HOW TO START YOUR OWN OUTDOOR BUSINESS

Eighty-percent of businesses fail in their first year because the business owner did not possess the first 4 characteristics.  An additional 10% more fail in their first two years because the owner was lacking in items 5-7. All total close to 95% of start-up businesses fail in their first five years.  So, you had better be committed for the “long haul.”

Start-Up Time-Tables

Here are some general start-up "yard-sticks"-

Depending upon the simplicity/complexity of your product or service and the “age” of your market, start-up times can range from one year to five years.  A new or “untapped” market will be easier to penetrate and “make a market,” while an older or established market will be harder to break into.  Based upon our experience, the first year is usually full of learning and making mistakes, unless you are already a skilled businessman.  Either during your first or second year, you will need to write or think of a business and marketing plan and begin soliciting funds.  Usually, folks need to refocus or redefine their target market and/or product somewhere in their second or third year.  Having achieved these benchmarks, business owners typically try to solidify their customer base and increase their sales/cash flows through advertising and marketing in their fourth year.  Lastly, for older or saturated markets (those markets where competition is fierce and product differentiation is negligible), business owners continue to fine-tune or tweak their business in the fifth year and beyond, in order to achieve sustainability, and profit growth.

Mega-Trends

Here are 6 Big Trends for Outdoor Businessmen going into 2010-

• Increased costs and declining profit-margins will squeeze some small operations to either fold or merge.
• Gaining popularity for environmentally safe, low impact, or “green” hunting, fishing, & adventuring.
• Increased technical knowledge/training for water resource management, natural resource management, and land use.
• Increased use of rentals or purchases of resort properties especially in third world countries.
• Women will overtake men as outdoor participants, minorities will become more involved in traditional white pursuits such as hunting and camping, older Americans will pursue the outdoors well into their nineties, and more programs will be offered to handicapped individuals.
• Outdoor Apparel will continue to be popular for its trendy, fashion attractiveness.
• Increased emphasis of eco-friendly recreation, nature based sports- leisure, and more "niche" tourist marketing.

(Source: "Trends in Outdoor Recreation, Leisure, & Tourism by Dr. Tom Lime, Univ. of Minn. Professor of Forestry & Tourism)

Current Business Environment/Outdoors Marketing Conditions-

With both a persistent recession and inflation occurring, prices for the basic goods and materials are going up, there are some significant “barriers to entry” for people wanting to start their own outdoor business.  To be sure, more people want to spend more time outside, but American’s family budgets will be strained when it comes to leisure and recreation until the economy improves.  Even as “baby boomers” retire and find extra time on their hands, we expect seniors to spend more time with their grandchildren than striking out on their own in their “golden years” to travel and explore.
In light of this, travel agencies are predicting slow overseas trip sales and luxury cruise ship bookings and are hopeful that travelers will journey closer to home ( Source: Leisure Group Trends,)

Outdoors retailers are expecting good sales but not exceptionally strong sales for equipment & gear (Source: Outdoors Retailer.Com's Winter Sports Equipment Show) Outdoor apparel companies anticipate strong sales based on recent advances in clothing and footwear design/functionality.  ( Source: Outdoors Industry.Org's Winter Apparel Show, )

Several bright lights for outdoor business owners are the continued strong interest in the environment, outdoor sports like hunting & fishing, the beauty of nature, adventure stories, and outdoor photography continue to motivate people.  Today, consulting and outdoors writing are two of the largest growth fields for individuals desiring to work for themselves outdoors.  ( Source: The Outdoor Writers Association of America)

An excellent book on the basics of growing your business, including approaching venture capitalists, is "Growing A Business,” by Paul Hawken.  Remember, venture capitalists are interested in new ideas with “sex appeal” or offer a dynamic break-through innovation that will yield huge returns.  So, if your business idea doesn’t “knock their socks off,” it would be better to raise cash from friends, family, credit cards, or bank loans, etc.

