As an individual who has worked at several different dive shops, and now currently own one, I have been plagued with the old school ways of doing things. Purchase gear, mark it up, wear what I want to sell, and then hope for customers to pay the prices. One thing that keeps us a float is the fact we have capitalized in areas other shops in our area can not, such as light salvage work, due to our shop being on the lake, and promoting to the Public Service (because 95% of our employees including myself are Police, Fire, EMS, or Military personnel). Now with that being said, we try to work hand in hand with other shops in our area the best we can. One in particular is only 9 miles from us and one of the oldest dive shops in North Carolina. Oddly enough, it is where 90 % of Dive Instructors in our area got their start from. The owner of that said shop is a boat slip customer of our's at our marina. He teaches PADI only courses, to where we teach PADI, SSI, SEI, PDIC, and CMAS courses. PADI is the one we don't promote as much as the others, and this helps his store out. Also when we opened our doors, we were determined to not sell any manufactured gear that he did, to prevent us from getting into a price war with him. We refer customers to him that are determined to buy what he sells and vice a versa. Our working relationship is what, in my opinion, all shops should strive for.
The internet is a tricky beast for shops like ours. On one hand, the advertisement on social media is so easy and cost effective for us, because it is free. But on the other hand, internet sells is difficult to start and sustain. With the big dogs (Leisure Pro, DRIS, Divers Supply, Divers Direct, etc.) already established and in full swing, getting your name out there is kinda hard. This is in respect to selling equipment. With the training side of business, the internet really has no control over what we charge or the customer base we have. The internet can't really teach scuba and issue certifications. Also it is important to note, selling online, at least when you first get started, is restricted sometimes by the manufacturers and distributors you buy from. Meaning, when you buy gear at wholesale price and then resell, you are bound by certain price mark ups. Under cutting yourself to meet all internet prices just isn't practical. This in part being why we try to capitalize in areas no other shop can. I have been to PADI's business school, SSI's Scuba U, and etc., and all preach the same thing, even in PADI's and SSI"s Divemaster to Instructor Courses, we tell the students having other skills, other than teaching, such as mechanic, captain licenses, etc., make you more successful. The same applies to our store. We are a marina, dive shop, salvage company, and boat repair shop. In our low income area, I doubt we could make it on just the dive shop along.
I am excited to continue reading new post in regards to this topic.