Shawn,
This thread is refreshing. It offers many-a-perspective and hits a lot of different topics at a variety of angles.
With that being said, I feel there's a bit of a paradoxal catch-22 with Shawn calling for less expensive classes so that being an instructor can be an affordable pursuit, while on the other side of the coin, Mack comments that if classes were more expensive then the instructors could be paid more. Hmmmmmm?
Shawn, are you willing to pay more for your education upfront for the risk/potential reward of making more money per student down the road? And if you are NOT willing to pay more . . . i.e. if your PRO education could be discounted, in turn would you be willing to offer your PRO services at a discounted rate, thus making less money per student as an instructor?
In addition, be sure to include a cost-dependent algorithm into your business plan forecasting because when you charge more for classes, the financially-strapped segment of your clientele market will shy away due to the higher price. So, do you think you will actually make more money in the long-run by charging more per student? If you charge each student less, you will probably get more clients, definitely work more/longer hours, but will you acquire enough business to off-set the lower price per student? That's the 64 million dollar question? Or in the scuba industry, unfortunately it's more like the 640 dollar question. :shocked2:
Shawn, something's gotta give if you're wanting lower prices for your career-building education classes, but then high-dollar compensation for instructing some of the very education classes that you just took to become PRO.
No Love for LDS owners???
Just because Mack and I both decided to become dive shop owners over the past few recent years, doesn't mean we're two horses running with blinders. We have been consumers in our scuba industry for many more years.
We both did similar research, both understood the pros and cons of the current industry set-up (but not as much as we know now), and both of us loved scuba as well as the opportunity to be a part of our sport which encouraged us to giant stride in with a fervor. Shawn, I'm excited to know that you're weighing your options concerning your scuba future with such deep-thought. Hopefully, all those who post before me and after me will be constructive to your hopes.
So that you know where I'm coming from?
I grew up without a lot luxuries, including money. After getting my degree from UT-Austin, I did my share of working for "the man," trying to be sponge and learn valuable knowledge even though some jobs were downright crappy. But after that 3-year experience, I became self-employed, which was scary knowing that if I didn't produce results, that food would not magically appear on my table, the car note and mortgage-man would come a knocking and that I was without the safety net of financial-well parents or any sort of deep savings. I had to rely on my ability to sell my business model, my knowledge, and quite frankly, myself. For approx 20 years now, I've been successfully self-employed, and I've never had to rely on anyone for assistance . . . . . . until I opened Royal Scuba this past year and realized that there were some things that I didn't have the answers for. Being a Type-A perfectionist, that's a big slice of humble pie reality that I had to work out. But that's also a whole other thread for some other day.
I became a diver many years ago, I did about 6 weeks of research just to decide who was going to be my open water instructor, what initial gear was within my budget, and what type of diving I was enthusiastic about trying (lake, cenotes, Caribbean warm, Pacific cold, etc.)
Two years later, when I decided to purchase my first "bad-ass" set of gear, I did about 4 months of research to decide what kind, what brand, what store were candidates for my business, what price was worth my hard-earned money, and at what point, with my sales experience as a guide, would I feel justified in walking away from bulls**t spewed from a scuba salesperson. (I just wanted to be treated right and treated fair, and get a good price. You know, what everybody wants in life.)
Fast forward to current events, I did nearly 3 years of research on a scuba shop business plan, etc, etc, etc, while incubating All-American Royal Scuba. I thought I had all my bases covered. And then a couple of months before I was about to open the shop in mid-2007, my business partner's heart condition forced him to back out, which tore me up inside and sent me back to the drawing board. Before I opened my LDS, RoyalScuba.com, on the last weekend of March 2008, I felt like I had already won the war because I had successfully maneuvered my way through "Shawn's current scuba industry," and then some.
There are some comments on this thread that shed some light on things that definitely could be looked at within our well-loved industry. I'm refreshed by all of you who have shared viewpoints on this thread (many of whom I know as customers and/or friends) and I'm always intrigued and thankful by vast insightful knowledge that comes from the Texas Swamp Divers forum, most of all I applaud Shawn for having the courage to speak out and get this started.
In closing, when I was doing research a few years ago, I discovered that the price of a c-card (OW cert) has gone down and then up and back down again over the past 15 years or so in the greater Austin area . In addition, the typical average price for a c-card in the Houston area and Dallas area tends be nearly $150 more than the average c-card price in Austin. I won't bore you with the many other stats I gathered nationally, but here's the catch, regardless of Austin prices fluctuating, or the Dallas/ Houston price being more expensive, instructor wages per student are eerily uniform regardless of where the class is offered.
Meaning, regardless of whether a scuba shop is charging $550 in California, $499 in Georgia, or $375 in the Dallas area, or $200 in Austin, all dive shops tend to pay their instructors a similar wage nationwide. My research was confirmed by a PADI regional course director when PADI was courting me last year, as well as numerous NAUI course directors that I initially met via a conference call last April, but that is an entirely different thread.
If any of you believe my little LDS has high prices, please sound off.
Nicco Martinez
