SBJ: What has been key to your recent growth? Mark Burgess: I don’t think it’s anything special we’ve done necessarily, other than the fact that we’ve just done a very good job taking care of our existing clients. The overall economy has continued to improve. All of our clients who were existing clients have seemed to increase their travel. Plus, we’ve added another airplane or two on board over the last year.
SBJ: What are your top issues when it comes to managing growth? Burgess: I’ve had to delegate down some of the things that I was doing exclusively. I’ve had to adjust one of my pilots into an assistant chief pilot mode. We’ve added four pilots just since the first of the year. We’re trying to now segregate out the blocks of aircraft. Instead of having them fly multiple types of airplanes, we’re trying to hire enough staff to be able to isolate them down just to one series of airplanes.
SBJ: Is your fast growth sustainable? Burgess: I think so. We’ve already actually picked up another airplane just two weeks ago that came in that’s going to go on our charter certificate. I’ve got another group of buyers who want to add another aircraft this year. The economy’s still strong. I think we might see a little bit of flat-lining this year, just because of it being an election year. Everybody gets a little squirrely around election years as far as spending money or expanding. Springfield doesn’t seem to really experience that as much.
SBJ: Is there such a thing as growing too fast? Burgess: We have pretty methodical growth. We don’t have explosive growth. When an aircraft comes online, we try to be ahead of the game a little bit by knowing that we’ve got enough staff and people trained to fly it. The regulatory aspects of getting an airplane up and running take several months. We don’t have anything that really happens spontaneously.
SBJ: Where is the tipping point? Burgess: I really don’t [see one.] That’s why we built the additional hangar. If we can continue to maintain our customer service and maintain our high standards, I think we’ll continue to add people on.
SBJ: Have your goals changed as business has taken off? Burgess: We really would like to try to move up to the next level, which would be trying to get an airplane that’s more of an international size. I think we could sustain something that has transoceanic capabilities.
SBJ: What is the worst business advice you’ve received? Burgess: From bankers or CPAs telling me not to do it, telling me it’s not a good idea, it’s not a sustainable business. If you’ve done it and failed and you’ve got some advice for me, then I want to hear it. I don’t like taking advice from people that tell me not to do something when they’ve never tried it themselves.
Utah-based gourmet cookie chain Crumbl Cookies opened its first Springfield shop; interior design business Branson Upstaging LLC relocated; and Lauren Ashley Dance Center LLC added a second location.
