Pros and Cons of Working in a Shop Vs. Independent Instructor

[Michael Guerrero]

Please respond with your views on the pros and cons of working for a shop vs. being an independent instructor.

My initial thought is that working for a shop gives you better access to fills, gear, and students, but I'm assuming they may want you to also commit to hours and that you have to split your student fees with them.

Thoughts?

 

[boulderjohn]

A lot of it depends upon where you live.

People living in places like South Florida have much less need for the benefits of working for a shop. Shops will rent gear to your students at a discount; boats will give you good rates for yourself and your students. You don't need a whole lot to work independently.

Where I live, it is quite the opposite. Shops see you as competition and will not give you any help. You will have a very hard time getting into a pool.

Even in my area, though, the difference in pay as an independent can make it all worthwhile. Students paying hundreds of dollars for a course would be shocked to realize how little goes to the instructor--it might be $15. When the instructor gets all the money up front, a whole lot of it can go to overhead, and the instructor can still come out ahead.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

So if places with lots of diving make being part of a shop less important, and even in landlocked places it can still be worth it, it sounds like you would advocate for being an independent instructor?

 

[boulderjohn]

To give you an idea, the director of instruction at my last shop told me that "Instructors are a dime a dozen." He said an instructor comes in looking for a job about every other week. That should tell you how much power you will have to make changes in a shop in that situation.

 

[boulderjohn]

So if places with lots of diving make being part of a shop less important, and even in landlocked places it can still be worth it, it sounds like you would advocate for being an independent instructor?

It could be the best way. Maybe not.

If you are in an area like this, you will not make anything like a living acting as an independent instructor. To make a living, you will need to be a full time shop employee, doing a variety of things including retails sales, etc. It is hard to say without examining the exact circumstances.

 

[tbone1004]

It depends on what you want to do as an instructor and why you want to be one which you haven't disclosed yet.

depending on what you want out of being an instructor will depend on what you want to do.

pros of a shop: you can get a continuous stream of students, and it is likely a cheaper buy in because of rental gear, fills etc, and you may be able to get in on their insurance which saves you a lot of money

cons of a shop: you have basically no power, have to teach to however they want you to, aren't likely to make a lot of money, and that includes potentially having to buy gear that they get to dictate to you and teach in that gear

In big dive areas like cave country, very few instructors are officially teaching out of a shop. That said, they are "associated" with certain shops and they get things like free fills and gear discounts for bringing students into the shop which build a long term client base for them. In other areas, since most dive shops aren't run like actual businesses and they are penny wise and pound foolish, they don't think long term so it is very difficult to get deals like that as an independent instructor. They see them as threats to their business because they are pitched against other shops in the area or whatever other nonsense is going on. May be a NAUI shop against a PADI shop, or an Aqualung against a Scubapro shop, whatever it is, most shops perceive independent instructors as a thread and it may not bode well for you. As an independent instructor who doesn't teach that often, I don't really care what the dive shops in my area think, but I have access to compressors if I need them, own all of my own gear, and teach for very different reasons than most people.

 

[emoreira]

There are certification agencies that do not allow an Instructor to work independently. Agencies like SSI impose that the instructor must work under the umbrella of a Dive Shop.

 

[tbone1004]

There are certification agencies that do not allow an Instructor to work independently. Agencies like SSI impose that the instructor must work under the umbrella of a Dive Shop.

aside from that rule, there are some conflicts of interest with SSI since they are owned by a gear manufacturer... Not a real issue for most people, but it is for me

 

[emoreira]

aside from that rule, there are some conflicts of interest with SSI since they are owned by a gear manufacturer... Not a real issue for most people, but it is for me

I share this with you. This point is also an issue for me.
I'm no longer an Active SSI Dive Professional. However the cert-agency where I'm now, share the same philosophy.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

So, there are instructors who actually work for shops doing various things (I assume they get paid hourly). These shops may impose restrictions on the equipment the instructor uses to the lines they carry (could teach in rental gear?), but the instructor may have more of an influence on how the place is run since they're a part of it. The shop might even have its own boat . Do shops pay to get their service techs certified to maintain their line(s) of equipment, inspect tanks, blend gas, perform O2 cleaning, etc? And you get under their group insurance policy.

There are people who are "associated" with shops, where they routinely bring their students and have a relationship with the shop that is symbiotic. This is more likely in areas with lots of diving? In this scenario the instructor keeps the course fees? And you might get on their insurance.

An then you could just truly be a freelance instructor where you go to whatever shop and get pool time at some place and essentially operate on your own? This one seems like it needs the most beneficial circumstances (cheap access to a pool that will allow you to teach scuba, potentially access to a compressor, booster, etc.) and that you would have to pay for your own liability insurance.

How am I doing so far?