Adventure Firm Needs a Good Plan of Attack

Drop him into the back country and outdoor guide Christopher Gavigan has the skills and experience to easily find his way home and enjoy the journey.

Finding his way through the uncharted territory of a new business launch has been much more difficult. After months of preparation he’s had to postpone until next summer the first trips organized by Pinnacle Expeditions, his adventure travel company geared to teenagers, because of low registration.

The part-time science teacher has learned that just as sheer determination and self-reliance aren’t enough to survive in the back country, they also can go only so far in helping him reach his business goals. A good map, the right tools and the know-how to use them properly are essential.

“It’s been a challenge, especially creating a plan of attack,” Gavigan, 26, said.

But he doesn’t want to give up on his vision of using the outdoors to inspire teens, teach them new skills and enhance their understanding of the natural environment.

“The fact that we have such beautiful mountains and rivers and the ocean so close by is such a gift,” Gavigan said. “I think a lot of these kids from California have this at their back door and just don’t know about it.”

Gavigan has spent his after-school hours and part of an $11,000 investment from his father building a Web site, https://www.pinnaclex.com, advertising on other Web sites, creating a four-color flier and applying for wilderness permits. He’s also spent time talking with kids about his program, meeting with parents and typing follow-up letters, often until midnight.

Still, the tuition checks for the trips have failed to arrive.

“You can talk to 150 kids and have them extremely excited about it,” Gavigan said. “I found that parents procrastinate, and it has been difficult getting in touch with them and making them decide.”

Gavigan’s attempts to get his business off the ground have been hurt by his lack of business experience, consultant Ken Keller said.

“I would give him an A for effort but a C-minus from a technical knowledge standpoint,” Keller said. “Unfortunately it’s not how hard you try, it’s the results that count.”

To get the results he wants, Gavigan needs a road map for his business, the consultant said. He needs to expand his target market and reach it more efficiently. Gavigan could also benefit by setting up strategic alliances with related businesses. And he needs to learn more about running a business, the consultant said.

Gavigan wouldn’t undertake a multi-week expedition without a plan of attack and shouldn’t expect to undertake a new business without the same attention to planning, Keller said. He needs a business plan that lays out the goals, strategy and resources needed for each part of Pinnacle Expeditions.

Gavigan agreed.

“I felt there was a lot of connection in that you need a lot of foresight in these wilderness efforts,” he said. A business plan “is very similar to [planning] how I will summit that peak, how will I get there. They are both goal-setting techniques.”

Most business owners agree a business plan is a good idea. Far fewer write one. To make the task easier, Keller recommended that Gavigan take advantage of the help offered by one of the Small Business Development Centers: A $20 workshop offers business-plan basics. A 12-week $250 class will guide Gavigan through the creation of a business plan.

Information about the centers located in Santa Monica, Torrance and in the mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, and the workshops, can be found online at https://www.swlasbdc.org.

“It is absolutely amazing the transformation that comes over people once they finish their business plan and start executing it,” said Keller, who teaches some of the workshops.

A business plan can also save a business owner money, he said. If Gavigan had had a well-thought-out marketing strategy as part of a formal business plan, he could have saved an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 on marketing, as well as the time he put into it, Keller said.

He suggested a marketing strategy that would include a shift from the time-consuming, one-on-one selling Gavigan has been doing.

“He’s thinking one kid at a time, and I’m thinking volume,” Keller said.

To create that volume, he recommended that Gavigan expand his target market and expand his marketing reach by building alliances with organizations that are already selling to his markets, including residential summer camps.

Pinnacle Expeditions could fill the need of kids who are too old for the traditional two- or three-week summer sleep-over camp featuring archery and swimming but who may be too young to have a summer job. To make that idea work, Gavigan would need to show a residential camp owner how the deal would be a benefit from a marketing, sales and financial standpoint, Keller said.

Camp owners are likely to be interested in such a deal as a way to extend their relationship with their young clients beyond the age most would drop out, he said. Gavigan would benefit from access to a pool of kids whose parents have shown an interest in getting them outdoors.

Keller also suggested Gavigan look into offering his trips, perhaps a weekend version, through extension classes or programs at community colleges. The Emeritus College at Santa Monica College, one of more than 50 community or junior colleges in Southern California, would be a good place to start, he said.

Pinnacle Expeditions could also explore offering programs geared to schools for developmentally disabled children or adults and to private schools looking for an alternative to summer school. Pinnacle Expeditions should also consider tailoring its trips for group sales to student government leaders in high school or college, the consultant said.

Gavigan’s emphasis on team building and communication would be appropriate for kids who want to become leaders and could be a selling point to parents seeking a way for their kids to gain maturity and responsibility.

“He’s really a junior version of Outward Bound,” Keller said.

Though Gavigan’s teaching credentials and experience give him an advantage in creating programs that would appeal to schools and parents, he will need to do his business homework if he wants his company to make the grade, the consultant said.

“I just think that it’s a great idea, and I would like to see him do it right,” Keller said. “If he uses his time wisely now he could probably have a pretty successful business up and running by next summer.”

To give him the time he needs to build his business, Gavigan made the difficult decision not to return this fall to his teaching post at Westland, a private progressive school in Bel Air. To pay the bills, he’s begun tutoring the children of a well-known filmmaker in the afternoons. He’ll continue doing holiday-season stints at the Patagonia store in Santa Monica. And he has moved into less expensive housing.

Gavigan has already begun to follow up on some of Keller’s recommendations with the goal of leading at least two expeditions next summer.

“It’s definitely not the smoothest-running ship, but it’s a ship I need to get out of the harbor,” Gavigan said.

Of Pinnacle Expedition’s slow launch, he takes an adventurer’s view.

“If I’m going to lose money, I might as well do it now rather than when I have more responsibilities,” Gavigan said. “It’s all about risk, and if you’re not going to risk, then you’re not going to taste the nectar.”

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This Week’s Business Make-Over

Company name: Pinnacle Expeditions

Headquarters: Santa Monica

Type of business: Adventure travel

Status: Sole proprietorship

Owner: Christopher Gavigan

Founded: Fall 1999

1999 sales: None

Employees: 2 independent contractors

Customers: Youths 14 to 18 years old

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Main Business Problem

Lack of sales and marketing experience.

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Goal

To create a business with an annual growth rate of 20%.

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Recommendations

* Research and write a business plan.

* Change marketing focus from one-on-one selling.

* Build strategic alliances with residential summer camps.

* Tap schools and colleges for group sales.

* Expand business knowledge and skills.

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Meet the Consultant

Ken Keller is a small-business consultant and principal of Keller & Associates in Valencia.