Greg Porter, 33 and president and proprietor of Great Canadian Heli-Skiing (GCHS) for the past five years, says when he bought the Golden-based company despite having only limited previous business experience he was following the advice of his father to “bite off more than you can chew, and then chew like hell!”.
The ex-Ontarian says the seeds of the move were planted a few years before when his wife Maaike’s uncle tried to book a BC cat-skiing holiday (where snow cats are used to haul skiers to virgin slopes beyond the reach of traditional lifts) but found all fully booked. "In the back of our minds we thought that might be a good business opportunity if they’re turning customers away," he says.
So they came to BC looking for something similar. He approached the BC Investment Management Corporation for advice and found no cat-skiing businesses for sale. But there were three heli-ski operators on the market.
GCHS had been helicoptering adventurous skiers high up into the mountains to enjoy shushing down slopes of pristine powder snow for more than a decade. It had an established, loyal clientele who liked its small group philosophy (usually three or four skiers on each flight, as opposed to the dozen or so the others carried at the time) "… and there were opportunities for growth, both expanding the heli-skiing business and expanding into some summer business as well". The combination of the business and small mountain-town lifestyle offered exactly the change of pace from Mississauga he and Maaike wanted. So they decided to go for it.
Porter admits things "haven’t quite followed the curve of our original business plan", but says the company has remained profitable through trying times (9/11, SARS, forest fires, rocketing fuel prices) and that among the many things they have learned is to "expect the unexpected". He credits the company’s management team and small size (fewer than 20 employees at its busiest) with keeping it nimble enough to respond to changing markets and developing "a real strong strategic plan that enables us to look at these changes and treat them as opportunities".
Porter, a former nationally competitive snowboarder, says friends and clients often tease him that he got into the business so he can enjoy the product whenever he wants. He admits to indulging in "quality control" as often as time permits, but says he likes the business side just as much. "Working with the people on our team, coming up with great ideas, brainstorming, developing the ideas into reality ..." and seeing the positive effects on the company"… I think is what drives you..
"The point with these so-called 'lifestyle businesses' is it can’t just all be lifestyle, you have to enjoy the business as well," he says.
Porter doesn’t think anyone interested in business should let youth or inexperience inhibit them. Harking back to his father’s advice, he points out getting into any business is a risk, but that the time to take chances in life is when you’re young, "when there’s lots of opportunity to make lots of mistakes—and to correct them as well".
