Aviation of Business

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Oct 19

Everyone has heard the importance of business planning. Creating a business plan before you start your business is very nearly a universal starting point for all successful businesses. In fact, Chris Corrigan, an Australian businessman who grew logistics company Patrick Corporation into one of Australia’s most successful companies and owns part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Blue airline, said, “You can’t overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I’ve made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can’t over-prepare in business!”

Once again, we find that business and aviation are quite similar! Let’s walk through the business planning process and take a look at the similarities:

The first step in any plan is to know where you are… determine where you stand in your business knowledge and preparation. Are you ready to start a business? Do you really want to? This is analagous to a pilot’s home airport and “I’M SAFE” checklist:

• I: Illness - It is best not to fly while suffering from any illness.
• M: Medication - Pilot performance may be adversely affected by the taking of certain medications.
• S: Stress - Stress from work or from home may distract pilots during important segments of a flight.
• A: Alcohol - As little as one ounce of liquor, one bottle of beer or four ounces of wine can affect a pilot’s skills negatively.
• F: Fatigue - Fatigue affects a pilot’s coordination and alertness.
• E: Emotion - Emotions of anger & depression decrease alertness & may lead to taking higher risks than necessary

If any one of these things is affecting you as a pilot, it’s best to postpone your flight for another time. In business, a lack of knowledge of the industry, a poor work ethic, a bad reason for starting a business, other important obligations, etc. are all good reasons to delay the start of the business until your situation changes. I have come up with the following acronym, similar to the “I’M SAFE” checklist to help you determine if you are ready to start a business (NEW BIZ):

• N - Network: Do you have both a business network and a personal network of people who will support you?
• E - Emotion: Is your desire to start a busines free from emotion (e.g. anger or frustration at your current job)?
• W - Work Ethic: are you willing & able to work the hours necessary to start a new business?
• B - Business Acumen: Do you have experience in the industry you would like to enter?
• I - Investment: Do you have the capital (or can you get the capital) necessary to launch & sustain the business until it is profitable?
• Z - Zealous: Are you passionate about this business idea and industry?

If you cannot answer yes to all of the above questions in the “NEW BIZ” checklist, it might be better to wait to start your business until you can. Answering “no” to any one of them will only cause you frustration and pain in the long run of starting and running your own business.

Can you answer the “NEW BIZ” checklist questions in the affirmative? What other considerations might you want to consider before jumping into the entrepreneurship world? Tell us by leaving a comment!

Fair Winds,
Andrew

P.S. Stay tuned for part two of this six-part series: Where do you want to go?

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Jul 24

Ben Casnocha wrote an interesting post at his blog. It asks a question from a perspective that I have never thought of - Do only Negative Emotions count for Depth?

It’s a good excuse to reflect on your life and your reactions to the events that have shaped it.

Enjoy!

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Jul 23

I went up to Michigan (Traverse City, to be exact) this past weekend to attend the wedding of a close friend with whom I have been terrible about keeping in touch since college (and even during our last two years in college, now that I think about it).

We have sporadically kept in touch since graduating from Eastern Michigan University - mostly through another mutual friend who stayed in Michigan for a few years after graduation and only recently moved back to Central Ohio. He comes down and stays once in awhile, and sometimes I’m even able to get out to our mutual friend’s place and visit with everyone - but not always.

So on Thursday night, four of us piled in my car and we drove to Traverse City, Michigan for his wedding. We barely made it. After a couple of stops and several slowdowns due to construction, we made it to the hotel at about 4:15pm on Friday - the wedding was at 5pm - and we hadn’t even changed into our wedding clothes! We made it into some seats just before our friend the groom walked down the aisle to seat his grandmother. Whew.

The location was beautiful (Frog Pond Village), as was the ceremony - non-denominational readings and poems and vow exchange… funny and light, and meaningful, somehow, all at the same time. My favorite (and least favorite - this weekend was full of conundrums, it seems) part was near the end, with a statement along the lines of “we hope that you can reconnect with old friends and kindle relationships with new friends as well…” I wasn’t recording, but it was something like that.

It was my favorite part because it worked - I feel like I reconnected with at least a few of my old friends - the couple we drove up with certainly, as well as the bride and groom (in the short amount of time we could steal from their busy wedding schedule). We also connected (I think) with a new couple that we knew, but not well - we did wine tastings and climbed Sleeping Bear Dunes on Saturday; those six of us spent all day together.

