FBO Connection Bloggers Appearing at 2015 Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference

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The team at Aviation Business Strategies Group and FBO Connection bloggers, John Enticknap and Ron Jackson, will be attending the 2015 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference next week in San Jose, Calif., and would love to touch base.
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An MRI for Your FBO — Improving the Vital Parts of Your FBO

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By Ron Jackson and John Enticknap

“Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets,” - Henry Ford

How healthy is your FBO? Is it running on all cylinders? Or is it in need of doing what Henry Ford suggests, “a certain amount of scratching around,” to find the golden nuggets buried in the business?

If you’re ailing, chances are you’d go to a doctor. If it’s serious enough, the doctor may order an MRI to aid in the diagnosis.

The financial and operational health of an FBO is no different. Sometimes we need a better look at all the vital parts in order to create a remedy that puts us on the path to prosperity.

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When Pricing Fuel, Use Numbers to Your Advantage

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We know the pricing game all too well. Gas stations and auto dealerships have conditioned us to react to pricing of a product or service by offering a perception of a good deal.

In the FBO fuel pricing arena, we tend to play the same game.

In a previous blog post, FBO Fuel Pricing: Seeking a Silver Bullet, we discussed some pricing theory and came up with some ideas to find the silver bullet — which is the best price.

In the FBO business today, some customers call ahead for fuel prices, seek to use contract fuel suppliers and try to negotiate when they arrive on your ramp. We would like our customers to believe that our prices are well thought out and not just some arbitrary posted numbers.

Knowing how customers interpret numbers can help your FBO make stronger pricing decisions. What we would like to discuss here are some thoughts that go through people’s minds when they are looking to purchase.

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Optimizing Your FBO, Part 1: Pay Your Front Line Employees More

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Often, when FBOs, and other businesses for that matter, are faced with an economic downturn, one of the first places they look to make cuts is their payroll. That might work if you are operating a clothing or grocery store, but take a moment and think about the time that has been invested in training your employees, especially the ones who are out there on what I call The Front Line, marshalling, fueling, and, most importantly, meeting and greeting customers.

These are the employees who have built a relationship with your customers. There is a certain amount of trust and comfort that a flight crew feels when someone familiar is handling the company’s most prized possession, the corporate jet. And if you are looking to increase your fuel sales at the point of transaction, who is in a better position to positively influence the sale: you or the line service technician or CSR?

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AC-U-KWIK Launches FBO Connection Blog

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AC-U-KWIK has tapped FBO operations and marketing veterans John Enticknap and Ron Jackson to write a weekly blog column specifically aimed at the FBO community.

On the blog, called FBO Connection, Enticknap and Jackson will provide insight into winning strategies to help FBO owners, operators and managers run a more successful operation. The column can be found in the monthly release of the AC-U-KWIK Alert e-newsletter, and starting in February, it will appear on the home page of acukwik.com.

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