CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. — AMPLIFY Clearwater is beginning its small business incubator program designed to help businesses thrive in the tourism industry.

What You Need To Know

  • Paddle Pub Clearwater has been in business since January 2023

  • The business is joining a new incubator hosted by AMPLIFY Clearwater, which aims to help small businesses thrive in the tourism space

  • According to owner Misty Wells, on average, she does about six to eight cruises a week which costs guests anywhere between $50 and $60 a seat, or $500 to $700 to privately rent the entire boat

According to one of its participants, it couldn’t come at a better time.

Recent data from Visit Florida reported that tourism in the state declined by about a percentage point in the last year and some folks are still reeling from the effects the pandemic had on travel.

According to Misty Wells, the owner of Paddle Pub Clearwater, she was vacationing in St. Augustine a while back when she saw a boat filled with what looked like stationary bikes and thought it would be awesome to bring it back to her hometown.

So, this past January, she opened up Paddle Pub for folks to ride around the water with friends and family like they’re in a spin class with drinks and food.

“Look around,” Wells said. “It's beautiful where we live. This is why Clearwater is the No. 1 beach in America.”

It’s why she doesn’t mind taking the boat out herself to enjoy the surrounding beauty.

But she says starting a business, especially in a busy place like Clearwater Beach, can be tough going.

“It's been a lot of peaks and valleys, a big learning experience,” Wells said.

Especially considering her boat is docked off East Shore Drive and not the main drag where other vendors catering to tourists are.

“We are not on what they call charter boat row, where you get a lot of that foot traffic and it's almost just natural that they're going to flow to you,” Wells said.

According to Wells, they’ve had to get more creative in letting visitors know where they are at the beach.

“We have to fight a little bit harder for our presence here on Clearwater,” she said.

One way she’s doing that is by joining the new small business incubator program with AMPLIFY Clearwater, which is a 10-week boot camp where industry professionals and experienced business leaders help newer businesses thrive in the tourism space.

“Being a small business and really, you know, a one man show, in a sense, it's hard to really create that great foundation of what other people have built and bigger businesses,” Wells said.

She hopes that this program will help her business as it enters its second-year hosting things like bachelorette parties and seeing some neat wildlife along the way.

“It’s just really a blessing,” Wells said.

Tourism, according to AMPLIFY Clearwater, is returning to pre-pandemic levels and Wells hopes it’s a rising wave.

“I think the beach is remaining steady,” Wells said, “but definitely not as growing and coming back to the original numbers that we've had.”

She’s optimistic though that this incubator will keep Paddle Pub moving forward pointing her and her business in the best direction to grow and thrive in Pinellas County.

Wells says, on average, she does about six to eight cruises a week which costs guests anywhere between $50 and $60 a seat, or $500 to $700 to privately rent the entire boat.

Each cruise lasts about an hour and a half.