FBO Success: A Multi-Part Series
/7 Immutable Elements for Building Equity in Your FBO Enterprise ©
By John Enticknap and Ron Jackson, Aviation Business Strategies Group ABSGgroup.com
There are several reasons why FBO owners and operators should want to build equity in their operation. Chief among them are:
Obtaining loans from banks in order to develop the infrastructure. Traditional banks do not really understand the FBO business, especially when they learn that most FBOs do not own the land where they are seeking to get funding for, or building a hangar, terminal building or fuel farm.
Seeking multi-year operating extensions from the airport authority. Most airport authorities want to do business with FBO operations that are successful and have a good track record of producing strong balance sheets.
Building strong community relations. A successful FBO enterprise is often a business that has a strong citizenship platform; one that gives back to the community and has a reputation for being an excellent employer and a good neighbor with an exceptional safety record.
Creating intrinsic value for when it is time to sell. Many FBO operations are family owned and operated. Many are being run by second and third generations. Others are owned by entrepreneurs who love aviation and ended up turning their hobby into a thriving business. Regardless of origin, at some point an exit strategy should entail building tangible equity which translates to increased intrinsic value.
In order to put all of this is into proper perspective, we have developed The 7 Immutable Elements of Building Equity in Your FBO Enterprise©. These elements are the basic building blocks to create a successful FBO operation. Over the past several years, we have researched and developed these time proven elements and we will be incorporating them into our NATA FBO Success Seminar series which resumes next year.
The 7 Immutable Elements of Building Equity in Your FBO Enterprise© are:
1. Obtaining a long-term airport lease with extension options.
2. Securing a favorable fuel supplier agreement.
3. Creating advantageous/profitable hangar contracts/agreements.
4. Establishing a sound balance sheet with consistent EBITDA performance.
5. Advancing a durable Airport Minimum Standards document.
6. Instilling a strong internal safety culture.
7. Developing a consistent customer service experience
Developed as a multi-part series, we will take each of these elements and discuss them in detail in our coming blog posts.
Please leave any comments you have about this blog post below. If you have any questions, please give us a call or send us an email: jenticknap@bellsouth.net, 404-867-5518; ronjacksongroup@gmail.com, 972-979-6566.
ABOUT THE BLOGGERS: John Enticknap has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience and is an IS-BAH Accredited auditor. Ron Jackson is co-founder of Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG) and president of The Jackson Group, a PR agency specializing in FBO marketing and customer service training. Visit the biography page or absggroup.com for more background.
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