David Aparicio is the Founder of WaveTime, Europe’s first and longest running subscription-based jet ski rental service. WaveTime removes the financial and practical hassles associated with owning and maintaining a jet ski. Typically the cost of owning a personal watercraft includes purchasing the jet ski, mooring fees, marina fees, insurance, servicing, maintenance and repairs–which can easily add up to £700 per month. With an affordable monthly subscription, WaveTime makes jet skiing much more accessible. WaveTime is currently operating in the Southern part of the United Kingdom, with more locations coming soon.
The fractional ownership/asset share model already existed for boats and ribs, but David spotted a gap in the market and decided to apply the concept to personal watercraft. The model is self-sufficient and does not require staff on-site.
What are you working on right now?
I’m currently scaling the business by adding additional jet skis and new sites across the United Kingdom. I’m also looking into the viability of adding Sea-Doo Challenger boats to the WaveTime fleet and potentially offering tiered membership that would allow members to access a boat and/or jet ski with the same membership.
What does your typical day look like?
Usually I am up around 5:30 AM and I’ll either go for a run or go to the gym. Exercise is a bullet worth biting, particularly if you run a business. If all you can do is get through the day, you’re probably not going to achieve the goals you set for yourself. The rest of the day you’ll usually find me in the office, at the marina meeting new members, out promoting WaveTime or looking at new sites.
What is the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
I worked at a grocery store while in college. The worst part was having to clock in and out. It made me feel like a robot. I promised myself never to end up in a job that I didn’t like—and to avoid timecards!
3 trends that excite you?
First, social networks and the part they play in helping small businesses get on the map and compete with the big boys. Second, mobile Internet-enabled devices because they are so very productive when they are synced with your other devices. Third is cloud computing, which I think is a game-changer.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I write my ideas on the notes app on my iPhone. I keep my iPhone with me at all times to make notes–it’s even on my bedside table. Sometimes I see 2 or 3 ideas in the morning that I wrote during the night. I also use the voice memo app for complex ideas or for when I can’t be bothered to type. I have lots of ideas every day but lately I’m ignoring most of them and focusing on the ones that add value or are scalable. The best part of running a small business is that you can have 5 ideas during the night and then implement them in the morning without asking for permission. Most of the time they work, or at least don’t balls up completely.
What inspires you?
Reading biographies about people who overcame adversity and challenges. These can be disruptive entrepreneurs, sports figures or those who have overcome extreme physical conditions and achieved great things.
What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?
Taking on my own factory to manufacture a product instead of outsourcing it. Factories are hungry animals and they don’t care about recessions or credit crunches.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Buy stuff on eBay that sells for less than its scrap value: car parts, tools, metal furniture, etc. For a lot of it, given a database of product weights you could write a program to automate it. You then get a skip from your local scrapyard, put it on your drive behind a big letterbox with 1A on it (if your house is No. 1) and your postie delivers the eBay deliveries straight into the skip. Almost no work.
What do you read every day, and why?
Tweets from people, companies and organisations I follow on Twitter. It’s enough information to get the basic facts about what is happening without being inundated.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read, and why?
How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. It’s brutally honest and good fun, too.
What is your favorite gadget, app or piece of software that helps you every day?
Dropbox. It backs up all my stuff to the cloud and allows me to synchronise across multiple devices, access my data anywhere and easily share files with friends and colleagues.
Three people we should follow on Twitter, and why?
Morten Lund because he is a legend, Dean Karnazes because he is inspirational and Salma Hayek because she is hot.
Who would you love to see interviewed on IdeaMensch?
Ivan Massow.
When is the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it.
Last week when I watched The Inbetweeners at the cinema. It’s a very funny film.
What is your business motto?
Ready, fire, aim.
What are the 3 key attributes you need to be an entrepreneur?
Confidence, persistence and optimism.
Connect
www.wavetime.co.uk
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/davidaparicio1972
Twitter: daparicio
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.