a view from a dive shop

[Flodad]

I'd love to work with a dive shop and help them look at news ways to develop a profitable business model. But to keep it simple, I beleive that a dive shop ought to always be asking a few questions on what they are doing:

1. Do I really have business plan with stated and clear objectives? You can do many things in a dive shop that are counterproductive. Unless you have clear objectives and a set plan to achielve those objectives, you may be fighting aginst yourself.

2. If Im a brick and motar shop, am i simply following a business model that has been passed down from instructor to instructor or owner to owner over the past 50 years? You must look at your busines plans every year and really lay out what it is you want to do and how you plan to achieve it. When doing that, dont look at the online sources (knowledge, retail, photos, videos, etc...) soley as competition, look at them as additional tools you have to compete not only on-line but also as brick and motar. You have the advantege, not the online stores.

3. Why do brick and motars stores all operate independantly? Dont negotiate with the manufactures alone, band together (almost as a sop op) and use your combined buying power instead of that of a single shop. You dont need legal alignment or cop, but negotiate together. its easier said than done.

4. Always, Always, understand that you are there for the customer and never the other way around. as many have stated, if its retail, they can and are going to onlince sources, if its knowledge, they can now get that through forums, message boards, and elearning opportunities. So you must WANT them to come into your dive shop to try on equipment. By doing that, you get first shot at their sale. If they are going elsewhere, then you have to determine how to close those deals. But dont get upset with them because they come into your shop and you dont make a sale. UNderstand why you are not making that sale and attack it. Also, if a sale is the only reason you want them to come into the dorr, then you should be focused on expanding youro nline precense and not your brickand motor footprint.

Folks, IM not in the dive business so please dont take offense, just trying to add to the discusion. Some of this thread has me puzzled

---------- Post added November 24th, 2012 at 01:17 PM ----------

abys, didnt see your post before submitting mine... You are spot on.

 

[Divingaddict]

OP: thank you for all the work you do! I have not purchased my personal gear yet, but when I do, it will definitely be from my LDS. I've seen the cheaper pricing online and it looks nice, but I feel much more secure buying from someone I trust, even if it means paying a higher price. Add on to that the simple fact that I wouldn't have been able to enter the dive world without my LDS, and they have a lifelong customer. Not everyone out there is just looking for cheap prices.

 

[BUDMANOK]

even if it means paying a higher price

the more I overpay for gear the less money I have for actual diving. sorry if that sounds mercenary but that's the realities of my economics.

 

[abyss_scuba]

Flodad: I tell everyone that the worst thing you can do is think I'm the boss, as far as I'm concerned every customer that walks through the door is my boss, they make the final decision. My job is to guide them to the best decision for them. My goal with every customer is to have an experience that they are so happy with they want their friends to go no where else.

Divingaddict: talk to your LDS if they are smart they will see you as a partner and will be more than willing to work with you. As a note when divers come in I have a sliding scale the more you rent the less it cost, this keeps divers not ready to buy diving. They also can join our mentoring program. While not a "certification" class we hook you up with divers with more experience until you have learned as many tricks as you can, your only requirement is that at some point you mentor a newbie.

 

[redacted]

I do my own service. Will you sell me parts? I have my own pool. Funny thing; my LDS owner and I discovered we buy our cars and lots of other things at the same place - the source with the best prices.

You can sell your wares for what ever price you and, in this case, your supplier are content with. If it is the best price, you should have no trouble finding customers if you can reach out. If your prices are not competetive, your customer base will be smaller than it could have been. If it is MSRP, then you better make some pretty damn good coffee and that still may not be enough in the long run.

Are you saying you charged a customer $150 to assemble, test, and adjust a regulator??? Did that include the price of the next "annual" service.

I ran into a shop once that bragged about charging a diver $75 to assemble his LeisurePro regulator. That shop is gone now. It is quite apparent when a shop is just trying to punish a customer and customers are put off by it.

 

[jaycanwk]

jaycanwalk, those are great shops that do well on the web and have from what I have heard great local shops. But and this is the big but here rents in my area arethrough the roof. TX and FL seem to be a lot cheaper. The largest online dealer LP has a building in NY but I know that their shipping comes out of a NJ commercial area where the prices are much lower. And here is the big thing for me, I want to teach as much as sell, which means I need a store front for my customers to come into. Maybe a new business model would be knock down the class room make all my students do elearning and have more selling floor, but at that point I will close the doors. If I cannot have a say in how future divers interact with the aquatic realm then I might as well open a UPS store and leave it at that. Sometimes in life it has to be about something worthwhile.

And just to be clear, my comments were not about you specifically. Infact, I do actually try to support my local LDS when I can because they do offer me services that I am willing to pay a "reasonable" premium for, because you are right, it isn't always about price.