Jobs/Areas of Interest/Small Business Opportunities

There are about 60 careers all told, including such uncommon jobs as elephant trainer, skydiving instructor, and equestrienne.  However, we feel that the next big outdoor battle will concern coal or energy plants versus nature and the environment.  As an article in the SLC Tribune indicated, (Source: Salt Lake Tribune-News, Jan 16th, 2008), major conflict is brewing over the use of public park lands.  Because of these new environmental concerns, we believe future outdoor work will be increasingly technical.  Hence, we believe that the strongest demand for business growth will be in the following fields: Park Management, Head of an Environmental Group, Wildlife Fish & Game Expert, Conservation Officer,” Green” Energy Consultant, Air Quality Control Technician, Lake or Aquatic Life Biologist, Campground Director, Youth Leader, and, Wilderness Outfitter or Expedition Leader, (Source: The National Outdoor Leadership School)

Other Outdoor Pursuits

Here is a long list of other outdoor pursuits to get your imagination going:1) Golfing, 2) Underwater Scuba Diving, 3) Other Water Sports, 4) Outdoor Apparel & Gear, 5) Fitness Equipment, 6) Garden Shops & Supplies, 7) Range Management, 8) Lodging Management, 8) Fishing & Tackle Shops, 9) Making Lures, Baits, & Traps, 10) Survival & Disaster Preparedness Training, 11) Wilderness or Trail Guiding, 12) Building Log Cabins for a Living, 13) Niche Landscaping, Tree Trimming & Planting, 14) Athletic Training, 15) Farm Veterinarian, 16) Commercial Fishing, 17) Marine Biologists, and 18) Outdoor Equipment Repair Shops (i.e. snowmobile, ATV, and watercraft repair.)

The final item in this long list is teaching young people outdoors skills like hunting & fishing: (Source: Gilbert Hunter Takes Rookies Outdoors by DeWayne Smith published in the Jan 9th, 2008 Issue of The Arizona Sun.

Three sports areas where we see strong growth is under water scuba diving, other watersports, and golfing.  We see peak demand for outdoor equipment repair shops as the cost of purchasing new equipment climbs.

Our Sources for this Article:

• Trends in Outdoor Recreation, Leisure, & Tourism 2000.
• Leisure Group Trends, Jan 08.
• 08 Outdoor Retailers Convention.
• 08 Outdoor Industry's Winter Apparel Show.
• Outdoor Writer's Association.
• National Outdoor Leadership School.

Inc.Com Start-Up Advice

Elevator Pitch: eDivvy
Eden Clark's eDivvy seeks to make it a little easier.'>

The Pitch: "Group gifts are popular for occasions such as weddings and office parties, but organizing them can be a hassle. Our application allows shoppers to easily split the cost of gifts with friends, family, and co-workers. On our site, users can select gifts to buy from retailers such as Target and Macy's and invite others to contribute. We collect the money from each participant and send it to the retailer once we receive the total amount. We have also begun to partner with retailers to integrate eDivvy into their sites. By having our application on their checkout page, retailers receive traffic from each person chipping in instead of only the organizer, which increases their customer base. Soon, retailers will be able to advertise on our site, and we're working on integrating our group gift invitations with Facebook and mobile applications."

PRESIDENT: Eden Clark

LOCATION: Irvine, California

EMPLOYEES: 11

LAUNCHED: Spring 2009

2009 REVENUE: $52,000

2010 PROJECTED REVENUE: $1.1 million

2010 PROJECTED NUMBER OF GROUP GIFT PURCHASES: 35,000

AVERAGE GROUP SIZE: Eight

FEE FOR SHOPPERS: Four percent of every group purchase, plus 49 cents per credit card transaction

FEE FOR RETAILERS: Five percent to 15 percent of each group purchase

FUNDING SOUGHT: $1.5 million

The Investors Weigh In

Partner Up

I like this company's product -- it's something that I would use. But this is a crowded space, and there aren't high barriers to entry. Even large retailers like Best Buy are putting their own spin on the concept. eDivvy needs to focus on building creative partnerships. I think Evite would be a natural fit, because it attracts people organizing group events. The company should also look at retailers that fit well with the theme of group purchases. A site like Diapers.com, for example, would attract people who hold baby showers.

