How to Start a Flight School

Start a flight school by following these 10 steps:

1. Plan your Flight School
2. Form your Flight School into a Legal Entity
3. Register your Flight School for Taxes
4. Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
5. Set up Accounting for your Flight School
6. Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Flight School
7. Get Flight School Insurance
8. Define your Flight School Brand
9. Create your Flight School Website
10. Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your flight school. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

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STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

• What will you name your business?
• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?
• How much can you charge customers?

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What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit ourHow to Name a Businessguide or get help brainstorming a name with ourFlight School Name Generator

If you operate asole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit ourDBAguide to learn more.

Whenregistering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability．

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

What are the costs involved in opening a flight school?

The startup expenses associated with opening a flight school business are sizable. Major upfront costs include:

• Purchasing an office and classroom space
• Purchasing a hanger
• Purchasing airplanes
• Paying for liability and property insurance

A school will also have to buy fuel and pay instructors’ salaries, but these expenses can often be covered with students’ initial payments.

Altogether, the startup costs listed above easily reach six, and sometimes seven, figures. Most business owners must take out a loan to pay for all of these expenses.

Some business owners decide to minimize the capital (and, therefore, the size of the loan) they need by leasing office, classroom and hangar space, and airplanes. Leasing, however, doesn’t let a business build up equity in its assets.

有哪些insider tips for jump starting a flight school business?

Choosing a good location is essential to a flight school business’ success. Most areas can’t support many flight schools, so the ideal location is usually an airport that doesn’t yet have a flight school. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains adirectory of flight schoolsthat interested entrepreneurs can use to check for schools near them.

Starting out, it can be tempting to offer low prices in order to attract students. Giving students deals on flight lessons, or even individual flights, can devastate a flight school business, though. Even partnering with daily deal sites to provide discounts on “discovery flights” could cost a business$90 per flight．Business owners should have a firm grasp of their operating expenses and required margins, and they ought to set prices accordingly from day one.

Instead of lowering prices to attract students, flight schools can help potential students look for scholarships and grants that may reduce their out-of-pocket. The FAA has adirectory of scholarships and grantsthat students might qualify for.

Another way to lower the entry cost for students without reducing per-hour rates is by offering training for a sport pilot license. Asport pilot licensetypically takes only 20 hours of training, which is about half of the training required to become a private pilot. Thus, the costs for students can be cut by about 50 percent while still covering the school’s ongoing expenses.

What are the ongoing expenses for a flight school?

The ongoing expenses for a flight school business, like the startup costs, are significant.

Maintenance costs are one of the largest ongoing expenses and can significantly decrease a flight school’s profits. To keep maintenance costs manageable, business owners should look for an airplane mechanic who will offer the school reduced rates in exchange for regular work.

Other significant ongoing expenses include lease or mortgage payments for a building and a hangar, fuel costs, insurance premiums and instructors’ wages.

Who is the target market?

A flight school business’ ideal customer is someone who has interest in flying and is wealthy. Learning to fly isn’t cheap. Usually, only individuals who have a decent amount of discretionary income are able to afford the coursework.

How does a flight school make money?

A flight school business makes money by charging students for training. Training typically consists of classroom instruction and one-on-one flight time with an instructor. Students who need additional training beyond the typical coursework may be charged on an hourly basis for one-on-one lessons with an instructor.

How much can you charge customers?

Training for a private pilot license costs most students between$8,000 and $12,000．这些数据包括考试和材料(如flight computer, log book and navigation plotter) costs, but these are relatively small expenses. The vast majority of these sums goes to the flight school business and instructor that provides training.

Training costs are sometimes broken down into hourly rates for the instructor and for using a plane. For example, a student might pay $40 per hour for an instructor’s time, and $120 per hour for use of a training plane. (These are just example amounts; hourly rates vary).

How much profit can a flight school make?

Because flight school businesses have sizable ongoing costs, their profit margins aren’t too high. A well-run flight school in an area with many potential students, however, can earn a respectable profit and pay employees’ salaries -- including the business owner’s salary, if they’re involved in the day-to-day operations of the business.

How can you make your business more profitable?

A flight school business might increase its revenue by offering charter flights and flight tours. If a school owns a hangar, it can also rent hangar space to private airplane owners. Some schools also let graduated students rent planes by the hour or day.

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

The most commonbusiness structuretypes are thesole proprietorship,partnership,118bet金博宝 , andcorporation．

Establishing a legal business entity such as anLLCorcorporationprotects you from being held personally liable if your flight school is sued.

You can金宝搏188是什么公司yourself and pay only the minimal stateLLC costsor hire one of the118金宝app for a small, additional fee.

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more aboutstate sales taxand franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to aspiercing your corporate veil．

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Get a business credit card

Getting abusiness credit cardhelps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history, which can be useful to raise money later on.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with ourLLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

Federal Business Licensing Requirements

Federal Aviation regulations designate two types of flight training schools:

• Part 61 requires 40 hours of training but is more flexible in that it doesn’t need to be directly approved by the FAA (though all instructors must be FAA approved). Part 61 schools are typically recommended for part-time students pursuing flying as a hobby
• Part 141 requires 35 hours of training but is much stricter, dealing with regular FAA surveillance and having minimum pass rates on practical exams. Thistypeof schooling is recommended for full-time students pursuing flying as a career

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

In addition to federal regulations, flight schools will typically have to apply for a flight school license from their respective states. An example of a license application can be foundhere．

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully.Business Insuranceprotects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face,begin withGeneral Liability Insurance．This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need isWorkers’ Compensation Insurance．If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

Is this Business Right For You?

Running a flight school requires knowledge of flying and airplanes. Even if a business owner isn’t the person taking students up in planes or servicing the school’s fleet, they still need to know enough to accurately assess instructors’ abilities and make wise decisions regarding the maintenance of planes.

Because a knowledge of flying is extremely helpful, experienced and former pilots are particularly well qualified to open a flight school business. A flight school business might be a good venture for a pilot in the armed forces who is leaving active duty, or a commercial pilot who would like to retire from the industry and stay home more often.

Business owners don’t technically need experience as a military or commercial pilot to open a flight school business, but the experience can be a great help.

What happens during a typical day at a flight school?

Starting out, a flight school business owner may double as an instructor. Successful business owners, however, spend more of their time running and growing their business than teaching individual students.

A flight school business owner’s daily activities can vary a lot from one day to the next. On any given day, they might:

• Have to address a maintenance or repair issue with a plane
• Manage and schedule instructors
• Promote classes to prospective students
• Bill and collect payment from current students
• Ensure students are satisfied with their training
• Schedule exams and relay scores to students

有哪些skills and experiences that will help you build a successful flight school?

Flight school business owners who don’t have previous experience as a pilot may want to get a private pilot license so they have first-hand knowledge of the service their business is offering. Flying isn’t the only aspect of the business that owners should be familiar with.

Business owners will have to make a number of significant decisions, such as what planes to acquire, which instructors to hire and when to schedule classes. Working at another flight school, even if just as an administrative assistant, for several months will give a business owner some experience to draw on when making these decisions.

企业主可能无法得到一个职位n at a nearby flight school, as their school could be competition for the nearby school. A flight school in a different region, however, may be willing to hire someone who’s hoping to enter the industry -- as long as their school will draw students from a different area.

What is the growth potential for a flight school?

A flight school business can be a single, independent school or a national chain. Two national franchise organizations areATP Flight School, which has forty locations throughout the United States, andAmerican Flyers, which has six locations.