 

[icewolf08]

Not only do I make most of my purchases at my LDS, I drive almost 45 minutes to get there. There are closer shops, but the relationship that I have with the owner and some of his instructors make it totally worth the drive. I know that I pay a bit of a premium price there, but being able to actually handle and test each piece of gear makes a huge difference.

Last major purchase I made was new BCDs for bot my wife and I (at the time I hadn't intended to by myself a new one). I think we tried almost all the various models he had available in the pool before making a purchase.

Of course the one of the best things that our LDS offered is their layaway program. It is basically a no-interest financing program, where they make up the monthly payments based on what you can afford. The shop hold the gear, but you can come check it out and dive when you want to (as long as you return the gear or pay it off). We paid for a lot of gear this way, and we were still able to dive with it, such a great deal that you just can't get online. I would rather pay a little more up front than carry a balance on my credit card!

Both in diving and in my regular job, I would rather support the local shops as much as I can. These are the people who will help you out when you are in need. If you have a good relationship with the local shops and you have a problem outside normal business hours, you may actually get the help you need. The LDS we use when we vacation in Maine will regularly let us return rental gear after hours as opposed to charging us for extra time.

There are certainly times that I feel like I would rather save a couple buck by shopping online. Every now and then I do, but when it comes to the gear that keeps me alive below the surface, I want to make sure that it fits right, is comfortable, and is really what I want.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Divingaddict]

BUDMANOK: Don't get me wrong, my economic situation certainly isn't one of luxury; I'm as broke as the next guy, hence the fact that I don't yet own my own kit. However, working in construction and various other blue collar jobs, I've learned that you often get what you pay for.

OP: As far as the mentoring, that is exactly what my LDS has done. They have practically bent over backwards for me, even scheduling a rescue class around my very erratic schedule. You just can't beat good customer service!

 

[abyss_scuba]

You can sell your wares for what ever price you and, in this case, your supplier are content with I am content with any price that makes me a profit. That is basic business. No I did not charge $150 to assemble, test and adjust a regulator, what I said is that because I don't order as much as an online store and my rent per square foot is higher I need to charge more in order to come close to the same profit an online store makes. So in order to be competitive I assemble, test, adjust, allow you to use it in the pool and give you an annual over haul at no charge which I believe when you add it all up makes it a better value. Actually I don't assemble gear purchased online and here is why. In today's litigous society the first person to get sued is the last person that touched the scuba gear. So if I assemble your gear and something happens to you through no fault of my own -even if it had nothing to do with the gear- I would be the first person to be sued. Why should I put myself and my shop in that situation? How much do you think is fair for tha texposure to being sued awap? And no I will not sell you parts, it is not allowed by my contract with my manufacterer, no matter what you say or think it is the contract I signed and adhere to. You want me to be fair to you then I also need to be fair to the manufacterer I work with. You may not like it but honest is honest and I insist on being honest.

 

[redacted]

I sell a reg/bc/computer set for $850. A customer found it online for $699. When he brought it in he had a collection of boxes so now add putting it all together, fine tuning the regulator to the divers preferences the ability to dive it in the pool and a no charge overhaul that I add for value. By the time all is said and done it would have been cheaper to buy it from me,

You can sell your wares for what ever price you and, in this case, your supplier are content with I am content with any price that makes me a profit. That is basic business. No I did not charge $150 to assemble, test and adjust a regulator, what I said is that because I don't order as much as an online store and my rent per square foot is higher I need to charge more in order to come close to the same profit an online store makes. So in order to be competitive I assemble, test, adjust, allow you to use it in the pool and give you an annual over haul at no charge which I believe when you add it all up makes it a better value. Actually I don't assemble gear purchased online and here is why. In today's litigous society the first person to get sued is the last person that touched the scuba gear. So if I assemble your gear and something happens to you through no fault of my own -even if it had nothing to do with the gear- I would be the first person to be sued. Why should I put myself and my shop in that situation? How much do you think is fair for tha texposure to being sued awap? And no I will not sell you parts, it is not allowed by my contract with my manufacterer, no matter what you say or think it is the contract I signed and adhere to. You want me to be fair to you then I also need to be fair to the manufacterer I work with. You may not like it but honest is honest and I insist on being honest.

I was just trying to understand the $$$ you provided. You were selling the reg for $850 and customer found it online for $699. Yet you say he spent more in the end on the $699 deal????

Your contract is what both parties agreed on. If you wanted to be price competitive (or wanted to sell part) you had many other options.

If you want to make more money, you either have to charge more or sell more. I'll never understand why so many scuba retailers build their business model around high markups and inexperienced customers and then wonder why business is not so good.

Please don't get me wrong. I do wish you success and understand some of the difficulties you are facing. But, other than a compressor, your shop and so many others like it just don't have much I need that you are willing to sell at a competitive price.