We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rena Davenport a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

I absolutely take vacations! For many years, in the beginning, I did not take vacations. Exquisite Air Charter was like my newborn baby and I just couldn’t leave for fear of things falling apart. It always bothered me that I was in travel and yet spent nearly all my waking hours in my office when the world is so technologically advanced and you can run a business like mine from anywhere in the world. I read a quote one day saying, essentially, that one person will never be more effective and capable than a team of people. At that moment I became dedicated to building an effective team and to learning to be okay when things don’t go perfectly according to my ideas and standards.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I am a mother to two sons and a grandmother to four amazing grandchildren. I was a young, single mother who didn’t finish college my first try. Raising my kids took precedence over my own aspirations and, quite frankly, I had not yet found my passion. I was always business-minded and had studied accounting during my first attempt at college. One day I was in the gym and met someone in the private jet charter industry. We became friendly and I grew more and more intrigued with her work. As our friendship continued to grow, she was laid off from her job and I suggested we start our own private jet charter brokerage firm and we did! She stepped away for more stability and I didn’t feel like I had the experience to do it on my own so I took a few positions with established companies to gain some experience and eventually resurrected Exquisite Air Charter. Wanting to grow even more, I decided to go back to school and I earned my Bachelor in Aviation Administration with a minor in technical management and went on to earn my Master of Business Administration in Aviation with concentrations in both finance and marketing. I found my passion in aviation and it is an amazing blessing. I love what I do to the point that it rarely even feels like work!

We provide customized private jet charter services. We differ from our competitors because we have a wide range of industry experience and use that experience to give very personalized service. We analyze our clients’ needs and offer solutions that are extremely unique to their requirements. The result is the best pricing and service – this keeps our clients coming back and referring their associates (the best compliment)!

Our clients are our business and we absolutely treat them as such! I keep Exquisite Air Charter somewhat boutique so that all our clients feel like they are the only one. I learned early on that it is even okay to fire a client; in fact, it is sometimes necessary so that I continue to love what I do. Loving what I do reflects positively to both the rest of my clients and my team so firing the ones who aren’t the right fit for us is, indeed, a necessity.

I am most proud of my dedication to Exquisite Air Charter. I cared enough to step back when I needed to. I cared enough to go back to school so that I could pair experience and a formal education to be able to lead and grow Exquisite Air Charter. The result of my dedication is shown in our clients’ experience and the positive feedback we receive from them.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the 2008 recession the private jet charter industry took a nose-dive. The executives from the auto makers industry took private jets to the auto bailout hearings. They flew between city pairs (Detroit and Washington DC) that are well-serviced by commercial airlines to ask for money from the government. Their actions were, understandably, heavily scrutinized in the media. Between the bad media attention and the poor economy, private jet usage was scrutinized across the US. So many companies in our industry went under in the years immediately following. We survived due to low overhead. Working remote, from home, wasn’t well-accepted back then but we did it! I didn’t have much overhead and cut any additional unnecessary expenses. I had time on my hands so I became the accounting department, the marketing department, the charter manager, and any other roles I could possibly assume. I worked hard and it worked. Now, post-Covid, working from home is accepted but we’ve been doing it for 15 years.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn being every position at Exquisite Air Charter. I had to learn how to relinquish control and trust my team. When you build a company with nearly nothing, then almost lose it all, it is, essentially, a baby you birthed. I became afraid to allow others to do anything that might undo all that I had put into Exquisite Air Charter. I knew, intellectually, that I could not sustain being every position but didn’t know how to trust others to care the way I care. I continue to struggle with this but I have certainly come a long way and am dedicated to continuing to grow in this area.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://exquisiteaircharter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exquisiteaircharter/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrivateJetAircraftCharterFlights
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exquisite-air-charter
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExquisiteAir
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/exquisite-air-charter-canyon-country-2