Dual Agency

[UncleJoes]

This thread is aimed at the dive shop community:

I have recently been approached by a number of agencies to become a trainer and to have my shop associate with them. I have been a PADI member for almost 15 years and have had few complaints, but my business partner and I have been considering opening our shop to another agency while still retaining our PADI credentials.

If you have had experience in this regard, please let me know your thoughts. What are the pros and cons of going this route. Does it really help to have more than one training agency in your store?

Thank you in advance.
-Jeff

 

[RJP]

Assuming you're running your shop as a business, there's a simple analysis you can do:

Question #1: What business issue/opportunity are you trying to overcome/exploit by adding an agency?​

Question #2: What are the time, cost, and logistics requirements to add another agency?
Question #3: Is the potential upside worth the time, cost, and logistics?

​

If you don't have an answer to Question #1 right on the tip of your tongue... don't even bother with #2 and #3. The fact that this question is borne of YOU having been approached by OTHER AGENCIES in THEIR efforts to get YOU to affiliate with them tells me that these other agencies are trying to exploit a business opportunity for THEM by getting you to add them. (Unless you're in a situation where you have a significant portion of potential customers telling you that they are going elsewhere for training because they don't want to take PADI courses... and you are actively seeking other agencies.)

Assuming YOU have a compelling business reason to go down this road, you need to consider the following at a minimum:

• Crossover training costs (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many)
• Crossover training time/logistics (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many)
• Crossover material costs (for each of your 7 staff folks)
• Professional member fees (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many
• Inventory carrying costs to have materials for the same course(s) for multiple agencies in stock
• Logistical impact of running courses (concurrent?) for the same courses across different agencies
• General Business inefficiencies associated with dealing with more than Plusagency (Suppose you have potential OW students - right now you put them in a single PADI course. If you also offer NAUI... do you possibly end up with 2 students wanting a NAUI course and 2 students wanting a PADI course?)

Lastly, once you've figured out those business impacts... you need to determine what the potential upside is, and whether it's worth the cost/time/hassle. If you go through everything above and end up pocketing only a few dollars of incremental profit per year... it's not worth it.

Also, consult your PADI agreement. I see you are currently a PADI 5-Star Dive Center. I believe that one of the requirements for being a 5-Star Dive Center is that you are not permitted to offer any course from another agency for which PADI has a course. For example, you can offer SDI Solo Diver and remain a PADI 5-Start Center, however if you also offer SDI Open Water you are no longer eligible to be a 5-Star Center. Naui Cave - no problem. NAUI Cavern - nope. Etc. I'm pretty sure it's the 5-Start status that is at risk here. Note the difference in the descriptive language on the PADI site, with my emphasis added:

PADI Five Star Dive Center:
​

"...PADI Five Star Dive Centers embrace the PADI System of diver education..."

​

PADI Dive Center
​

"...These dive shops use the PADI System of diver education...​

 

[Wookie]

The ONLY reason I am an SDI shop as well as a PADI shop is that SDI allowed me to teach solo many years ago. Had PADI not taken the "We'll never allow solo diving" stand, I would never have crossed over.

With that said, I only teach SDI classes now, although I maintain teaching status with PADI.

 

[ffdiver]

PADI does now have a "solo" course, so I don't know if that example still stands true.

 

[RJP]

PADI does now have a "solo" course, so I don't know if that example still stands true.

Without swerving out of the direction of this thread, I think that since Self-Reliant Diver is actually a "Distinctive Specialty" it's not technically part of "The PADI System" per se.

 

[ffdiver]

It's a PADI distinctive specialty which can't be changed so it's official as a specialty can get

 

[RJP]

It's a PADI distinctive specialty which can't be changed so it's official as a specialty can get

Don't want to hijack... but what, then, is the difference between a "specialty" and a "distinctive specialty?"

DAMN - I think I did hijack! Don't answer the question!!!

:d

 

[ffdiver]

I don't know the official designation but for any normal distinctive specialty the instructor writes out a course they would like to teach and PADI approves it. They don't adopt the course per se, and don't offer the outline to other instructors. It's what makes that instructor distict as far as being able to teach that special course.

