In middle school, Sidney — or Sid — Mathis recalls he started looking for ways to make money.
“I was never the one to ask for handouts, and my parents always had me work for what I wanted and make my purchases with my own money.”
Selling lemonade, selling snacks at school, mowing yards, anything to make extra cash. He tells how he got his first “real” job during high school, working at a movie theater (Carmike and then AMC Bayou 15 in Pensacola), where he stayed for a couple years.
Adapting to Life and Business
“I then realized working for someone else just wasn’t my thing,” he shares. “I tried out college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I made it through one semester of business school before dropping out. Moved back to Florida and started pressure-washing homes and businesses.
“I did that for a year until a motocross injury brought it to a stop. With only being able to use one arm due to a collarbone break and surgery, I decided ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) would be my next route. Now I am 20 years old with no job or income, recovering from surgery. I decided to start the social media for a brand called ‘Hondaboats,’ which was a slang term my buddies used to call their ATVs, because they would drive them in the water. Leading me to my next business.”
He decided to start with social media first.
“I wanted to build a following before offering any products. I needed that trust from the customers and followers to know we were reputable. A few months later, we started selling stickers and shirts through eBay. I would link our eBay listing to our social media bios.”
Sid says that wasn’t the best way to do it, but it worked.
He also figured if he grew a following, other companies would in turn give free products to promote them to his followers; that wasn’t the case this time.
Thinking Outside the Stock
The entrepreneur explains how 75% of the companies he reached out to were small and couldn’t afford to give out free products. And Sid was too broke to purchase them. So he saved up enough money to purchase some of their products and sell those when the other company’s inventory would go out of stock.
“Customers started coming to me when companies would have no inventory, because they knew I had them in stock. Once demand got too high and the companies couldn’t keep up with production, I found a local guy that started cutting out products for me to sell directly to my customers.”
What’s in a Name
The team kept moving forward with the Hondaboats name until November 2022, when Honda themselves sent an email and a letter demanding their company hand over the name, trademark, and 30% of previous sales.
With a name-switch to Vessel Powersports, Sid moved the company into a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and brought all manufacturing in house with their own employees and equipment.
“Now we strive every day to be better than all the aftermarket ATV and SXS (side-by-side) parts companies. We continue to design and develop new products monthly and travel the United States attending shows to get our name out there.”
Partners in Entrepreneurship
Small business-focused Vitalii Pysarenko with Wells Fargo had listened to Sid’s struggles along the way and connected him with the Florida SBDC at UWF’s John Emsing. From capital formation to sales increases, Sid says SBDC and Wells Fargo teamed up to support him and the Vessel Powersports team.
“A great program with great intentions,” Sid shares of SBDC. “I recommend everyone I know that has, or wants to start, a business to John and the SBDC crew. I really think I wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for John and the SBDC. I was able to learn systems and strategies that would’ve taken me years if not a decade to realize on my own. I always like to say, I like to learn from others’ mistakes as opposed to my own. Definitely makes life and business much easier.”
Staying Deep
Sid also advises others to carry a notebook or put notes in your phone. Some of his best days in the Vessel Powersports journey involve him looking at what they’ve overcome and accomplished over the last four years. He says it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day feeling like you’re getting nowhere, but that he can look back on all his notebooks and read the challenges he was going through at a specific date and time when it comes to business.
“You never know what the next day will hold,” he describes of the world he’s created with Vessel Powersports. “I like to solve problems, and you don’t learn in the entrepreneur world unless there is a problem. You can only plan and prepare for so much, but being an entrepreneur has taught me how to problem-solve and narrow down my strategies to the most efficient solution. This is a long game, and you have to be willing to work year after year without seeing results. Only you know what the possibilities are.”
It seems southern mud and water prove as navigable as business for this emerging venture, as they continue to “stay deep” into powersports and entrepreneurship in Northwest Florida and beyond.
