Roger Nunamann waited 10 years for someone to start a shuttle route between the Nashville airport and Huntsville. When it was clear that a shuttle business was not going to happen he decided he would do it himself.
A commercial pilot originally from New York, Nunamann saw the need for a shuttle when relatives and friends would try to visit him in Huntsville after flying into Nashville.
“We have a lot of friends from all over the country and all over the world that come to visit us, “ said Nunamann. “So, several times a year they would almost exclusively fly into Nashville airport to save money and fly direct.”
Nunamann explained that this trek took four hours of driving to get them from Nashville and bring them back to Huntsville, time off of work and one tank of gas – all to just retrieve his guests. He called the endeavor, “a huge burden,” and a “tremendous expense.”
For Nunamann, there was a clear solution to the problem.
“I see shuttle services like this in just about every city that I fly to that is the size of Huntsville or larger, “ he said. “And they don’t have the distinction of being the most expensive airport in the country like Huntsville is.”
After 10 years of waiting for change, he decide to do something about this need, and Madison County Shuttle was born.
In honor of Small Business Week, Nunamann sat down with Ad4! Group out of Huntsville to give us his advice on small business endeavors through a Q&A session.
Ad4!: Would you have any good advice for say someone like yourself who has been sitting around waiting with a good idea and saying, “Why is no one doing this?” And thinking to themselves, “Well, I should do it.”
What’s your advice for starting that process?
Nunamman: Yeah, I’ve got a lot of advice.
Take the time to do your research and your due diligence. Talk to as many people as possible. Take advantage of the resources this community has.
Even before you open, join The Chamber. Join the North Alabama Women’s Business Center, whether you are a woman or a man. All their resources are open to you. They have a lot of courses and a lot of people to talk to. And they are very, very eager to help and to give advice. It’s very important to do that to make sure that your business is viable and there is a demand. It’s good to join so that you can accurately anticipate what the costs will be and how long you are going to need to be operating at a loss before you can actually build your business.
Basically, don’t rush into it. Do it, but don’t rush into it.
Ad4!: Alright, good advice. Who are a couple of your professional influences?
Nunamman: Who are my mentors, huh?
Actually there is quite a few pilots who are also small business owners. I’ve worked with dozens of them. Typically you are together for four days at a time with not a lot to do but talk while you are up there on cruise.
There are several pilots who are very successful business owners that have been doing it a lot longer than me with much larger businesses and customer bases than I have. I draw very, very heavily on them.
I’ve also met several people here in town. Some are involved in banking, some are involved in transportation themselves. I have lunch with some of them regularly or dinner or I pick up the phone and bounce ideas off of them. I find that to be very helpful and a great asset.
Ad4!: Would you encourage other business owners to network like that?
Nunamman: Absolutely. Especially if this is the first business that you are starting, you won’t be successful without drawing on the experience of others.
Ad4!: What do you want people to know about your business?
Nunamann: I want them to know that we are here.
The word is largely out, but I still talk to people every week who haven’t heard about us. especially since we have such a large transient population. Every day, there are people moving in and out of Huntsville. New people are not aware of us.
But I would like them to know that we are a small, locally owned business and that we have nine employees right now and that we are always hiring.
We are very selective with people that we hire. We won’t just hire anybody to take care of our passengers. Drivers go through very rigorous training, ongoing safety training and background checks. And they must have several years experience of professional driving before they can work with us.
I want them to know the advantages to Nashville airport is not just the cost which is fairly obvious, but it’s also time.
At Nashville, you can go direct to more than 60 markets. From Huntsville you can only go direct to eight.
So if you are going anywhere other than a major hub, like Dallas or Atlanta, you are guaranteed to connect out of Huntsville. You have very few regional options out of Huntsville and those options are notoriously unreliable. They cancel quite frequently.
So even though it’s a short 1 hour and 45 minute drive up to Nashville, even with that drive it’s likely to be a smoother trip for you verses connecting out of Huntsville.
Ad4!: So, what is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Nunamann: Honey comb.
Ad4!: Haha, great; a Honey Comb man. Can you tell me a little bit about your family?
Nunamann: I’ve got a three-year-old daughter and a five-year old son. Both are very precocious. She’s more difficult than he is, but she’s also smaller and easier to hug. And I have a wife from Ireland who moved to the US when she was in her twenties. And of course they all live here. I met my wife in New York and went down to Orlando to do my flight training and then we moved up here.
Now we have a small house out in Meridianville, and we have two rescue dogs.