Last summer we had about 225 aircraft using our system with 200 of them paying the monthly fees. We had one of the largest companies in the industry ask to talk with us about a partnership. This quicky changed to them wanting to buy the system. I flew my airplane to meet them and they put on a full court press telling me how they were the industry experts at building flight scheduling software yet they had never built one. Its strange to hear someone talk about how they are so great at something but they have never done it before? Ok, so they wanted to buy the system and the offer was real. The price would had allowed me to relax for a few years and I would had gotton my money back I put into it. But then what? I would have to go back to flying I guess and I did not want to do that. So I stuck to my guns and told them I wanted more money. They would not pay it and then they started to threaten me. They said I must sell the system or they would build their own and put me out of business. Hummmmm lets see its it now 14 months later and they have never built their system. Its much harder than it looks. Its costs a great deal of money and time to build this stuff.
This brings me to the present day. We now have over 500 aircraft in the system and lets just say that several companies want this system! They call me all the time hoping I am going to show how give them the system. No joke! They honestly have asked me to give them the system? I know your rolling on the ground laughing right? Hell yeah I am also! The think I am stupid I guess. One of the companies said and I will quote "We thought you would just let us take the system off of your hands because its to much work for you and if we make money with it later we might give you some" I know what your thinking................did I hit him? No, not on this day. The thought did cross my mind though. This was not the first time someone asked me to give them my company.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
AirplaneManager is born
It was early in the development but several companies wanted to start using Airplanemanager.com because they needed a flight scheduling calendar and it was the best they had seen. The next 2.5 years the system would evolve into a huge system with over 500 aircraft, 2000 users, and over 5 million hits per year.
The system is critical because these air charter companies use the system for just about everything. Without the system most of these companies are blind. We build the system and only charged $35 per month per aircraft. That price stayed for 3 years and now we charge $50. Its a great deal and our competition charges anywhere from $8000 to $40,000 a year for old software. Ours is web based though and they just hate us for our pricing and how modern of a system we have built. Some of our competition have even contacted us asking us to raise our prices! Others have come into our system and used rude names or comments within the system while the demo our software. What a bunch of loosers!
The system is critical because these air charter companies use the system for just about everything. Without the system most of these companies are blind. We build the system and only charged $35 per month per aircraft. That price stayed for 3 years and now we charge $50. Its a great deal and our competition charges anywhere from $8000 to $40,000 a year for old software. Ours is web based though and they just hate us for our pricing and how modern of a system we have built. Some of our competition have even contacted us asking us to raise our prices! Others have come into our system and used rude names or comments within the system while the demo our software. What a bunch of loosers!
I take a new job
Around Jan. 2005 I took a new job with a part 91 G200 job in Orange County, CA. It was a cool job because it was the place I always wanted to live. While working this job I built CharterMatrix.com and a few other sites. Always pumping any money I had directly into the business. I flew about 21 days a month while working in CA. Over the next two years CharterMatrix would change countless times and I would soon start flying a G450 for the same family.
The job started to fade when the family fired the other pilot without consulting me. Soon a new older pilot would be coming in and I was warned quickly that this guy was not someone anyone wanted to fly with. To add to my problems my father was had just passed away from cancer. I was tired and confused! My mom was all alone back in WV and needed my help. Could things become worse? Yup, I broke my arm!
With my life in a tail spin I decided to leave my job and move back to WV to help my mom get her life straight and fix her house up. I walked away from my good paying job and starting paying web designers to design http://www.airplanemanager.com/ . I spent the next 4 months helping my mom rebuild her house. I had also built a site called http://www.flycontract.com/ and that site was now bringing in $2000 a month. Atleast we could use that money to help fund CharterMatrix. After 5 months in WV I rented an apartment in Melbourne, FL and moved to start working full time on my web sites.
The job started to fade when the family fired the other pilot without consulting me. Soon a new older pilot would be coming in and I was warned quickly that this guy was not someone anyone wanted to fly with. To add to my problems my father was had just passed away from cancer. I was tired and confused! My mom was all alone back in WV and needed my help. Could things become worse? Yup, I broke my arm!
With my life in a tail spin I decided to leave my job and move back to WV to help my mom get her life straight and fix her house up. I walked away from my good paying job and starting paying web designers to design http://www.airplanemanager.com/ . I spent the next 4 months helping my mom rebuild her house. I had also built a site called http://www.flycontract.com/ and that site was now bringing in $2000 a month. Atleast we could use that money to help fund CharterMatrix. After 5 months in WV I rented an apartment in Melbourne, FL and moved to start working full time on my web sites.
