Opening a dive site/shop...

[Big-t-2538]

Lawman once bubbled...


Mike I don't know how anybody makes a living in the dive business. Especially inland from oceans and in the north.
Maybe a full service [water, equiptment, training, and repair] will generate enough cash for a few people, but not very many.
If I had a quarry big enough to dive I'd make it available for students [as I said earlier] stock it with fish and let people fish the remainder of the time and stick a couple of condos up. Don't fill it with junk, landscape the hell out of it and hope to sell out in a few years.

As Mike said, the owner of Gilboa quarry in OH is doing pretty well. However, he has done a boat load of work....he has put in some seriously long hours, and though he might seem strange and loopy from time to time...alright, most of the time....he is very passionate about the sport and how the divers treat his quarry.

On a given weekend this past spring (may sometime when I was doing my DM cert.) I was working with a group of advanced students. Some came up the night before, and others came up the following day. By doing some simple math with the braclets the owner requires people to wear, we figured that there were at least 200 divers on SAT, and 300 on SUN. That was just the students with an OW cert....the owner gives out different braclets with different numbers for advanced divers. that is a minimum of 5000 for just diving, not counting the number of campers etc.

Long story short, a land-locked quarry can do well, but it is a lot of work

 

[vr]

You've got a lot of research to do if you're serious about it. There are many questions that none of us can supply the answers to. This might help Dive Shop Ownership as a starting point. I'm sure there's a lot more to know and learn besides what is mentioned there. Good luck.

 

[Aquamaniac]

Georgia has a huge cave diving community, in need of a good local site. Where is this quarry you speak of?

 

[jamiei]

its east of atlanta, right off I-20 (greensboro/lake oconee)

 

[MARINABROKER]

Hi I am a new scuba person so can't advise from that perspective, but, I am an experienced realtor, entrepreneur and risk taker. It is said that most successful people experienced at least 7 failures before meeting with their success. I don't know where in Ga. you are but I am licensed in Ga. as well as Tn. and have access to demographic info etc. I also specialize in selling Marinas so I know a little about environmental issues, permitting etc. I believe in following one's dreams. I also have learned that they(dreams) need to be well thought out and and bacxked by a level of unwavering commitment before activating into a plan. If I can be of help let me know.

 

[WJL]

Operating a quarry dive site requires an enormous time commitment. Like all cash businesses, you personally must be there all the time the business is open, or your employees will steal from you without mercy. They will devote plenty of energy to stealing from you even while you are there. This is while you have to deal with all your customers, a certain fraction of which will turn out to be very high maintenance. You also have to be open consistently, at least on weekends, meaning you have to spend ALL your weekends at the quarry. I think you are kidding yourself if you are planning to run your site as a side business, unless you are willing to let it take over every bit of your time away from your "day job" and probably more than that.

At the quarries I have visited, the operators seem to be there around the clock. I think Mike at Gilboa might live at the site.

As far as the economics, the business is definitely seasonal even in Georgia. You will make most of your money in the warm weather, and be lucky to break even when the temperature starts to drop.

Every quarry I've been diving in has some sort of junk in it to look at, like boats and cars and planes. I suspect that getting the junk into the quarry is more problematical than it would first appear. Finding and transporting the junk is one thing, but you will also have to clean out all pollutants and clear out diver-catching snags and restrictions before anything goes in the water.

In my day job I have to look for all the problems people can get into, so my observations on new business ventures tend to be pessimistic. The point is that you nedd to think through all the issues before you devote resources to this project. If you plan for the worst, when you do decide to go forward you'll feel like you're ahead of the game if things merely turn out badly.

 

[Aquamaniac]

If its the quarry on Hutchins-Wolfskin Road off Georgia Highway 77 south of Crawford, Martin Marietta Aggregates plans to re-open the quarry for mining in the very near future. Might make diving a little risque.


dave

 

[jamiei]

nope, thats not it... I know the owner is my future father-in-law

 

[Aquamaniac]

So what one is it?

I can only think of two others.

1.Take GA Hwy. 16 East from Eatonton apx. 13 miles to the Georgia Power road. Turn left to Lawrence Shoals Recreation Area. The trail entrance is about 100 yards on the right.

2.The quarry located near Lloyd Smith Road and Ga. Highway 77


Dave

 

[jamiei]

its privately owned... how do you know so much about quarries around there anyway... and are those active quarries or dive possibilities?