The Business of Adventure

By: Adam El-Naggar
  • Summary

  • Welcome to The Business of Adventure, where Adam El interviews owners of successful adventure activity businesses to learn how they built their companies.In each episode, we hear their stories and the challenges they have faced along the way, and take away useful insights to help you start, grow, and manage a business in the outdoor industry.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Adam El-Naggar
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Episodes
  • #3 - From a career in the outdoors to running a year-round adventure company - Stevie Boyle of Ocean Vertical
    Jun 27 2023

    In today's episode, I have a conversation with Stevie Boyle of Ocean Vertical based in East Lothian, next to Edinburgh in Scotland.

    Stevie has worked in the outdoor industry for over 25 years, starting out following a passion for being outdoors by pursuing outdoor education before working in recreational outdoor centres to build his experience and skill set. He then moved into youth work, focusing on personal and social development for all with an organization called Strive Adventure before in 2018, setting up his company, Ocean Vertical. Ocean Vertical runs adventure activities throughout the year, focusing on helping people make the most of the amazing opportunities Scotland has to offer from coastal adventure sports to winter mountaineering. The company now has a core team of four and works with a stable of freelancers from their beautiful base in Dunbar.

    This was a really interesting conversation in which we talk about having co-founders in an adventure business and how roles and responsibilities are split, how becoming a trainer assessor for other instructors has been important for Stevie's career, the elements of marketing adventure activities, sourcing ethical and environmentally friendly equipment and the challenge of neoprene, and how getting hold of Ocean Vertical's building last year has impacted the business and helped it reach new markets.

    Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
    Guest: oceanvertical.com


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    1 hr
  • #2 - Taking that leap of faith and how to manage freelancers - Ben Bullen Adventures
    Jun 8 2023

    On today's episode, I have a conversation with Ben Bullen of Ben Bullen Adventures in the Southeast of England. Ben started his career doing youth work in a local church before getting the opportunity to work delivering outdoor activities for young people with his local council, allowing him to get a variety of activity qualifications. After a few years, he then set out on his own, setting up his business to offer Duke of Edinburgh expeditions for school groups. Ben Bullen Adventures now runs over 120 expeditions and training days each year and has a team of about 45 freelance instructors.

    In our conversation, we talk about starting a business with kids and a mortgage, doing what you have to do to make things work, taking calculated risks and ultimately taking that leap of faith. Ben shares some tips from his experience hiring and managing freelance instructors and talks about the concept of distributed leadership in a big team of freelancers. We also talk about how he built up his initial client base with local schools and how it's grown since then.

    Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
    Guest: benbullenadventures.co.uk


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    56 mins
  • #1 - Starting a surf & paddleboard school - Adam El
    May 16 2023

    Welcome to The Business of Adventure podcast, I'm your host, Adam El. In this first episode, I introduce myself and share my journey into the adventure activities industry and my current successful venture as well as talking about some of the successes and failures I've learned from previous projects along the way.

    Podcast: adventureindustrypodcast.com
    Guest: adamelnaggar.com


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    35 mins

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