Meet Andy Hitch | ATV / Jeep Rental Company CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andy Hitch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Although I calculate risk to the best of my ability, I’m never afraid of it. Taking a risk is the only way to accomplish anything noteworthy. I see it as an opportunity to challenge myself.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I own an ATV / Jeep Rental company in Estes Park called Backbone Adventures. I’ve been in business (one or another) for 31 years. One thing that may set me apart from other businesses is that I sincerely value honesty, humility, hard work, and integrity. So many business owners are only concerned with the bottom line. In my opinion, if you truly love what you do and you do it with integrity, you’ll succeed beyond your competitors eventually. Honesty and integrity isn’t easy though. It costs more money because you’re always highly concerned about the quality of service you provide to your customer. I’ve overcome many challenges in my business career. Forest fires and floods have put me out of business temporarily. Poor employee choices have cost me money and pain than I care to recount. The economic collapse put me out of business. I lost everything and had to start over from scratch. Drive, dedication, and hard work got me through these times. The biggest lesson of my career has been accepting my failures, learning from them, and having the guts to continue moving forward. Success isn’t just about how much money you make, it’s about how happy you are doing the work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live way up in the mountains in a log cabin. I’m not much of a “city” guy, but when my wife and I do decide to spend a night on the town, we love the Guard and Grace Steakhouse in downtown Denver. We’ll stay at a nice place like Hotel Teatro, walk around the 16th street mall, eat some amazing dinner, maybe have a few drinks at another fine hotel bar, stay up late, and hit the Denver Biscuit Company in the morning. Otherwise, my heart and soul is in Estes Park or some other mountain town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I can’t name one person or book I can dedicate my success too. I’ve always watched and listened to those who have what I want and I simply do what they did to achieve success. My biggest teacher is failure. I don’t see failure as a bad thing. I see it as a lesson learned and an addition to my blueprint for improvement.

Website: www.BackboneAdventures.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backbone_adventures/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backboneadventures

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/backbone-adventures-estes-park-2?osq=backbone+adventures

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=backbone+adventures

Other: 1851 N. Lake Ave Estes Park, Co 80517 (970) 235-5045