Keeping it In the Family

For most people, skydiving is a sport too dangerous to even consider trying. For a much smaller group of people, it's an exciting and consuming hobby. For Steve Boyd, it's the family business and also the fulfillment of his father's dream.

The owner of Skydive Spaceland, a 130-acre private airpark in Rosharon, Texas, just 30 minutes south of downtown Houston, Texas. Steve built the business in large part as a legacy to his father. Now 10 years old, Skydive Spaceland is the only skydiving facility in the Houston area that was built from the ground up exclusively for skydiving.

Trim and fair-haired, Steve's features soften as he explains, "My dad worked full-time in a glass factory, but on weekends, he ran a drop zone for skydivers in Chicago where I learned to skydive at 14. He loved skydiving and always dreamed of building it into a business that could support the family. Ironically, he was killed not while skydiving, but in an accident at the factory." Naturally, Steve is an avid skydiver and has more than 4,000 jumps to his credit. He has also proven his abilities as an entrepreneur and manager, building Skydive Spaceland into the primary cash generator for three interconnected and synergistic businesses, which consist of skydiving, airport, and fleet operations.

As he explains, "The skydiving business generates the bulk of our cash flow and revenues. That business rents space and facilities from our airport business and pays Desert Sand, our other business that owns, operates, leases, and maintains the fleet of planes, fees for aircraft usage."

"Through Desert Sand, we buy planes we can recondition, bring up to FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) specifications, and use for the skydiving business until we can sell them for a profit. In our off- season, we contract the planes out to drop zones in the Northeast."

A drop zone is a designated landing area clear of obstacles, and usually marked with a brightly colored wind sock. Drop zone operators, jump pilots, airport management and aviation officials meet and agree upon key safety concerns and the practical issues of sharing airports and the surrounding airspace.

Getting the drop zone certified by the FAA was challenging, but not more so than keeping the business in the family. Both of Steve's sons now work with him. Steve Jr., age 27, works in the office learning the administrative side of the business, and Eric, 32, runs the safety meetings and manages the drop zone. Because both are world-class gold medalist skydivers with more than 8,000 jumps each, they feel they understand what skydiving customers want and expect.