FBO Operations Tip of the Week: Differentiate Your FBO on Customer Service, Not on Price

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
- Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 

Many FBOs have gone out of business by lowering their prices during prolonged periods of time. Yes, FBOs need to be price-competitive, but they must maintain healthy margins and find other ways to compete through differentiation.

Read More

FBO Operations Tip of the Week: Cross Train and Involve all Employees in the Customer Experience

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 

For most FBOs, employees must learn to multitask. In evaluating FBOs that are consistently successful, we find employees do many different job functions that result in not only a more efficient operation but it actually helps employee morale and adds to the customer service experience. As we like to say, a happy employee, a happy customer.

Read More

FBO Operations Tip of the Week: Maximize Your Profit Position

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 

As FBO operators and managers, one of the most important tasks to keep in mind is maximizing your profit position.

In order to accomplish this, we rely on a standardized fuel pricing method. We think it is fair to say most FBOs use either cost-plus pricing or mark-up pricing. Cost-plus means you want to make a certain “plus” above your cost. For example, your cost today is approximately $2.25 per gallon and you want to make $1.50 per gallon. Therefore, simple math puts the selling price at $3.75 resulting in a profit of 40 percent  on sales. 

Read More

FBO Operations Tip of the Week: With Fuel Prices Falling, Guard Your Optimism

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 
As the price of auto gas falls almost daily, we wonder how the corresponding drop in Jet A fuel might affect the FBO business.

Just four weeks ago, OPEC indicated they would stabilize a barrel of oil at $60. Currently, a barrel of oil is hovering around $54. Comparatively, at the beginning of 2014, index pricing for Jet A was around $3 per gallon. In December we saw roughly $1.60 per gallon resulting in a $1.40 swing. 

Read More

FBO Connection Featured in B&CA Digest

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 
We would like to welcome B&CA Digest readers to our blog, FBO Connection. Since our first blog post in 2011, the FBO Connection has been a source for discussion, ideas and general conversation on the FBO industry where you’ll find regular contributions from seasoned FBO professionals sprinkled with bits of wisdom and peppered occasionally with some hot topics. We like to call it “Sage Advice for the FBO Community.”

Read More

FBO Best Practices Series #9: Charge for the Free Stuff

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Aviation Business Strategies Group - ABSGgroup.com 
- Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival. 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable.

 

Welcome to our blog series on FBO Best Practices. With each blog post in this series, we’ll discuss “Best Practices” in running an efficient and effective FBO operation.

Best Practice #9: Charge for the free stuff. This is a simple reminder that every customer must contribute to your revenue stream, even the reluctant customer who doesn’t buy fuel.

Read More

FBO Best Practices Series #8: Take Time to Develop Your Business Plan

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Aviation Business Strategies Group - ABSGgroup.com 
- Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival. 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable.

 

Welcome to our blog series on FBO Best Practices. With each blog post in this series, we’ll discuss “Best Practices” in running an efficient and effective FBO operation.

Best Practice #8: Planning, budgeting and sales forecasting. It’s not exciting; it’s not fun; but it’s essential to running a successful FBO operation.

Read More

FBO Best Practices Series #7: Find the Free Money

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Aviation Business Strategies Group - ABSGgroup.com

Welcome to our blog series on FBO Best Practices. With each blog post in this series, we’ll discuss “Best Practices” in running an efficient and effective FBO operation.

Best Practice #7: Find the free money! From fuel hedging to lowering your credit card interest rates, there’s free money in any FBO operation just waiting to be found.

Read More

When Negotiating the Best Fuel Supply Agreement, Preparation Is as Important as Price

Your fuel supply agreement is one of the most important contracts in operating a successful FBO. Your lease with the airport authority is what puts you in business, but your fuel supply agreement is what keeps you in business.
Read More