Hi Blue Gill,


The very first thing I recommend you do is inquire about how much your guide service insurance will cost.

Leonard wisely cited $1 million as the basic coverage you should carry. It's true; we unfortunately live in a society where many, many people love filing lawsuits. The idea of an "honest accident" by a guide is alien to their way of thinking.

And it's not just on-the-water insurance that will cover you and your clients and their equipment during the fishing trips. You will occasionally (perhaps mainly) be transporting clients and their gear in your personal vehicle. That means your auto insurance must be expanded from the existing personal-type coverage to a comprehensive business-type policy. Trust me: you will notice a price jump.

Once you add together these two insurance expenses (operation and vehicle) you can make a rough calculation of how much money you need per year just to operate your business. (Money above equipment start-up expenses.)

The hard part about starting up a guide service is wondering if you'll book enough clients to pay for the insurance alone. Forget making a profit and becoming an established fishing guide: honestly ask yourself if you stand to make enough money to pay your annual insurance bills?

A few years ago I bought boats, paddles, tents, other gear and fully equipped myself to go into business as a professional river canoeing guide. My guide service was going to specialize in unsupported long range wilderness-style downriver solo canoe trips on the Kansas River. My guide service was specifically constituted for taking ONE CLIENT AT A TIME downriver (client in his/her solo canoe, me in my solo canoe).

This restrictive arrangement was intended to reduce noise and thereby give every client the best possible chance to enjoy up-close wildlife viewing. But I also knew that taking only one client out at a time would be the safest possible way to paddle the river.

Still, to be sure about client safety I took First Aid classes, I acquired cell phone service; I wrote a lengthy pamphlet that explained my operating method to prospective customers. I did all sorts of little things to protect my would-be clients, and myself.

Thinking these steps would so impress an insurance agent that it would reduce my premium to near nothing, I was stunned when told how much the annual premium would cost...and this was from the only insurance carrier I could find who was willing to cover me. I simply could not afford the annual insurance, and although it broke my heart I gave up on becoming a river guide.

In my case, it turned out I'd done EVERYTHING bass-ackwards. I'd spent thousands of dollars outfitting a river guide service that died in the womb. (Well, at least I still have all the gear!)

One thing I know about you without even asking: You want to show people a good time on the river, but most of all you want each client to take away a deep appreciation of the river or rivers that you yourself find so beautiful and inspiring.

Client happiness and satisfaction isn't always about whether they catch fish, although catching something doubtless gets taken into account by most people.

I recently booked a springtime panfishing trip with a Kansas fly fishing guide who will be taking me to areas in the state that I've always wanted to fish but never have, including a considable amount of privately-owned water.

I'm not concerned about catching fish as much as I am just seeing some pretty new water, some new scenery. If there's one thing I hope to accomplish on my trip, it's to be the best client that this guide ever books. All the mental preparations I went through to become a guide myself, it really sensitized me to the quality-of-client issue. So I want to be someone who the guide remembers as being one of his better customers.


Joe

"Better small than not at all."