rollin' on the river

While a college student at then-Augusta State University, management major Cole Watkins took a class that challenged him to create a business. Inspired by past times he’d taken his friends out kayaking, he conceptualized Cole Watkins Tours — now rated the No. 4 thing to do in Evans, Georgia, on TripAdvisor. 

At the time Cole Watkins Tours was in development, there was an outdoors store already in Evans that offered kayak rentals, but Watkins saw a need with his model and decided to fill it.
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“If you were done kayaking when Escape Outdoors closed, you had to bring it back the next day,” he said, adding that for some folks, that was fine, but it could be an inconvenience or deterrent to others. 

“With my company I didn’t want to have a storefront because that was going to cost money. I didn’t have money. What I wanted to do was start slowly building my inventory of kayaks,” Watkins said.
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When he started, Watkins had three kayaks in inventory — so he could take a husband and wife on a tour, but if they had a kid, one of the three had to sit out. 
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“Now I’m up to 19 kayaks. I don’t want to get any more than that,” he said.

>> potential sets sail
 
Initially, part of the business plan was for each entrepreneur to explain to their classmates how they would use a $30,000 loan from the bank. The professor met Watkins with raised eyebrows when he didn’t mention his loan during his presentation.

“I was like, ‘I don’t need it.’ She’s like, ‘You don’t need a loan?’ I was like, ‘No, this is what I have 

cole watkins, owner of cole watkins tours, feeds a donkey during a tour stop at stallings island. | courtesy photo

now. I’m going to start it and I’m going to start making money year one,’” he said. “I didn’t show her up but like, why borrow if my plan doesn’t need it?”

His plan was voted top in the class, and several classmates were assigned to his team to put together the official business plan. That was about the time Watkins got serious about the potential Cole Watkins Tours had.

“I thought we could really make money with this. I got on Vistaprint to get business cards. When I tallied it up, it was $20. I was like, I don’t know if I want to spend $20. … For $20, I could get three or four drinks tonight at the bar. If I spend $20, will I make it back? So — ugh, click,” he said. “Then my first phone call came.”

Watkins’ first tour earned him $90. A portion of his profits went back into building up his kayak inventory, first getting to seven, then eight, then finally the 19 he has now. 

In addition to the exercise benefits of kayaking, getting out on the water is a good way to de-stress and explore the Augusta area. The routes offered by Cole Watkins Tours take paddlers through Savannah River tributary Betty’s Branch, down the Augusta Canal, to visit wild donkeys at Stallings Island or to a close-up visit to the J. Strom Thurmond Dam.
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“We’ve had kids as young as 1 in the kayaks with their parents and as old as, I didn’t ask, but upper 70s, maybe 80s. It’s not a hard thing to do. Augusta is a great spot to learn because there’s no crazy rapids. Most of the routes we offer are still or float downstream, like a lazy river,” Watkins said. 

from left: my brother barret, mom terri, me and my dad jayson during our CWT trip. | courtesy photo

Watkins and I went to school together since about the third grade, and I can personally attest that his kayak tours are instructional, awesome and a great thing to get your dad for Father’s Day. Bonus points for him teaching me how to paddle and stay afloat, as swimming is not my strong suit. 

It sounds like I was a tad luckier than Watkins’ first customer.

“I had to learn that day that people have different balancing abilities for different body 

types. Girls are way more balanced at kayaking. Their center of gravity is in their hips. Guys, especially muscled-up guys, are a little more wobbly,” Watkins said. “I was thinking [my first customer] was going to be fine in this kayak, and he fell in on a very cold 8 a.m. morning. My very first person I slid in tipped over.”
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Since then, he’s only had five or six paddlers take unintended dips in the water.

cole watkins, right, with wife ashley and son cash. | courtesy photo

​>> navigating the flow
 
Watkins has a full-time job with Aggressor Adventures — a luxury river and adventure cruise company, which also offers scuba diving yachts — and never saw Cole Watkins Tours as something to replace that. It’s one reason he wants to keep the business more intimate and kayaker-focused, rather than scale up to make him a millionaire.
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“I’m probably the only guy in town who doesn’t want to get bigger,” he said. “I have a different plan of what I want to be career-wise, and that’s going to be lined up at the scuba diving company. And also, with the kayak company, here in Augusta, a lot of people have started to open other businesses like mine.”

One of the plus-sides of business ownership is that at times when Watkins needed the extra income, he could make the decision and  give himself a raise.

“2016 is when I found out my son was coming, so I worked my butt off and had my best year yet. That’s all side money on the weekend,” Watkins said. “I put in a lot more hours. I was getting a lot more progressive at using money on Facebook to do group tours, even on weeknights. Normally when I got off work I go home. That year I was doing every Tuesday and Thursday [on the water], even Fridays. Anything I got, I accepted, and tried to make it work.”

Now that he’s both a husband and a father, and soon a father of two, Watkins dialed back how much he’s out on the water so he can spend more time with his family. He focuses a lot on rentals and tries to capitalize on having three waves of kayakers out each weekend day the business is open, and he reserves time to go on family vacations twice a year or so. 
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Since he is more selective now than in previous years, Watkins will refer kayakers to his competitors if the situation calls for it.

cole watkins [in the front center kayak] leads a group tour on the water. | courtesy photo

picturesque view from the front of a CWT kayak. | courtesy photo

“If I know they want to go with me, I can sometimes talk them into next week. But I don’t want to turn them off their goal. I want out-of-towners to always feel like we have good hospitality in Augusta, so I’ll always refer them to a competitor instead of me,” Watkins said. “I operate a weird way but I think it’s, I’m not all-in on this company being my only source of income.”
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He learned a lot about business ownership since 2011: the importance of minimizing overhead if you don’t have a lot of start-up capital; how heavy canoes are compared to kayaks; why entrepreneurs should invest in a little bit of advertising such as business cards and putting their logo on their equipment; just for starters. But the biggest lesson he learned was to get out of his comfort zone.

“I was going to be on the water giving every tour. I wasn’t planning on doing rentals. One day this guy called me up and said, ‘I’ve done Betty’s Branch, can I just rent a kayak?’ He was like, ‘I’ll just pay half the price,’” Watkins said, adding he was exceedingly uneasy about sending his ​

kayaks out on the water with an individual he only sort-of knew. “I took him out there and he gave me $25 each. I was like, ‘Shoot, I just made $50, which was a lot of money for me when I was 21. I didn’t have to do anything but pick it up. So my whole plan changed.”

Today, about 66 percent of his business comes from kayak rentals.
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“That was a thing that made me uncomfortable, but wound up being the best thing for this model,” he said.

<< get to paddling >>
Tour rates start at $50 for adults and $25 for kids ages 12 and under, and there is a discount if you provide your own kayak or canoe. Rental rates are $30 for a single kayak and $50 tandem. Group and military rates are available.
​For more details, visit the official website.
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