Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
hypothetical: I'll buy 25 regs at a time from you at just over your cost. You'll make a margin similar to selling a couple of regs out of the shop on a normal month. I'll get the warrenty, and then sell them on eBay for another 25%. I'll split the profit with you 50/50. We'll make you more profit than if you just sold one or two a month out of your store.Al Mialkovsky:
Only advice I can offer is from general observation, not personal experience in the dive industry, but first off, why a dive shop? The business I see fail, and this applies to all sorts, not just LDS's, are often started due to someone's passions and not due to a well though out business plan. Sort of like opening a bar because you like to drink with your friends. Using my nearby LDS's as an example, the ones really thriving have owners and management that could just as easily be working at any other retailer. In other words, while they may appear to have some enthusiasm for diving, I never see them in the water. This philosophy also carries into other aspects of the business. Classes are run very frequently and cheaply. I assume that the effort put into these classes is somewhat commeasurate with the price, but why give an above average effort to people who may not dive again for a year? One shop, in particular, probably runs 500+ OW students thru a year. Partly this is possible because there are some full time employees. As long as your paying a manager to work in the store, they might as well teach classes at the same time. 80-90% of these students purchase at least a personal gear package (mask, fins, boots@$150-$250). 25% (my estimate from being in the shop) buy a full gear package of some sort (minimum $650). The gear brands available change almost yearly based on the current best profit available. One shop sells a lot of Aqua-Lung gear but there isn't a single Apeks reg in the store. What they carried last year is suddenly missing and presumed junk. There is one LDS near me that I consider marginal. It looks like three or four owners, that probably have full time jobs, are trying to run the place in their spare time. Their gear prices and class prices are the highest in the area and it doesn't look like the local market is buying into the plan. As to the trips they run, I've never talked to anyone after a trip that felt the shop employee did anything to help the group, really just a way for one free spot plus one spot to sell for profit. The online sellers aren't saints either. When I've ordered from LP I gotten the distinct impression that scuba gear is just something they'll peddle until a better oportunity comes along. If none of this sounds like the way you want to do business then don't set your goals too high. It may be better to go to your bank, withdraw a large stack of $100 bills and sell them on the corner for $50 each. This will likely be the same end result as opening a dive shop but you'll probably make more friends.dave the diver:
Of course our shop wouldn't be involved with such things as it's just shooting ourselves in our own foot. But I know this happens.
oceancrest67:
yknot:
Al Mialkovsky:
