on the airplane as soon as you can gear up, and the pilot can preflight/fule/etc. You'll have three jumps in before the guys who show up at 11:00 am then complain about the backlog at manifest.

Or, get an instructional rating/s. Then you can spend the day at the DZ, make a couple of fun jumps here and there, still be on short calls through the middle of the day with training jumps. Then at the end of the day when the "complainers" have long gone you can make the sunset/beer load! And, you can cover the cost of your fun jumps with your working jumps, packing, etc.!!!

Or, if there truly is a shortage of lift at your DZ of convenience, you might ask the DZO if you could supply another aircraft. He'll very likely be willing to allow you to do just that. Granted, your airplane will only fly when the DZOs airplane/s can't keep up. Your DZO will likely require you to maintain said airplane at a high level, and that you provide competent pilots who are also willing to sit around just in case the airplane is needed, etc. Oh, be prepared to have your little venture operate in the red. If you're supplying a 182, you'll need to do a few performance STCs which will run you another $50k +/- on top of the cost of the airplane and jump mods. On the bright side, you'll be the hero for sure!

You know, reading that last option, it doesn't really sound all that appealing. I have to wonder if the DZO has ran the same scenario a time or two and came to the same conclusion.

Edit for spelling. Though I'm sure I still missed a few.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[chuckakers 422]

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Good post Chuck,
What kind of a timeline should a start up DZ expect? Every business starts in the red and expects to break even at some point. Anyone know the numbers for a DZ?

That was another consideration for me. Not including start-up and capitalization costs, we broke even almost immediately, but that was because my overhead was extremely low. Rent, utilities, student rig lease payments, and insurance were about the only fixed expenses I had. The plane, staff, rental tandem rigs, etc., were variable costs, so if we had a slow weekend or bad weather, those costs were reduced accordingly. With fixed expenses at just a few thousand a month, we were able stay in positive territory within just s few weeks.

Keep in mind that we stacked the deck in our favor. We opened the doors in early April to insure we started operations going into the high season, we had a deal with a team that filled the plane about 60 times a month, we had mass media advertising for the cost of some fuel and a pilot for demo jumps, we took full advantage of the competition's failure to delivery a product experienced jumpers wanted, kick-started our student operations with a strategic mailing to USPA non-licensed members offering free refresher training and discounted AFF jumps, and countless other slick tricks designed to get us by on the cheap.

Shoe-stringing is about thinking ahead and getting your mind into the trenches. There are an infinite number of ways to get what you need without cash. The trick is to find out what they are before you go broke.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[chuckakers 422]

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Years ago Roger Nelson authored a business plan regarding the formula for where, and the logical proven how-to on starting up a dropzone.

From what I understand it went into population centers and travel times, economic conditions and the availability of discretionary income for the target market, how to lease what and when to buy, when to expand etc.

Of course, it also doesn't hurt if you use your planes during the down times to transport, uh, stuff.

Or make money traveling the country giving pricey seminars to DZO's on how to make money in the skydiving business....while conveniently leaving out the parts about all the transport jobs.

Not everything gets lost in the pages of the history books.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[BlindBrick 0]

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Some of the recent DZ controversy in Missouri is a prime example.

I don't think you could be more wrong. The original seed that started it all was business competition.


-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[theonlyski 3]

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Or, get an instructional rating/s. Then you can spend the day at the DZ, make a couple of fun jumps here and there, still be on short calls through the middle of the day with training jumps. Then at the end of the day when the "complainers" have long gone you can make the sunset/beer load! And, you can cover the cost of your fun jumps with your working jumps, packing, etc.!!!

Not to mention camera flying. It is great though to be able to jump all weekend and walk away with some money!

(I rig, coach, pack and camera fly, depending on what they need at that moment.)

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[SkydiverDZO 0]

I am starting a single Cessna DZ right now. $100K is not quite enough. But I agree with what you said about how to go about starting up and then growing the business.

Charlie Gittins
MEI-I, CFI-I
Sigma TI; AFF-I
FAA Senior Rigger

[Deisel 38]

What has been your biggest problem or lesson leared so far?

The brave may not live forever, but the timid never live at all.

[skydived19006 4]

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I am starting a single Cessna DZ right now. $100K is not quite enough. But I agree with what you said about how to go about starting up and then growing the business.

It was likely less expensive taking over an existing operation. Airplane with a high time engine, used student gear, and I already owned one tandem rig, got another used one a bit later. You could end up with 50k in gear easy enough.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