TheDiveBus
Contributor
Hi folks,
As fellow dive operators on our favourite scuba forum, thought we'd post our news / questions here first to request your feedback, input, suggestions, whatever. I already checked out the following thread which was very interesting, but we think we're going to go the other route, ie. partnership, having spoken with several potential investors over the years with entirely different ideas of how to run a scuba business (e.g. you should just put lots more students in each class - sorry, what are PADI standards again?
): http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/business-business/250841-finding-investors.html
And this one:http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mi...ing-partners-our-charter-boat-business-3.html
So - my husband and I set up our small PADI dive op almost 5 years ago from scratch. As you'll all appreciate, we've worked hard to establish a loyal and lovely client base and strong reputation, and we were lucky enough to land a perfect location right on the beach entry for 2 of Curacao's top (shore) dive sites.
We face the usual challenges of all small business owners, namely availability of both time and money in order to take our business to the next level of development, rather than just keep it running as is.
Rather than look for an investor who would 'just' provide money, we're seriously considering selling a % of the business to the right dive professional / DP couple who will have a vested interest in working together with us to grow the business, i.e. providing both time and money.
Clearly, finding partners with the same attitude and outlook, but ideally differing strengths, is critical and undoubtedly where most partnerships fall down - or never even get off the ground.
So our questions to you are:
- any comments / thoughts / things to consider that we may have overlooked?
- the same on where to post / advertise this opportunity to serious enquiries, not time wasters or people looking to pick our brains in order to set up their own dive op (happened to friends of ours)
- anything else we should know!
Many thanks in advance, any input much appreciated.
All best!
Suzy
The Dive Bus - HOME
As fellow dive operators on our favourite scuba forum, thought we'd post our news / questions here first to request your feedback, input, suggestions, whatever. I already checked out the following thread which was very interesting, but we think we're going to go the other route, ie. partnership, having spoken with several potential investors over the years with entirely different ideas of how to run a scuba business (e.g. you should just put lots more students in each class - sorry, what are PADI standards again?
): http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/business-business/250841-finding-investors.htmlAnd this one:http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mi...ing-partners-our-charter-boat-business-3.html
So - my husband and I set up our small PADI dive op almost 5 years ago from scratch. As you'll all appreciate, we've worked hard to establish a loyal and lovely client base and strong reputation, and we were lucky enough to land a perfect location right on the beach entry for 2 of Curacao's top (shore) dive sites.
We face the usual challenges of all small business owners, namely availability of both time and money in order to take our business to the next level of development, rather than just keep it running as is.
Rather than look for an investor who would 'just' provide money, we're seriously considering selling a % of the business to the right dive professional / DP couple who will have a vested interest in working together with us to grow the business, i.e. providing both time and money.
Clearly, finding partners with the same attitude and outlook, but ideally differing strengths, is critical and undoubtedly where most partnerships fall down - or never even get off the ground.
So our questions to you are:
- any comments / thoughts / things to consider that we may have overlooked?
- the same on where to post / advertise this opportunity to serious enquiries, not time wasters or people looking to pick our brains in order to set up their own dive op (happened to friends of ours)
- anything else we should know!
Many thanks in advance, any input much appreciated.
All best!
Suzy
The Dive Bus - HOME
