CalHunter

This would have been good to know up front as it does explain a lot and give enough information to offer better advice. I admire your ethics about not taking clients from your former employers and don't think you should compromise your ethics. You can still learn and gain from those employers though. Best of all, you don't have to reinvent the wheel so to speak for developing new and more clients.

For instance, your guiding business appears to be in new Brunswick and I'm guessing those employers' guiding businesses are in NB also. Just from looking at a map, I would guess most of their business is from the east Coast of the U.S. although obviously don't know that. You, however, would know that because you guided some of those hunters for different employers and probably learned where they're from when introduced.

You probably also know some of the hunting expos and other types of marketing the other outfitters used and what they found worked best for them. Did they book more of their clients from hunting shows and expos or was it simply from some kind of advertising (internet, magazines, TV shows, etc.)?

Oldtimr told you about a HUGE show that would probably be one of the best shows to attend for your area. The neat thing about those shows/expos is they all seem to have websites which, naturally, list their vendors (including outfitters and guides, etc.). With some research, you could figure out which of your other outfitters in your area are using which shows/expos to drum up business and book new clients.

Does your area have a guides or outfitters association? If so, that association would likely have useful information on what works and where in the universal effort to attract and sign up new clients.

Since you're taking an ethical stand that I admire, I assume most or all of the outfitters you've worked for at least respect your show of respect and ethics. You should be able to ask some or all of them for advice on how they would recommend attracting new clients and building up your business. Are any of them close to retiring or looking to sell their business? That might be something to evaluate as well since such a business would include their client database.

Bob H in NH also mentioned something that could be very useful. Outfitter reviews on a well-trafficked website. Figuring out how to cultivate such reviews might be very productive for your business.

Something else to consider is does Canada or your province have some kind of licensing department that also provides business owner information, suggestions or training? They might be able to help you out some also.

There's always something else to consider when you're a business owner but that's the fun part--You get to decide what to do or not while growing your business. Good luck and let us know how it works out.