If you were to start a ski business....

[AdironRider]

Where and what would it be?

Do you think it is sustainable as your only form of employment?

What would you do to make yourself what you want to be?

For me it would be in the restaurant business. Ideally I would own and operate a restaurant group catering to all aspects of the economic spectrum, from a little locals breakfast shack to a fine dining showpiece. Figure if I an stake out a little corner in a couple different restaurant markets, itll turn out to be profitable. Not to mention Id get to live in ski country full time, and the hours would be pretty tits.

Its probably all make believe, but Im starting to think I could make it work as I move forward in restaurant management.

 

[jaywbigred]

Where and what would it be?

Do you think it is sustainable as your only form of employment?

What would you do to make yourself what you want to be?

For me it would be in the restaurant business. Ideally I would own and operate a restaurant group catering to all aspects of the economic spectrum, from a little locals breakfast shack to a fine dining showpiece. Figure if I an stake out a little corner in a couple different restaurant markets, itll turn out to be profitable. Not to mention Id get to live in ski country full time, and the hours would be pretty tits.

Its probably all make believe, but Im starting to think I could make it work as I move forward in restaurant management.

I would love to set-up my own little law firm in ski country, work for myself. The goal of course being making only enough money to pay the bills on a nice little house and family, save for kids college, and have enough left over for a season pass and some golf....

Probably a pipe dream.

And dude, besides me and 2 of my friends from law school, you are the first person I've heard use the word "tits" as an adjective. :beer::beer:

 

[RootDKJ]

And dude, besides me and 2 of my friends from law school, you are the first person I've heard use the word "tits" as an adjective. :beer::beer:

I say that all the time.

 

[mondeo]

And dude, besides me and 2 of my friends from law school, you are the first person I've heard use the word "tits" as an adjective. :beer::beer:

That word as an adjective is tits.

Probably a hardware company, boots, bindings, skis, and the like. Stuff that could use a mechanical engineer.

 

[Philpug]

Do you want to make a small fortune in the ski business? Start with a large fortune.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

Do you want to make a small fortune in the ski business? Start with a large fortune.

totally agree with phil on this one...I'd rather start a business in a summer resort town and ski all winter.

 

[billski]

I would never want to work in the ski business. I'd spend all my time working when everyone was out enjoying the best days of the year!

 

[billski]

I would own and operate a restaurant group catering to all aspects of the economic spectrum, from a little locals breakfast shack to a fine dining showpiece.
Its probably all make believe, but Im starting to think I could make it work as I move forward in restaurant management.

I would NEVER want to work breakfast on a powder day, right Michael?????

Restaurant management ain't all it's cracked up to be. Why do you think Mc'Ds is always hiring "managers?" You're constantly filling in for the slug that just quit!

 

[mondeo]

That word as an adjective is tits.

Probably a hardware company, boots, bindings, skis, and the like. Stuff that could use a mechanical engineer.

Oh, as far as the other questions? No way it would ever work. Too much capacity anyways.

Two options would potentially exist for me to live within an hour of a decent mountain. One would be to work for United Launch Alliance, in Denver, the other would be to start a CFD consulting company and live wherever I want. If something happened with my job (unlikely) I'd probably look decently hard at ULA.

But nothing in the actual ski industry. Wouldn't be interesting enough.

 

[deadheadskier]

Its probably all make believe.....

this.


Working in the restaurant business in a ski town is the LAST thing I would ever consider for a ski business. Please don't take offense to me asking, but how old are you? The reason I ask is below:

I initially went to college to be a writer, but left after a year because it wasn't what I wanted to do and I needed to 'find' myself. A friend got me a job waiting tables despite having zero experience at a restaurant on Cape Cod. I spent two years working in restaurants with my summers on Cape Cod, my winters in Stowe making what I thought was pretty decent money except for the brutally long off seasons when many restaurants close, but the mountain is closed as well, ocean is too cold to swim in, so limited options for something to do.

Never the less, I was determined to get a degree and work my way up the restaurant/hotel food chain, which I did at UVM. I spent four years after school working at resorts and basically only skiing 10 days a season as once you get to high management level, you work 12 hours a day 6 days a week.

Meanwhile back at the farm in Stowe (which pretty much has the most steady year round business of any ski town in New England) old friends who owned restaurants were consistently thriving and then failing. Working everyday from 10 in the morning until midnight, (is that what you call tits for hours?) barely scraping by paying the bills, struggling to find a single seasonal employee who wouldn't steal from them and even gave a crap about work as most are only in town to ski and party. I arrived in Stowe in 1995. Again, busiest year round ski town in New England. Out of 75 odd restaurant / bar venues in town, I can count on one hand the number of owners that remain today 14 years later. There are many space that I've seen turn over a dozen times.

I used to have your dream........gave it up about five years ago because I wanted to have a life. Want to own a restaurant? Do it in a city. If you do it right there, you'll have plenty of time and money to go to ski country and focus on what you love there........skiing.

If you must live year round in a ski town, become a doctor, lawyer, dentist, accountant.

