Mike I understand your frustration, but in the end it is your responsibility to create value for your customers. If you create value that your customers can perceive then you will thrive, if you can't then you will go out of business. I have read a lot of your posts and understand that you are passionate about diving and have the best of intentions. However what you fail to realize is that the value that you are trying to create is not something that gives value to most people.
I have a friend who is in the tree care business. He is very passionate about taking great care of trees, pruning and cutting properly etc. and I am sure his work is great. But you know what? Most people are happy to take a hacksaw to a tree and be done with it. He wants to charge a premium for his services, but very few people see value in what he does.
The fact is a majority of people who learn to dive are doing it to be able to have some extra fun on their vacation. The next segment gets into diving a little more seriously and tries to go on tropical vacations once or twice a year. Another group loves diving and will dive in anything. The groups are probably more segmented than that, but based on some kind of segmentation you need to be able to provide value to that group.
The model that you were proposing which was training only is great, however for people in the first group, it is unlikely that the quality of training really matters. To cater to the first group you probably need some slick marketing, lots of colorful brochures, good looking, intelligent well groomed dive instructors. It is unlikely that you will sell a lot of high end equipment so most likely you would primarily stock the basics, masks, fins and snorkels and some nice looking BC's. The volume of customers through the store is probably very high, the time you spend with them is short. You don't make much margin per customer but you have very high volume and the trick is to keep a reasonable level of quality for the type of diving that most of your clients are doing. Think Target.
At the other end of the spectrum you get to the more serious divers. The volume of people going through the store drops but the time you spend with them is high. They prize training highly and so you can charge a premium for it. They are more likely to buy high end equipment so you carry the tech equipment and not so much of the other stuff.
One dive shop I go to is a yuppie dive shop, they charge high prices, but have a very bright clean shop with a lot of space. They don't hire quite the right people, but I can see what they are aiming for. Another dive shop has a crusty old owner who is just the nicest guy. They lean towards tech diving. The shop is very cluttered but they carry the high end tech. The other dive shops are middle of the road and are all about the same - no differentiation.
I have a friend who is in the tree care business. He is very passionate about taking great care of trees, pruning and cutting properly etc. and I am sure his work is great. But you know what? Most people are happy to take a hacksaw to a tree and be done with it. He wants to charge a premium for his services, but very few people see value in what he does.
The fact is a majority of people who learn to dive are doing it to be able to have some extra fun on their vacation. The next segment gets into diving a little more seriously and tries to go on tropical vacations once or twice a year. Another group loves diving and will dive in anything. The groups are probably more segmented than that, but based on some kind of segmentation you need to be able to provide value to that group.
The model that you were proposing which was training only is great, however for people in the first group, it is unlikely that the quality of training really matters. To cater to the first group you probably need some slick marketing, lots of colorful brochures, good looking, intelligent well groomed dive instructors. It is unlikely that you will sell a lot of high end equipment so most likely you would primarily stock the basics, masks, fins and snorkels and some nice looking BC's. The volume of customers through the store is probably very high, the time you spend with them is short. You don't make much margin per customer but you have very high volume and the trick is to keep a reasonable level of quality for the type of diving that most of your clients are doing. Think Target.
At the other end of the spectrum you get to the more serious divers. The volume of people going through the store drops but the time you spend with them is high. They prize training highly and so you can charge a premium for it. They are more likely to buy high end equipment so you carry the tech equipment and not so much of the other stuff.
One dive shop I go to is a yuppie dive shop, they charge high prices, but have a very bright clean shop with a lot of space. They don't hire quite the right people, but I can see what they are aiming for. Another dive shop has a crusty old owner who is just the nicest guy. They lean towards tech diving. The shop is very cluttered but they carry the high end tech. The other dive shops are middle of the road and are all about the same - no differentiation.
Is there actually a dive shop within 100 miles of Mason City? There's a guy here in Ames who has a "shop" of sorts, but I think it's in his garage/basement. There is also a shop in Des Moines, was in the paper a few months back when a bunch of people got "busted" making a trip to Cuba. But in Mason City I would think you'd be best off buying online since there's not really any other option!