Hans RoderichGeneral partner and chief operating officerAzure Capital PartnersSan Francisco

Diversify Revenue

Organizing group gifts is one of those things in life that are begging for something to make them more efficient. This business could be an elegant solution. I am not sure how realistic the revenue streams eDivvy has identified are, however. It will be important to evaluate whether customers are prepared to pay the level of fees eDivvy is charging. I think that if eDivvy can create other revenue streams through sponsorships and joint ventures with retailers, then that will make the company more attractive to investors.

Loretta McCarthyManaging directorGolden SeedsNew York City

Is There Enough Demand?

The idea of group buying is a good one, and it has proven to be reasonably successful, most notably with Groupon, which offers group discounts. But eDivvy addresses groups of related people buying a single gift for occasions such as weddings and baptisms. Those events happen relatively infrequently in people's lives, whereas someone is more likely to seek group discounts for personal purchases. I doubt this is a big enough market opportunity for venture capitalists, although it might be one for an angel or seed-stage investor.

Mark SusterPartnerGRP PartnersLos Angeles

TV Guides for the Web

There's no shortage of stuff to watch online these days -- TV shows, movies, music videos, and, of course, scads of amateur video clips. Because there are so many choices, it's often tough to find the content you want by just using Google or YouTube. And though popular sites such as Hulu and Fancast work by streaming a limited collection of TV shows, there's so much more floating around on the Web. So, just as TV Guide in its day was the go-to resource for shows, video navigation websites are competing to serve a new generation of couch potatoes. Here is how four leaders stack up.

Clicker

Launched last November, Clicker catalogs programming available online, including 600,000 full-length TV episodes and 50,000 movies available through free and paid sources. The site, founded by former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone, organizes content from 2,000 Web sources. Users search by categories (there are more than 1,400), show titles, or keywords. Results are listed chronologically by episode and organized by season. Each page contains links to sites where a show is available to watch. Clickeris in talks with broadband and mobile providers to become their onscreen guide for Web-enabled TVs.

MONTHLY UNIQUE VISITORS: one million (in the first month of launch)

VideoSurf

VideoSurf organizes content based on visual recognition of faces and images in videos, rather than using text-based data such as meta tags. The technology returns a string of snapshots showing frames within a video, much like fast-forwarding through a DVD. Each query generates a visual list of people or characters; from there, a user navigates to videos in which the subject of the query appears. The technology filters out subpar or incomplete videos. VideoSurf trolls content from more than 10,000 sources and has indexed more than 480,000 TV episodes and 25,000 movies. VideoSurf gets revenue from sponsored videos.

MONTHLY UNIQUE VISITORS: 1.5 million

OVGuide.com

OVGuide debuted in 2006 and was among the first sites to sort the growing pool of YouTube and other online video content. OVGuide's search engine indexes videos based on popularity. The results are further vetted by a quality-control staff that reviews and ranks more than 6,000 video sites for their technical quality. Users can also rate and comment on those sites and the more than 100 million entertainment videos available through OVGuide. There is also a mobile version of the site. Cable channels and broadcast networks pay OVGuide to stream their content.

MONTHLY UNIQUE VISITORS: 15 million

TV1.com

This site offers about 10,000 Web video shorts, based on their popularity on the Web as well as on staff recommendations. The site is organized around playlists -- Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, for example -- and is heavily skewed toward humor. Launched about a year ago, TV1 has a video blogs component on which users can create playlists of their favorite videos. They can then post links to their video blog on their Facebook or Twitter page. The most popular TV1 video blog to date is Bollywood Banter, a roundup of the best of Bollywood film, video, and music. This site is supported so far through Google Ads.

MONTHLY UNIQUE VISITORS: 30,000

THE LINE: As one of the first companies to offer video indexing, OVGuide has the early lead. But as Clicker and VideoSurf come out with search technologies that are more refined, they could pull ahead. Clicker's sleek interface and well-organized results could give it the edge to emerge as the winner down the stretch.

Please go to Page Two for our Best Outdoor Businesses.

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