Almost everyone I know who works in restaurant/hotel services and lives a comfortable life in a ski town are able to do so because of two reasons...........trust fund or supplementing their income growing weed.

good news is, because of my time spent chasing that silly dream, I've got crash space whenever I want it up in the mountains

 

[snoseek]

I agree with deadhead mostly because after twenty grass roots years in this industry i have seen almost every angle fail miserably. Not to say it can't be done but I have seen a shitload of really really talented chefs and management lose a lot of money. Ski towns are especially tough although MWV is a great pick because its grown beyond a ski town IMO. Go to the shore in the summer and you have potential to kill it, study the demographics real hard and find a reasonable lease in a good location. Unless you're working with lot's of start up you will likely want to keep it semi-casual, nothing worse than a half-ass fine-dining establishment. Never ever take a silent partner, everyone must contribute. Maine summer season=short, go more south. I still am not comfortable with the idea with opening a place with my $$$$ and thats after over ten years in management. If you come from the front I would spend at least five years in mgmt at quality properties and not just one.



I really don't want to discourage you because it totally can be done, some folks have a knack.













but growing pot is easily the best business in a ski town.........

 

[lloyd braun]

I have considering starting a "ski with a local" ski day. Something you would pay for in addition to your day ticket. You would get to ride with real local rippers.

The idea is you come out, get shown the goods, 1/2 day or full day, learn how to ski the mountain correctly, hit some side country, etc.... Make some new friends too.

 

[snoseek]

.

Almost everyone I know who works in restaurant/hotel services and lives a comfortable life in a ski town are able to do so because of two reasons...........trust fund or supplementing their income growing weed.



I thought about this and it worked fine when I was younger and had better jobs on the coast in the summer and moved to the hills in the winter and took a pay cut but also worked maybe five eights a week...at night. It took a lot of strategic planning and I constantly moved every six months but I got paid o.k. The life was a little fast to sustain forever and eventually all the drinking and partinying got old. Living year round in a ski town would be really really tight. your right though, seems like everyone either grows or sells weed.
QUOTE]

 

[Glenn]

Hard to say. It's good to do something you love...but you don't want your play to become your job. Don't get me wrong, it would be cool to be ski guide or something like that. But to make decent money, you'd probably have to run a business. And that would require a lot of time. As in, people are skiing...and you're tending the shop. IMHO YMMV

 

[deadheadskier]

I agree Glenn

There's the old saying, you want to ski a lot? Don't work in the ski business. I know it's not true for everyone and there are exceptions, but most people I know who earn a decent living in either a ski town or beach town because they love skiing or love the beach; don't get to enjoy those activities nearly as much as us regular 9-5 working stiffs who have weekends and holidays free.

 

[Glenn]

I worked at a ski shop during my Christmas breaks in college. It was a sweet gig because I got to talk about gear all day and the owner gave us stuff at his cost, +15%. But the hours were looooooooong! I was working 6 days week....sometimes 9 and 10 hour days. Being in college, I could go skiing or boarding on my day off from the shop...since Christmas breaks were stupidly long.

As far as doing that for my "fulltime" job. Probably not. The manager there was a middle age guy who skied maybe a handful of times a year.

 

[Philpug]

I am in the industry and believe unless you want to live on Ramen Noodles and drive 10 year old Subarus that are held together with seaweed and snot, don't make this a career. Needless to say, it is not our main source of income. If you want the "perks", work part time in a mom/pop shop. Rep positions are tough to come by, when a brand becomes available, it usually goes to an established rep and not some one w/o experience.

 

[deadheadskier]

I am in the industry and believe unless you want to live on Ramen Noodles and drive 10 year old Subarus that are held together with seaweed and snot, don't make this a career. Needless to say, it is not our main source of income. If you want the "perks", work part time in a mom/pop shop. Rep positions are tough to come by, when a brand becomes available, it usually goes to an established rep and not some one w/o experience.

you have a pretty sweet kitchen for cooking those Ramen Noodles in Phil!

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

I am in the industry and believe unless you want to live on Ramen Noodles and drive 10 year old Subarus that are held together with seaweed and snot, don't make this a career. Needless to say, it is not our main source of income. If you want the "perks", work part time in a mom/pop shop. Rep positions are tough to come by, when a brand becomes available, it usually goes to an established rep and not some one w/o experience.

10 year old subaru...check. Ramen noodles...fortunately that's in the past...but I always ate the generic brand...11 for $1 vs 7/$1.
The industry is my only source of income...but it took a lot of years working for little money, a MBA, some good timing, and a bit of luck to get to the point where I could call it a career. There aren't a whole lot of full time, year round, benfitted positions in the industry, competition for them is tough...and the pay is lower than similar positions in other industries. Phil is right on the rep positions...no one walks into them from outside the industry...just because you were the best copier salesperson in the US doesn't mean you'll be able to get a job as a ski rep...it usually takes time in the trenches, working long hours for peanuts.
Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off getting into a counter seasonal occuption so I'd have more time to ski in the winter...but, if I could do it all over again, I still wouldn't change a thing.

 

[dbking]

I thought about being a pimp. That's what many ski areas need. The laws are probably pretty lax for the first couple violations. Maybe a couple of RVs in the parking lot and move from ski town to ski town. Of course there is a stigma to being a pimp but maybe the money would ease that.
Ski all day and sit in the bar in the evenings, lean over to the guy on vacation next to ya and say "want to meet a pretty girl?"
I would need new clothes.
I think GSS would excel at this.