The Self reliant course is a PADI distinctive specialty that they adopted and have made a standardize outline for. If you submitted your own solo course they would not approve it and refer you to their Self reliant course (which was written as a distinctive specialty).

For another example. I am a Full Face mask instructor. PADI happens to have a standard outline for Full face mask but allows you to make whatever changes you want to it (for approval of course). I made the changes I want to it and resubmitted it. Making it a distinct specialty that only I can teach. IF they had a standard outline that they wanted followed they wouldn't allow you to make changes to it.

 

[UncleJoes]

PADI does now have a "solo" course, so I don't know if that example still stands true.

The Self Reliant Course is not a "Solo" course. It teaches the same principles of redundancy, etc. but still requires you to dive with a buddy. The idea here was simply to help divers (especially those without set buddies) hone their skills. At least this was my understanding.

---------- Post added October 16th, 2014 at 05:06 PM ----------

The ONLY reason I am an SDI shop as well as a PADI shop is that SDI allowed me to teach solo many years ago. Had PADI not taken the "We'll never allow solo diving" stand, I would never have crossed over.

With that said, I only teach SDI classes now, although I maintain teaching status with PADI.

Why did you switch to teaching solely through SDI? What do they do for you that PADI wasn't?

---------- Post added October 16th, 2014 at 05:10 PM ----------

Assuming you're running your shop as a business, there's a simple analysis you can do:

Question #1: What business issue/opportunity are you trying to overcome/exploit by adding an agency?​

Question #2: What are the time, cost, and logistics requirements to add another agency?
Question #3: Is the potential upside worth the time, cost, and logistics?

​

If you don't have an answer to Question #1 right on the tip of your tongue... don't even bother with #2 and #3. The fact that this question is borne of YOU having been approached by OTHER AGENCIES in THEIR efforts to get YOU to affiliate with them tells me that these other agencies are trying to exploit a business opportunity for THEM by getting you to add them. (Unless you're in a situation where you have a significant portion of potential customers telling you that they are going elsewhere for training because they don't want to take PADI courses... and you are actively seeking other agencies.)

Assuming YOU have a compelling business reason to go down this road, you need to consider the following at a minimum:

• Crossover training costs (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many)
• Crossover training time/logistics (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many)
• Crossover material costs (for each of your 7 staff folks)
• Professional member fees (for each of your 7 staff folks, or however many
• Inventory carrying costs to have materials for the same course(s) for multiple agencies in stock
• Logistical impact of running courses (concurrent?) for the same courses across different agencies
• General Business inefficiencies associated with dealing with more than Plusagency (Suppose you have potential OW students - right now you put them in a single PADI course. If you also offer NAUI... do you possibly end up with 2 students wanting a NAUI course and 2 students wanting a PADI course?)

Lastly, once you've figured out those business impacts... you need to determine what the potential upside is, and whether it's worth the cost/time/hassle. If you go through everything above and end up pocketing only a few dollars of incremental profit per year... it's not worth it.

Also, consult your PADI agreement. I see you are currently a PADI 5-Star Dive Center. I believe that one of the requirements for being a 5-Star Dive Center is that you are not permitted to offer any course from another agency for which PADI has a course. For example, you can offer SDI Solo Diver and remain a PADI 5-Start Center, however if you also offer SDI Open Water you are no longer eligible to be a 5-Star Center. Naui Cave - no problem. NAUI Cavern - nope. Etc. I'm pretty sure it's the 5-Start status that is at risk here. Note the difference in the descriptive language on the PADI site, with my emphasis added:

PADI Five Star Dive Center:
​

"...PADI Five Star Dive Centers embrace the PADI System of diver education..."

​

PADI Dive Center
​

"...These dive shops use the PADI System of diver education...​

Thank you very much for all of this. The idea of losing the 5 Star status and any hope of a future IDC has been what has kept me from pursuing this so far. I personally haven't felt the need to take on the extra headaches, but my business partner has been curious. I was really hoping to hear from any dive shops out there who have made the switch and why they did so.

 

[ffdiver]

You do learn to dive solo in the course. In fact the last dive of the course can be solo if the instructor and student choose to do so. It is a solo diver course.