You cannot help but grin and enjoy the ride. There is a sensation of freedom in tooling around downtown in a Ride Prescott golf cart on a sunny autumn day. The wind tugs at your hair, the enthusiastic driver shares local insights and you have this irresistible urge to wave at curious onlookers.
Owner Katie Cornelius and her business partner, Kyle Conklin, opened Ride Prescott as a fun way to help people get around. October’s soft launch set in motion a multi-faceted mission to provide a needed service, mentor entrepreneurs, keep sales dollars local and collaborate with area businesses. Tourists and locals alike have enjoyed the ease with which they can hop aboard a golf cart and get from one end of downtown to nearby offices, boutiques, shops, eateries, distilleries and watering holes in a leisurely matter of minutes.
Cornelius is putting her extensive sales management expertise to work in Prescott, after teaching business basics, practices and operations to more than 800 small business owners in other areas of the country. She also works as recreation coordinator for the Town of Chino Valley.
“I have a passion for rural entrepreneurship,” Cornelius said. “What we are able to do is offer people the opportunity to run their own businesses and drive. If they [also] get a peddler’s business license, they can sell water or prepackaged goods off the cart. I love that I get to help teach entrepreneurs because once that spark is ignited in a minor role like this, they can continue that in their lifetimes. I love having the ability to do that.”
The “street-legal” Ride Prescott golf cart service runs in an area east and west from the Apache Lodge to Park Avenue, and north and south from Sixth Street to Bill’s Grill. Rain or shine, the service offers relief to over-exerted bodies or riders who just plain prefer not to hoof it. One-way rides are $5.
Regulated as livery services by the Arizona Department of Transportation and subject to the business licensing requirements of the City of Prescott, the local carts are confined to streets with a maximum speed of 25 miles an hour. Limited operating range, a fixed price fee structure and slower speeds differentiate the carts from taxis, limos and other public livery services, Cornelius says. Ride Prescott’s drivers gravitate toward less popular streets to enhance the trip for riders and lessen impact on other road traffic.
The drivers for Ride Prescott and Ride Scottsdale are independent contractors who manage their own businesses. They rent carts from the firm, and in return, are supported in providing the ideal customer experience. The business phone number, for example, is routed to the cell phone of drivers on duty. Drivers are also educated on the best routes to take for various destinations.
“It is really neat watching drivers grow their businesses every week, to see them develop the relationships and clientele and truly run their own businesses,” Cornelius said. “They can make money on their own terms, but at the same time, have some stability.”
The cart business revved up after Conklin invited Quad Cities resident Cornelius to dinner, and picked her up at a Scottsdale hotel in a golf cart. Upon seeing the cart, Cornelius exclaimed, “We should do this in Prescott!”
And so they did. Conklin manages Scottsdale operations, while Cornelius focuses on Prescott. She also coordinates the sale of advertising space on the carts to local businesses and oversees marketing. The two locations share a fleet of carts throughout the year, based on seasonal requirements.
“Taking a random conversation you had with someone over drinks and seeing it grow into an actual company is extremely fulfilling,” Conklin stated.
The impact of their business partnership also impresses Cornelius, who said, “It keeps standing out to me that if this were just my idea, I never would have brought it to fruition. It is the partnership that made it possible. In small business, that is a huge thing. Some people have the idea, but to actually bring it to life is a whole other thing. Not only do we provide needed transportation to tourists and locals, but we also support local business within downtown Prescott. Local businesses have got to support local business.”
Destinations include Prescott Winery, Thumb Butte Distillery, The Barley Hound, the English Tea Garden Room, Elks Theatre & Performing Arts Center, Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, antique shops, thrift shops, boutiques, coffee houses and similar venues, as drivers share their personal knowledge of what to see and do in Prescott.
Out-of-towners spend their time on Gurley Street, Whiskey Row and “maybe stumble onto Cortez” Street, Cornelius explained. “Then, the altitude gets to them. We [residents] forget about being up here a mile high. Visitors don’t understand why they are getting tired. Between the altitude and Elks Hill, Ride Prescott is perfect for expanding business around and off the Square.”
Veterans and senior citizens living within walking distance of downtown form a significant percentage of ridership. They often “walk downtown and we give them a ride back,” she said. “These were not categories we had identified as servicing, and it has been the bulk of our daytime business. It’s nice to provide a service to those that have a need. If we can bring joy to people’s lives by bringing them from A to B, amen.”
Through parent company Ride Local, Cornelius and Conklin plan to expand within Arizona in the coming months. Ride Jerome and Ride Sedona are slated to open during spring 2017, while “every city and town in the state” is on the projected timeline through 2020. The goal, even with a statewide expansion of the brand, Cornelius says, is to keep the ventures small and radiating local flavor.
“I love taking people over to the [Thumb Butte] Distillery and showing them the different things made here in Prescott,” Cornelius said. “The fact that they are made here in Prescott is such a huge thing to me. Same thing with the [Prescott] Winery. People are stunned at how fantastic our wines are in this town. I am so very proud of that.”
According to Cornelius, the venture also is about giving back. She delivered meals to seniors with her grandmother as a child in Michigan and continued that tradition into adulthood. Now, she has named Prescott Meals on Wheels to receive one percent of Ride Prescott’s corporate profit. QCBN
By Sue Marceau
For more information, go to RidePrescott on Facebook or call 929-2-RIDE-US.
Katie Cornelius (right), owner of Ride Prescott, takes a call while waiting for a fare at the corner of Gurley and Cortez in Prescott. Daughter Parry Cornelius enjoys the passenger seat.
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