Guiding Questions
- This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Mar 29, 2010 at 2:19 pm by
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For all the guys that are guides on the site what advice would you give to a fella working on starting his own guide service? What are your rates, what do you provide, and how do you decide on those things?
To give you an idea of what I have in mind, I would like to guide on the creeks and small rivers in Central Alabama for spotted bass. I would like to specailize in fly-fishing but I have no problems setting up folks for conventional tackle as well. Also to help things out, a friend of the family offered to let me use his camp house to lodge guests in so that I could provide more of a lodge feel. Might be just a goofy idea but I feel like it could work out especially with the advice of good people.
Thanks,
PeterFirst I’d look into all your legal issues and expenses…
Set up a LLC
Get the proper insurance and licensing…(guide license, capts license, occupational license…pretty much specific to your state and I don’t know about Alabama)
The lodge might be a great idea but also a lot more liability and legal issues come along with it.
For pricing I’d look into your competition…who else provides a similar service in your area.
Craig thats great advice and so was your pm. I appreciate both. I very much understand what you’re saying about the idea that guiding is very much about people skills and a little about fishing. I have often heard that it is about fishing through other people.
As to how do I plan to reach customers, well I do seminars on fly casting and fly fishing around Mobile Al. As a matter of fact on April 17th the Mobile Bay Kayak Fishing Association is havin their Spring Fishing Seminar, I have been invited to speak for an hour on fly-casting, fly-fishing, and how to get started.
I am also working now on a web site I’ll put a link on for it, I’d appreciate advice there, please realize that I just started working on it the day before yesterday.
The reason that I have not tried to go to a guide school is that I will be working for Kamp Kiwanis this June teaching fly fishing, they have even offered to pay for me to get my FFF CCI. So I’m very excited about the goings on of this spring and summer.
here is a link to my work-in-progress website: http://thetailingloop.webs.com
Thanks again,
PeterLooks good, Peter. The Cahaba is a beautiful river.
Craig is right on about guiding. It is people skills first and foremost, especially when you are guiding someone who wants to ‘impress’ you. I never did understand that. If one is as good as the guide, why hire him?
I will be guiding out if my Native Ultimate 14.5 and also doing wade trips. I am definately looking forward to giving it a go and seeing what all happens. Hopefully I’ll be back up that way ASAP and I can collect some good shots for the website.
Good advice thus far.
In any start-up business you need to have a plan and a realistic set of expectations as well as goals that you can shoot for.
It is crucial even as a fly fishing guide to have a clear plan of attack. Take the time to write up a business plan. If you wonder what this is google it and then do it. Having to go through this process weather or not you need financing will help you understand what you are facing.
Give yourself at least 5 years to establish your business before you plan on making any money. Seriously, plan on 5 seasons of hustle your ass off and take only a bare minimum of what you really need to survive out of the business and put everything else back into it and then some.
5 years of FOCUS. That is a big devotion but will pay off.
Think of the business like a garden.
First you must prepare the soil…also account for lots of water and sunlight.
Then you plant the seed – first year you hope for a tiny little sprout.
Lots of watering, weeding and tending to the soil.
Second year – still a little plant, but it has survived. Water, weed, fertilize maybe transplant maybe not. If you are doing things well you might could see a small bloom…
Third year – an established plant. Lot of fertilizer and still working the soil. Lots of water and weeding but now you will start to realize some nice blooms and if you have done your job well a little bit of produce…also good to prune a bit here to give strength later there.
Forth year – yes, still water, weed, fertilize but the effort will show promise and reward. If you have a green thumb you will start to have a surplus…but do not squander…put the excess back into the soil!
Fifth year! Time to start to enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. Continue to do your work but now you will see the bounty you have created and can count on an established crop. Congrats!
😉
A couple of quick things…
Search engines generally will not give much weight (if any) to “free” websites. They have no real investment and the websites have a tendency to come and go rather quickly. Search engines can’t afford to have dead links that go no where.
If you are looking to use the web to attract your targeted audience than you have to be sure to use the right keyword phrases that your target audience uses when searching for guides in your area. For example: “Cahaba guide service”, “Fishing guides Cahaba River”.
In your Title Tag dump “home”. You don’t want people searching “home”, you want fishermen searching for “Cahaba fishing guide”.
Good luck!
Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice, I had similar feelings on the free website thing and I understand why that would be the way of things. But I’m still a college bum so I will just make the most out of what I can and hope to “water and weed” my project.
If I can convince five clients to spend a day on the water with me then I will count this first year a raving success.
Thanks again Guys,
PeterPeter, I am setting up to the do the same thing here in SE OK / SW AR.
I will be guiding for spotted / smallies / largemouth out of some of my favorite warm water flows. I plan on offering kayak trips but as soon as I get a raft, I will be guiding out of it. (IMO it opens up a lot of business who would rather float down the river with a guide in the same boat to handle fly changes etc…)
Good advice has already been given. Good luck!
I looked into the rafts, but they cost an arm and a leg! As to guiding out of kayaks, let me say this, the best way for that to work is when you can tandem it. Otherwise your guest is working their butt off against the current and if they aren’t experienced paddlers they cant get a cast off. And it seems to me when they do manage to get a cast right most folks dont read water well.
Here is the advntage to my Native it affords very comfortable seating while tandem
But due to its low bow it really isnt suited for standing waves. But with the attachments of the spray skirts (http://www.nativewatercraft.com/accessory.cfm?id=6) available they become suitable for light white water (I and II)
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