Once you’ve cut the fat and leaned out your staff, everyone who stays with you should be expected to pick-up the slack to help the operation generate income through profitable services. Make it clear to your CFIs that in order to remain valuable employees, they must be able to demonstrate their commitment to building and maintaining a profitable and secure operation by utilizing multiple skills.
In any operation it is important to cross-train your employees in case of illness or cut-backs, ideally before they are actually needed to perform them out of necessity. Nobody wants to pay a CFI to sit and answer phones, but when they’re not working with students, they should be pitching in to do whatever needs to be done instead of playing video games or texting while on the clock and on your dime.
Though your instructors may moan and groan about dishpan hands and longer hours, they will thank you in the long run when profits return without them ever having to hit the curb to look for a job.
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This beginning pilots' resource guide explains what you can expect from your introductory flight through initial training—and how to turn your dream of flying into reality.
