Now, I haven’t even mentioned my other brother Jack, he works with us too! Jack is the head of the outside grounds operation and everyday works his tail off running around making sure things are going smoothly in every facility and outside in the village. Meanwhile, I peeled off the pieces that didn’t need to be on his plate and could be managed mostly from offsite – HR, payroll, insurance, retail buying, etc. Ryan became the face of the organization – living and breathing it every day on site. There was a lot of work to do and a lot to divide up. The resort had been operating the same way, under the same management for 10+ years and in need of change. We began dissecting the logistics of the daily management – what was working, what wasn’t and where we could improve. He was the right choice and to this day my strongest ally in the business. Ryan was 22, smart, eager to learn, and seriously dedicated. Enter Ryan Costin, my younger brother, fresh out of Resort Management at Western Colorado. So now we were 100% all-in and it was time to go to work.ĭad briefly resumed the position of General Manager, but after being removed from the day to day operations for so long, he recognized that we needed someone committed to it full time that could also be more in tune with the current trends of the industry. It was clear that my Dad’s interests were mostly in Beech than the other businesses, so in 2008 he divested his interests in the other businesses to his sisters and acquired 100% of Beech. The office was shared between several of their companies – Beech, the construction company and the real estate development company (which both my aunts were involved in as well). He needed some help, so I jumped in along side him working downtown in the office I grew up visiting. Looking back, I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.įast forward to 2004- this is where I started working for my dad. We spent all weekend on the Ski Team and “working” if my dad needed some help. They tossed us out on the mountain to ski in whatever the weather had for us that weekend- no complaining just go. I mean she made 3 different stops for fast food because no one ate the same stuff. Clearly my mom is a saint because she did that all winter long with 5 kids. Mom would load the 5 of us up every Friday after school and drive 3 hours to the mountains, with only the radio and conversation to keep us entertained. We basically grew up on the mountain every weekend as kids. This meant my family split a lot of our time between Charlotte and Beech. My father, John Costin, began working along side my grandfather, serving as General Manager. Yep, he bought a ski resort! This is where my family really became entrenched in the North Carolina ski industry and our wild ride began. So in 1986 when Beech Mountain Resort was facing financial hardships under their current management, he jumped at the opportunity to purchase the resort and focus his interests on turning it around. Having never been involved in this industry prior to that, he quickly became enamored by it. Most of his career was spent in real estate development and construction, however in 1974 he was presented with an opportunity to become involved with some ski resorts (Bryce Mountain, Massanutten and Blue Knob). My grandfather, Ray Costin, was a heck of a businessman. Even crazier is when I look back at how our family got into this business. Operating a ski resort in the South has its own sets of challenges and creates some pretty crazy days. My responses to their next round of questions usually include “Yes, I live in Charlotte Yes, there is good skiing in North Carolina Yes, I realize it was 65 degrees in January last week And yes, I’m a pretty good skier”. When people ask me what I do, they always look surprised to hear me say, “I work for a ski resort”. By Smarty Guest Blogger Shawn Williams, Beech Mountain Resort
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |