Rib Experience - Advice Appreciated

[Ashton]

At long last we are bighting the bullet and plan to launch a rib experience here in Scotland next year in time for the start of the season.

We have our boat (Ribcraft 10.5) and are familiar with the coding requirements.

We would appreciate some help, assistance or guidance from existing operators in the following areas:

Marketing material - Printed leaflets and signage, any hints or tips?
Blog's/App's/Facebook/Twitter - Any experience of using these, are they worthwhile?
Clothing - What make offers best value?
Lifejackets - What make offers a robust lifejacket at a sensible price?
Disclaimer forms - Is there a standard document out there?
Pricing - Are there pricing thresholds?
Website - I'll post a link on here for comments as soon as we have it up and running.
Anything else you think might be useful......

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[Rogue Wave]

Theres a fairly impressive mob working out of Largs maria, I think they run posh Humbers, but they've definitely got the marketing and customer handling sorted. I forget the name but I'd go down and have a look or ring the Marina office and ask them then check out the website.

Most impresive mob down here is Solent rib Charters who definitely do the marketing right andprovide a goodservice. I've also heard good things about C2 and 250k seems to have had a good year which indicates his marketing is right.

When I used to do this I always found Typhoon was a good buy for lifejackets, but the manual 150's ones and sell them off after a year then you don't need an annual service (usually as dear as a cheaper jacket)

clothing Fladen

Dunno much about the other stuff

[jambo]

Mark well done and can I wish you well in your new veture. As one who boats out of the 'west' can I ask where are you going to be based? Sorry it is of the thread but i was just interested.

[PeterM]

PM or email 250knts on here ..... he knows a HUGE amount about setting up a new venture !

See pooleseasafari.com for what he has done etc etc..

Pete

[Ashton]

Rogue wave, thanks for that, Cumbrae Voyages at Largs have a really impressive set up.

Jambo, thanks, maybe I should run a pooleseasafari style challenge on the location????

[C2 RIBS]

Originally Posted by Ashton

At long last we are bighting the bullet and plan to launch a rib experience here in Scotland next year in time for the start of the season.

We have our boat (Ribcraft 10.5) and are familiar with the coding requirements.

We would appreciate some help, assistance or guidance from existing operators in the following areas:

Marketing material - Printed leaflets and signage, any hints or tips?
Blog's/App's/Facebook/Twitter - Any experience of using these, are they worthwhile?
Clothing - What make offers best value?
Lifejackets - What make offers a robust lifejacket at a sensible price?
Disclaimer forms - Is there a standard document out there?
Pricing - Are there pricing thresholds?
Website - I'll post a link on here for comments as soon as we have it up and running.
Anything else you think might be useful......

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Mark there is a document that was produced that sets out some good background but the PDF is too big to load and being a techno **** dont know how to redcue it, so pm me your e mail and I will send over the document titled "starting a rib business"
This I think is the link
http://www.ribevents.com/site/boatte...B_business.pdf

If this fails then pm me again.

Marketing without question has to be key- It was mentioned concerning Solent Rib Charter and they have the corner covered well . Certainly google ads may be expensive but you can target this now and slowly work towards optimising the website and getting onto the organic side of google searches. We have leaflets but you must think where to use- Hotels? Clubs? Businesses? Tour companies and tourist centre?

Facebook, twitter, linkedin must all have some help but I am no expert

Clothing must be good as wet and cold clients dont come back, so breathable is also good and to extend the season you need good quality although summer wear can be thinner

Shop around for lifejackets- suggest fully automatic but look at prices for servicing which must be done and also part availabilty and prices. Trade discounts are there to be asked for. We started with manual but in my view health and safety guru's would kill my business if someone went overboard and they forgot to manually operate the lifejacket as many people have never been on boats, let alone fast RIBS

Quite a few of us on the South use an insurance disclaimer which the insurers formatted for us. I can find this to e mail if you wish but insist on good insurance with good liabilty cover as we see a few chance claimaints looking to take money but this would destroy your business

Pricing can be sen on many similar websites and depends on locality, what is on offer, competition and overheads ie mooring dry stacks etc

If you search back on forum under commercial operators there is a significant amount of good words to be read, as stated 250 set up at beginning of this year and should know latest problems.
Guess loads more for you from others

[Ashton]

Thanks Peter and C2.

C2 - PM Sent

Mark

[Ashton]

Thanks for the great responses both on the forum and by PM, received so far.

Any other hints or tips that operators feel are worth mentioning, please shout.

Thanks

[Ashton]

I know this may well vary, but what average load factor are any commercial operators experiencing on scheduled trips?

We have based our numbers on 50% as an average, but would appreciate others views.

Thanks