It was my least favorite part because, to me, it felt like a direct chastisement of my inability to keep in touch with people who are not in my direct vicinity. The statement “Out of sight, out of mind” is generally used to comfort people who are reminded of a bad experience by some trinket or item they own - getting rid of it can help them forget. In my case, “out of sight, out of mind” is more accurately a statement of how I correspond with people - or not. I know the newlyweds didn’t mean it that way (it would be the epitome of vanity to think they put that statement in their vows to make ME realize that I haven’t been a good friend), but it did strike a chord with me, and I’m going to use it to get back in touch with people who have been - and still are - important to me. So if you’re reading, newlyweds: I’d like to thank you for that.

And if you’re reading this, old and new friends: don’t be surprised to hear from me! And if I don’t contact you, you better contact me…

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 1

Aviation is one of my passions.

Another is the environment.

An odd combination?  I don’t think so.

Most people look at aviation as a polluting, wasteful industry.  And, looking at aviation operations as they have been for 100 years and are currently, they are probably right.  However, I think that aviation as an idea is about the most environmentally-friendly thing there is… to fly, an airplane and pilot must adhere to the laws of Mother Nature.  She alone decides whether an airplane will fly.  Any one who attempts to defy nature in an airplane and do something that goes against the physical laws of nature will learn the hard way who is in charge.  I also believe that aviation can and should be a far less polluting industry than it is.  I believe that aviation can be successfully environmentally-conscious.  I challenge everyone in the industry to pay more attention and get more creative in reducing aviation’s impact on the Earth.

In that vein - I ran across a contest this week in USA Weekend in my Sunday paper.  The Smithsonian National Zoo is having a contest - asking kids to suggest creative ways to “Stomp out carbon.”  Click here to go to the press release on the zoo’s website.

By the way: Earth Day is every April 22nd. Celebrate Earth Day this year by leaving a comment telling us what you do to reduce your ecological “footprint!”

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Mar 17

My wife and her father often play Dr. Mario, an old eight-bit Nintendo game.  In this game, each player starts with a number of “germs,” each one of three colors: blue, red, or yellow.  The goal of the game is to eliminate all of the germs from the screen.  To do so, you must either stack up (vertically) or line up (horizontally) four blocks of the same color.  The blocks are actually pills; some are all one color - most are half one color and half another.  They come in any combination of two of the colors above.  Players can move and flip the “pills” to get them lined up or stacked properly to eliminate the colored germs with same color pill (or half-pill).  The pill’s and germs disappear when four or more of one color are lined (or stacked) up.

What is interesting about this is that when playing in competition, it is possible to “plop” on the other player by arranging your pills so as to make more than one line disappear with one move.  The other player will have two (or three, or four!) “half-pills” drop down at random on his/her side of the screen.  These plops generally land in inconvenient places and are inconvenient colors.

Why the hell am I giving you a crash course in Dr. Mario, you ask?  For this reason:  The competitive style of playing the game is uncanny in its parallel to entrepreneurship and business.  Stay with me here…

 Business is competitive by its very nature.  So the competition aspect of Dr. Mario draws an obvious similarity; however, there is much more!  Due to competition in business, there are constant “plops” in your business from your competitors… these “plops” are neither convenient nor avoidable - they happen no matter what you do.  They are totally in the control of your competition.

Now it gets truly interesting.  What you do and how you react to these “plops” often determins your success in the game… just like in business and entrepreneurship.  If the “plops” distract you from your ultimate goal of eliminating germs, your competition will beat you in short order.  On the same token, if you ignore the plops and play as if they aren’t happening, you’ll also get beaten.  To win the game, you have to change your actions to take the plops into account while always keeping the germs in mind.  If you can eliminate the germs while dealing with the plops, you have a good chance of winning.  By the way - sometimes the plops are actually beneficial.  Just like in life, luck plays a role.

My wife consistently wins at the game… often she wins three rounds straight - “skunking” her opponent.  She also regularly comes from behind after being ruthlessly “plopped” upon.  She is a master of adjusting her actions and strategy based on the reality of the game - always focusing on the end goal of eliminating the germs.

We need to do the same in business - focus on our goal, but always see the reality of our situation.  Only a combination of the two will lead us to success so we can “skunk” our competition.

Fair Winds,
Andrew