How to make money on parachuting (part 4)

The fact is that the seller of parachute equipment itself must be a well-known and experienced skydiver, with at least 1000 jumps behind it. Since the seller is indirectly responsible for customer safety: for example, there are several companies whose products Alexey strongly does not recommend buying. “To sell a very fast parachute to a very famous and respected Western company to an inexperienced skydiver means to send him to a hospital bed or to the morgue,” Mr. Sharadkin is convinced, “it is the seller who must evaluate the adequacy of the choice of a paratrooper to his experience.” Trade in parachute equipment provides an average return of 25%.

crazy hands

In order to increase income, in addition to selling various necessary and simply useful things for a skydiver, most dealers also earn on related services. For example, SkyWideSystems provides its customers with 15 additional services, including training in parachuting, washing a satchel, installing a safety device and much more. By the way, only people specially trained and certified by the manufacturer of parachute equipment – riggers, have the right to lay a reserve parachute and install a safety device. In addition to stowing and re-arranging a reserve parachute (every three to four months, according to the requirements of the security of the ZP, it must be rearranged), they can also repair equipment and, after agreement with the manufacturer, make some improvements to the system design.

The cost of rigger services is from $ 5 to $ 200, depending on the complexity of the work, it seems to be not so small. However, Alexei Sharadkin says that the money received from the rigger services is barely enough to pay the rent of the premises and cover current expenses. “The number of regularly jumping skydivers in Kiev DZ hardly exceeds a thousand people. In order for the rigger workshop to bring a stable and noticeable income, you need at least three times as much, and even then, provided that it has no competitors,” the expert said. Accordingly, it is impossible to bet only on the creation of a parachute workshop. She will not bring stable income. It makes sense to offer equipment repair only in conjunction with other services.

However, SWS is not only involved in the sale and maintenance of parachute equipment. The company plans to develop and manufacture satchels for skydiving and BASE (jumping from stationary objects). According to the entrepreneur, he began to design satchels “for the soul”, not too caring about commercial benefits. Initial investments for the production of knapsacks are small – $ 5-7 thousand for the purchase of equipment and about $ 2 thousand for materials. Fixed assets will have to be invested in the following stages:

· Testing of manufactured equipment for compliance with standards;

· For trial operation (at least 300 jumps must be completed on each satchel before the start of mass production);

· For European certification ETSO.

The total project budget may exceed $ 20-30 thousand. At the same time, the price of a satchel should not exceed $ 1.5 thousand, otherwise there may be difficulties with sales.

In addition to SkyWideSystems, Poltava company Spark, Odessa Skyporter and Feodosia Advanced Technologies of Parachuting Engineering LLC are engaged in the production of knapsacks. Odessans specialize in the production of so-called. “budget” technology. Theodosia enterprise exists mainly at the expense of state orders, producing parachutes and satchels for the Ukrainian army and special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, SBU, and the Ministry of Emergencies.