TTA Celebrates National Entrepreneur Month

Thrust Tech manages to expand aviation business operations in a tough year

During National Entrepreneur’s Month when America celebrates the value of small businesses and people who don’t simply dream but also act on their dreams, one entrepreneurial venture, Thrust Tech Accessories, is flying high above the rest.

Turns out, even during these economically turbulent times, regional, corporate, business jet, private aircraft, and helicopter owners, must still secure high-quality repair and modification of their aircraft – and continue to rely on Thrust Tech Accessories (TTA), an FAA/EASA-certified 145 Component Repair Station, located just west of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

According to TTA President Stanley Kowlessar, as the aviation industry continues to slowly recover from its most challenging time in history, not everyone is enjoying the same level of progress.

“For months, the outlook has been that the aviation industry as a whole will continue to shrink,” says Kowlessar. “But some sectors are actually experiencing growth.” Such is the case for aircraft parts suppliers and service providers – including Thrust Tech.

By continuing to meet the growing demand for increased services in the small-jet industry, TTA has positioned itself to play a strong role in the “New Normal” of the air travel industry.

Remarkable Success
While founded three decades ago as Thrust Tech Aviation (TTA), in 2017 Kowlessar of Miami bought the company and organized it into a new enterprise from the ground up – fulfilling his entrepreneurial dream.

Today, he’s president and general manager of this thriving, family-owned, veteran-owned, minority-owned business. It’s a shining example of how one entrepreneur with both vision and the ability is adapting to rapidly changing marketplace conditions.

A Godsend Agreement
During this tough COVID-19 year, as the U.S. airlines were hit hard and orders fell, TTA got creative and filled the voids with new international and domestic customers. In fact, the company’s largest airline customer recently gave TTA an opportunity to enter into a long-term agreement, which was a godsend in a challenging year.

But that said, the situation was far less rosy with most other customers.

“Many of our customers were really hurting financially this year, given the pandemic,” said Kowlessar. “Some were not able to make payments on work we completed, but we didn’t want to turn them away and send business back out the door – possibly forever.

“One of TTA’s core beliefs is to continually build and nurture relationships with our valued customers and to support them in good times and bad,” he added.

Fast Thinking
So Kowlessar came up with several creative solutions to assist his clients that would not only help to retain them as current customers, but also assure TTA would reap the income benefits in future years. Among these solutions, he engaged what he describes as “burden sharing.”

“We went to some of our stressed customers and offered them extended terms for payments from 30 to 60 days,” he emphasized. “We also offered other payment plans, as well as ‘build and hold,’ a program by which we would complete the work for an aviation client, hold the part, and they paid us later.”

When the client did that, TTA would then release the repaired or serviced equipment so that the customer could immediately put it back in service. By not having to wait until they had the funds in place for their repairs to be completed – TTA was helping them get their revenue flowing quickly once again.

Moving Forward
Keeping TTA moving forward, says Kowlessar, “we took these steps to ensure that we did not have to furlough but only a small number of our employees in the earliest days of the pandemic for lack of work,” noting that customers who took advantage of TTA’s innovative programs are now coming back to use the company’s repair and preventive maintenance services once again – just as intended.

In addition, on the other side of the small-business equation, Kowlessar asked his own company suppliers to help TTA in some of the same ways during this tough year. He says the philosophy is simple: “We gave, we asked, we received.”

Conservative Operation
“Of course, we also run a conservative operation,” he notes. “That solid foundation kept us running smoothly, and confidently, as we had money in the bank to back us up if need be.”

In a year that has been a graveyard for many other entrepreneurs and small businesses, Kowlessar’s vision has kept the family business strong and growing for the future. Today, it has 350-plus clients on a global scale and offers more than 1,500 aviation maintenance and repair services.

“We’ve done so, in large part, by creating opportunities to help our customers. And by helping them stay in business, we’re assuring that we too will stay in business, too” says Kowlessar. “That serves to build customer loyalty both ways – not just for the present, but for the long term.

“It’s simply good business all around.”