Chartermatrix.com is live!
After I built Chartermatrix.com it took me several months to get the word out to the industry. Some people took right to it and others refused to even look at it. It was free and many people just do not trust anything free. It was real though and soon we had about 400 companies using the system. We even got a phone call from the competition and the own who will stay unnamed went on to ask me "Who gave you permission to get into my business?" lol Yup that was my welcome to the aviation software industry. He felt this was his industry and anyone who dares do buisness in it must ask his permission. So you can imagine how that relationship was right?
It was cool being part of a new site that could help people sell their empty leg and locate air charter companies. Companies will sell their empty legs and keep on posting. Others would sell their empty legs and then say they did not want to post the flights because it took to much time. Yup, it took all of about 2 or 3 minutes to post a couple of empty leg air charter flights. That was just to much time to make $10,000 though for some people. That was when I learned how lazy people were. The fact was that the dispatchers did not get paid based on how much they sold. Selling more flights meant more work for them and they did not want more work!
It was cool being part of a new site that could help people sell their empty leg and locate air charter companies. Companies will sell their empty legs and keep on posting. Others would sell their empty legs and then say they did not want to post the flights because it took to much time. Yup, it took all of about 2 or 3 minutes to post a couple of empty leg air charter flights. That was just to much time to make $10,000 though for some people. That was when I learned how lazy people were. The fact was that the dispatchers did not get paid based on how much they sold. Selling more flights meant more work for them and they did not want more work!
It all started several years ago...........
Let me catch you up on how I got here. As a son of a pilot born in WV I decide to join the US Coast Guard after high school. After 4.5 years in the mility I decided I would attend WVU and completed my 4 yr degree in 2.5 years by attending summer classes. I then moved to Embry-Riddle U. in Daytona Beach, FL to complete my commercial flying courses. After completing my flying I was hired to fly for a part 135 air charter company in FL flying old lear jets. After 6 months at a pay of about $18,000 a year working day and night I decided to take a much better paying job in Cleveland, Oh. After 2 years of flying lear jets as a co-pilot I was upgraded to fly cargo as a captain. Since those early years I have managed to gain 7 jet type ratings in the following aircraft. (G200, G450, Global Express, Citation 500, Lear Jet 45, B737, and Lear Jet series)
One day while flying for an air charter company in Indiana I found out quickly that some people in the industry will sacrafice their friends or employees to get a dollar! I built this air charter company up from no flying to over 170 hours per month on two lear jets! Then they tried to take my commission away from me after I got all of the business coming in. I told them I would just let them handle the air charter and I would just fly. Well, then next month air charter dropped off the cliff! I was the type of person who answered the phone at 3 am to book trips. I was also the type of person that sent out quotes in a matter of minutes and not hours. I built a company web site, took pictures of our aircraft, sent emails, faxed, and advertised our aircraft without spending any company money! I answered all phone calls and I also flew more hours than any other pilot at our flight department. So my commission of 3% was earned! They soon laid me off thinking they would run the company without me. Several weeks later they laid off more pilots and cut the pay of the remaining staff members. Later they would go on to disolve the company because of the lack of air charter flights.
During that time I decided I could build a system to help people market their empty legs and sell more air charter. It was there in Fort Wayne, In that http://www.chartermatrix.com/ was born. Now here I am with 5 aviation web sites and growing! The story had a happy ending after all.
One day while flying for an air charter company in Indiana I found out quickly that some people in the industry will sacrafice their friends or employees to get a dollar! I built this air charter company up from no flying to over 170 hours per month on two lear jets! Then they tried to take my commission away from me after I got all of the business coming in. I told them I would just let them handle the air charter and I would just fly. Well, then next month air charter dropped off the cliff! I was the type of person who answered the phone at 3 am to book trips. I was also the type of person that sent out quotes in a matter of minutes and not hours. I built a company web site, took pictures of our aircraft, sent emails, faxed, and advertised our aircraft without spending any company money! I answered all phone calls and I also flew more hours than any other pilot at our flight department. So my commission of 3% was earned! They soon laid me off thinking they would run the company without me. Several weeks later they laid off more pilots and cut the pay of the remaining staff members. Later they would go on to disolve the company because of the lack of air charter flights.
During that time I decided I could build a system to help people market their empty legs and sell more air charter. It was there in Fort Wayne, In that http://www.chartermatrix.com/ was born. Now here I am with 5 aviation web sites and growing! The story had a happy ending after all.
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