Help!!! my daughter has lost her mind!

[Tigerman]

But the price is negotiable, the ad says. I figure you can easily get it for only $2,250,000.

If you have no money to start with, it shouldn't be a problem. It's only about twice what I earned in my lifetime.

And whats two million dollars to a 21 yearold anyways? Its just pocket change.. (If dads paying)

 

[drrich2]

Spanish is more dominant than English in Puerto Rico; driving far from the airport you can get a feel for what it's like to be illiterate if you can't read Spanish. Is she very fluent?

The business venture sounds doomed. More an issue is the prospect of throwing away funding for a good formal education, and a marriage that, if her other decisions shared here are a good indicator, may not be wise. Sad.

I'd emphasize that it's unlikely that they can show up without advance training, skills & qualifications, and no starting capital, and establish a profitable business in a highly competitive market for a narrow profit margin industry where the locals are probably already well-established, will be favored over immigrants (yes, I know Puerto Rico is a U.S. holding), and where they likely have no roots (maybe he does?) or contacts.

Also, it's likely they'll go heavily into debt, be unable to afford health insurance, and be unable to provide well for their children (sometimes maternal protectiveness, even in advance, might help?).

You can even point out they need the knowledge & skills to get into the business. She should pursue Dive Master, then Instructor, here in the U.S., and both should do some business classes in college to get the skills/knowledge needed to run that business, and a convincing qualifications base to get a bank to load them the start-up capital. She could work on an online MBA program or some such.

If you can send them off on that path (which would make better sense even if they do go through with it successfully, which I doubt), it should delay them a few years (even with 'zero to hero' instructor training options), and reality might seep in and wake them up in the interim.

There's only so much you can do to save people from themselves. Ask any parent of an alcoholic or drug addict. It can be like watching a slow motion train wreck, but sometimes, watching & praying are about all you can do.

Richard.

 

[TSandM]

The reality of a dive business is that the owners don't dive. They can't, because most shops aren't profitable enough to allow them to hire anyone else to run the showroom floor.

It's a low margin business, and you have to bust your butt to make ends meet. If you don't own a boat, you have to figure out how to take your customers diving. If you do own a boat, it's a huge sink for money, unless you can do almost all the repairs yourself, and even then . . . Running an undercapitalized business is insanely stressful, because without capital, you don't have money for initial inventory, and you have no padding for operating funds for the first, short period you are up and running, before the business becomes established. Being cash-poor means lying awake at night, trying to figure out how you are going to keep your vendors sweet and the wolf from your door. If you can't buy inventory, you're stuck with the customer who walks through the door and wants to buy something, and you can't sell it to him. "I can order that for you," nowadays is greeted with a shrug, because the customer can order it himself, and probably cheaper.

You need to teach classes to create divers to buy goods, but you are under continuous pressure to teach shorter and cheaper classes, to compete with your colleagues who are willing to do it themselves. You can't pay your instructors much, which means you have constant turnover. You fear liability when one of your marginally trained students has an accident.

Many small businesses fail, generally for a couple of reasons: Undercapitalization (rampant in the dive industry); lack of business education and skills on the part of the owners (rife in the dive industry); poor business plan (common in the dive industry). But some dive shops flourish -- look at ScubaToys and DRIS. Somebody who is willing to work like a dog and provide really good customer service can make a go of a business anywhere. But you have to know what you are doing, and be willing to do the work.

I have Seattle friends who moved to Puerto Rico some years ago. They became progressively disenchanted with the place (and apparently the diving is really not very good) and they are moving back this coming year.

 

[boulderjohn]

The reality of a dive business is that the owners don't dive. They can't, because most shops aren't profitable enough to allow them to hire anyone else to run the showroom floor.

There is a business model that does not include a showroom. I know a couple of pretty successful businesses in Cozumel that have no physical property at all that customers visit. You book with them online, and the owner shows up at your hotel to take care of logistics. In one case, the owner has one boat. He is the DM, and the only employee I know of is the skipper. I don't know how to measure his success, but he is still in business.

 

[Hank49]

The reality of a dive business is that the owners don't dive. They can't, because most shops aren't profitable enough to allow them to hire anyone else to run the showroom floor.

Not true in developing countries with low labor costs. I know owners of shops on Boracay who dive a lot.

 

[Wingy]

Also not always the case everywhere - I have a friend in Thailand who runs a shop, runs a boat and dives daily.

 

[iluvtheocean]

also something to think about is where are they gonna live? i know housing isn't cheap there unless it's a really bad area... and absolutely spanish is a necessity unless you're a tourist going with locals (which we were since wife has family there) -- the chinese restaurant menus are in spanish even. how are they even going to get there if they have no money? although i do know of a house for sale in Cayey. nice sized although earplugs are necessary until you get used to the flock of guinea hens and the roosters sounding off at 4am

 

[PeterNBiddle]

Whats insinuated by the whole introduction is that he wants the arguments to tell her not to do it.. The real truth about running a dive shop? Well, that truth is the same as for running any buisness isnt it? Its hard work to start it, not sure you'll succeed and you cant expect to break even for quite some time in the startup phase. Buying a shop may or may not be better economy depending on how the shop is doing already and why and not least what you have to pay for it. Also, theres of course something that can be easilly missunderstood when someone says "dive shop". Some people immediately think of dive ops whos primary buisness is sending people out diving, by boat or otherwise and others think dive equipment retail stores and then you have the combination of the two... The above applies to all, but the details is very different between a "sercive provider" and a "hardware provider" (and no, that does not imply that the salespeople should be grumpy asses with no clue about how to treat customers)

Independent retail SUCKS as a business. There's no scale. You will never get a break. If you have a choice then only open your own place if you love love love something about it.

 

[lmorin]

Two thoughts. (1) Either this will resolve itself after a bit of time and thought have an impact or it won't. (2) Being in a PhD program with a fellowship etc. sounds great, but it may not be. Way, way too many academically qualified undergrads enter PhD programs only to discover they do not really motivated to complete the degree or use it in a productive way if received. If the PhD is in the sciences, it will provide an avenue to be followed, but guarantees nothing.

 

[T.C.]

Well, I can tell you this. When the dust settles, be it in 1 month or 50 years, she's going to have built one HELL of alot of character!

All glory and honor (and credit) to the greatest cartoonist on Earth; Bill Watterson!