It’s a sunny Wednesday morning in Glenwood Springs. At a ski rental shop, 22-year-old Ryan Boyle tunes up a pair of skis as a few customers trickle in to return gear they rented for the weekend.
Boyle is the new owner of Blue Sky Ski Rental & Repair. He bought the nearly 40-year-old shop in December.
“Something to do on weekdays when it's quiet during the day,” Boyle said as he sharpened the edges of the skis and gave them a new coat of wax. He has been working in the outdoor industry since he was a teenager.
“I’ve always loved skiing,” he said.
Owning and operating his own business in his early 20s makes Boyle a rarity. According to a survey commissioned by the Colorado Employee Ownership Office, 29% of small business owners in the state are under age 42. People ages 42 to 57 are the most-represented group among small business owners in Colorado.
Right in the middle of Glenwood Springs, Italian Underground, a local restaurant that has been open since the 1980s, is for sale for $499,000, according to a listing on bizbuysell.com.
Boyle recalls seeing a landscaping business in the area also going for about half a million dollars.
The price tag for Blue Sky, meanwhile, was $300,000.
“That was turnkey. That's everything. That's all the inventory,” Boyle said.
Boyle didn’t pursue a degree, so he used his college fund to pay for Blue Sky’s down payment. His parents also helped him out.
Even with that help, it took some creative financing to buy the shop.
“Jerry [Butler], the old owner, was nice enough to work with me, and he did owner financing for half of it,” he said.
Generationally, Boyle’s Gen-Z cohort are increasingly interested in entrepreneurship. A 2023 survey of 1,000 16-to-25-year-olds from Samsung and Morning Consult found that 50% of respondents hoped to own their own business.
Boyle’s entrepreneurial spirit comes from his parents, who’ve been self-employed as property managers for all his life.
Boyle was looking for a shop when Blue Sky went up for sale last year.
“This is the one that stood out, mainly because I knew what to do. I knew how to do the ski rentals, you know, the physical work of the shop,” he said.
Working at Basalt Bike & Ski, then Revel Bikes in Carbondale, gave him plenty of experience, he said. Everything from managing a customer base, to setting up rental equipment, much of his skills carried over to the new job.
One of the challenges of running a ski business remains, what to do in the off season?
“I should be pretty good to make it through the summer on the earnings from this year,” he said. Boyle says he has lots of personal projects to catch up on.
Boyle is grateful for some coaching from Butler about how to keep the business running smoothly.
“He helped me every weekend. All through December, all the way through the holidays, free of charge,” he said.
Boyle laughs as he talks about how Butler would show up first in the morning, waiting for the shop to open.
“He's passionate about this shop, even still, and he just wants to see it keep going,” said Boyle.
Boyle says prioritizing customer service has made the day-to-day work of owning a ski shop great so far. Many of his customers come from nearby Sunlight Mountain Resort.
“It’s still a family-run mountain,” he said. “The staff is awesome.”
Even though the traffic on Highway 82 can be bad — Boyle says you just have to time it right — he likes that the valley isn’t too busy.
The population in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, for example, both increased about 3% from 2020 to 2022, according to Census data.
“I really like it here. I like the people here,” he said about staying in the area where he grew up. Even though he has skied in Chamonix, France, Boyle says he feels most at home in Colorado — from Aspen to the Utah state line.
Looking ahead, Boyle says if he didn’t change a thing the shop would continue to run well. But having a bigger inventory of skis would help in years with lots of snow.
“I have about 150 pairs of skis at the most at the moment, so maybe double that in the next few years,” he said.
For now, the new owner is glad to be part of a community of local businesses getting people outside in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“[They’re] willing to help you out no matter what, and get you on the right track,” Boyle said.
Copyright 2024 Rocky Mountain PBS.
This story from Rocky Mountain PBS was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico including Aspen Public Radio. It was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico including Aspen Public Radio.