We were lucky to catch up with Valentina Mejia recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Valentina, thanks for joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
We are a couple owned helicopter services business, located in Fort Lauderdale, FL; my husband is the CEO and main pilot and I am the COO and Marketing Director. We opened around May 2020, we all know the world situation around those times, but with our protocols, hard work and dedication, we were able to overcome it. It has been a process, with a mix of happiness, frustrations, joys, deceptions, wins, lost, but most of all we see our business as a school were we learn new things every day that help us build new EXPERIENCES for us and our customers.
Now, talking from the technical side, the huge variety of digital advertising and its amazing platforms, are the key for our company’s scale up. Off course, this digital strategy needs to be bundled up with the physical customer service and detailed oriented experience that we offer every single client, from the moment they contact us to the moment they leave our company after their helicopter tour or service provided.
In conclusion, for us, the secret for our company’s success is the mix of digital campaigns + excellent customer service.
Valentina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are Camilo and Valentina, husband and wife, life and business partners. We decided to join and professional knowledge and experience to create Keen Fly.
Camilo has been a Helicopter Professional Pilot for more than 10 years already. He doesn’t work, he just enjoys flying everyday, it is his passion and one of the main things that inspires him every morning.
Valentina is an advertiser by profession and an administrator by experience. She enjoys giving the company a shape and organize structure to be able to provide neat services.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
We had to put a big part of our savings to be able to fund our business, but not all of it, because this is a high maintenance business that requires a cash flow for unexpected situations with our helicopters. The rest of funds needed, were taken from personal loans that gratefully have already been paid. A huge advice is to always save minimum a 10% of your income to be able to cover any unexpected expenses that surprisedly come up in all businesses.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Definitely our dedicated customer treat, with kindness, is what has helped us build our reputation. We are extremely grateful because we have only had 5 stars reviews on all digital platforms, which supports our client relation and reliability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://keen-fly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keen.fly/?utm_medium=copy_link
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/keenfly/100063480101615/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keen-fly-helicopter-tours-flight-school
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxVB2YiCcxSeuH9ImPXaGXA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/keen-fly-ft-lauderdale-2?osq=keen+fly