My oh My, I woke up this morning and received an email notification from ScubaBoard where I had been tagged in a post, incorrectly if I might add. No offense
@tbone1004, my name is spelled Bryan not Brian, Y not I. It's ok, everybody else spells it wrong, no hard feelings. So I have spent the last few hours reading through the entire thread trying to grasp what the original post or question or topic was all about. From what I am reading, it appears that people want to know if someone has an affiliation with or if they are getting payed to make claims (praises) about a specific product. Now the last thing I want to do is jump right in and be part of the party, but I do believe in transparency. So here we go.
My name is Bryan Stafford, Co-Owner of Lake Hickory Scuba Center Inc., in Taylorsville, NC. I hold multiple Instructor ratings for 5 different training agencies, and have been diving since 1988. I have worked in the industry since I was 12 years old, starting out as a dive shop rat, sweeping floors and filling tanks. I have used and sold, virtually every gear manufacture on the market, at least the big names that is. I have worked for 3 Scuba Centers prior to opening up the one I currently co-own with my father. From day 1, we took everything that I had learned from all the other Scuba Centers about marketing, loyalty, and gear selection. We opted to carry only 1 brand of equipment, primarily because there are surrounding dive shops near us that carry a multitude of manufactures and have saturated the market with a bunch of choices. Now if we would have followed, the only thing I could have offered my customers was a better price, not a better product or service. So we chose Mares. In the beginning, to get the best buy in, we agreed to be loyal to Mares for a fair price, and support them, unless, they did not have a product that was specific to the type of diving our customers did. So in full disclosure with Mares, we brought in 2 other lines. First was Lifeguard Systems, because they made a BCD specifically for Public Safety Diving, for which we specialize in (I currently run 3 of the 7 dive teams I am a member of). Mares did not offer that. Then we brought in OMS, as our Back Plate and Wing systems. Once again, this was not in competition with Mares, we stayed loyal with them and only carried outside of them if they did not offer a specific type of equipment. Then Mares came out with their new XR line (Back Plates, Doubles, etc.). To keep our end of the bargin, we dropped OMS. Loyalty has payed off for us in so many ways. We have a better profit margin and buy in. Telling everyone this is no big secret, what we do keep secret, and rightfully so is how big that margin is. Furthermore, I can honestly say, YES, I do get free gear from time to time, and not only from Mares, but from others to review it. However, I have to send it back after reviewing. On occasions, companies will state that if they agree with my review, then I can keep the product as a token of gratitude for reviewing their product. I have even done bad reviews for a product, even Mares, and still got to keep it, because the manufacture saw it as an opportunity to get an accurate test done on their product, and they used it as a way to make their product better. This still does not mean that I will carry that line of gear. I have people call me all the time to compare equipment with Mares, because they know I have experience with it from the other Scuba Centers I worked at, or simply because I have personally used it. I have lost count of how many times, I have assisted someone to buy a piece of gear that I did not sell, because that is what they really wanted. Because at the end of the day, I want a diver to feel safe and comfortable while diving. And if the line of equipment that I carry, Mares, does not do that for them, then I will help them find gear that does. Loyalty goes a long long way, when it comes to business. I have chose to take the stance like this. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours. You do me wrong and it was nice knowing you. My business, though still somewhat small, has grown and continues to grow. I have tried not to compete with other shops, but to capitalize where they can't. Now, have I been transparent enough. P.S. this is still a business, and there are just somethings we do not say, and any successful business owner would agree, divulging all of our secrets would do more harm than good.
