Want to open a dive shop.

I'm only 15 years old, but in the 5 years I've been diving, I have logged over 50 dives in places like Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, and more. I simply
fell in love with diving and I am extremely knowledgable and experienced at my young age on diving. I have a very close friend who is also interested in opening a dive shop who is a year younger than me. We both have a very strong interest in marine sciences and diving. I recently completed the Baltimore Aquarium's Student Volunteer Program which not only taught me about a field I was interested in, but also opened a lot of doors for me. I plan on going to college and potentially getting a degree in business or a life science. It's one of my dreams to open a dive business somewhere and just live an awesome, fun ass life. My friend and I surprisingly put together a business plan even though we tend to be a bit unfocused haha. Anybody any suggestions?

cameronhelfeldt:

I'm only 15 years old, but in the 5 years I've been diving, I have logged over 50 dives in places like Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, and more. I simply
fell in love with diving and I am extremely knowledgable and experienced at my young age on diving. I have a very close friend who is also interested in opening a dive shop who is a year younger than me. We both have a very strong interest in marine sciences and diving. I recently completed the Baltimore Aquarium's Student Volunteer Program which not only taught me about a field I was interested in, but also opened a lot of doors for me. I plan on going to college and potentially getting a degree in business or a life science. It's one of my dreams to open a dive business somewhere and just live an awesome, fun ass life. My friend and I surprisingly put together a business plan even though we tend to be a bit unfocused haha. Anybody any suggestions?

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Running - much less starting - a small, retail business in today's economic climate would probably not be characterized as "an awesome, fun-ass life" by anyone currently doing it.

Suggest you focus on doing well in school and keeping all your options open to you as you get closer to entering the real world.

In the meantime, keep in mind that 15 yrs old is likely the most awesome, fun-ass time of your life. Enjoy it now, while you can!

:d

RJP said it best -- it isn't a fun glamorous job running a shop -- it's hard work and no guarantee it'll suceed... most go under in the 1st year.

interested in marine sci? better off going that route and would be more fun and rewarding.

My advice to you would be to start now, well sort of..... I will start by saying that many people will tell you that you will probably fail, and that is certainly a possibility. That is not to say that you cant be successful either. I would suggest you create a website selling scuba equipment and/or buy and sell scuba related items via ebay or craigslist. This will give you some real world experience in dealing with customers, keeping them happy, and working with your partner. I am sure one of your parents will create a paypal account for your new venture.

College has certainly been pushed onto society as being the way to "make it" in America but certainly isn't necessary in many cases. Buying and selling scuba gear yourself, creating a webstore that utilizes drop shipping and interacting with customers will give you more business knowledge than a business professor that is a professor rather than running a business, lol. assuming you go to a decent school, you will have the added bonus of having tens of thousands of dollars worth of school debt hovering over your head while you are trying to start and run your business.

Prior to doing any of that, try to get work at a dive shop, volunteer if you have to if you aren't old enough to legally work yet. This will give you an idea of how business run their day to day operations. I doubt you will be given the financial books to study, but you can get an idea of what people are buying and what items the shop is pushing (this could be a clue to the more profitable items in the shop). Ask tons of questions, learn as much as you can, and apply yourself and you can succeed.

Seriously reconsider the whole partnership idea. People are hard to work with over long periods of time. You cant consider every situation that you may face in your new venture, but the chances of you two agreeing on everything are slim to none. No one in this world will take better care of you than yourself. It is easier to do things your way than have to consult your partner for every decision you will have to make in the future.

Set some small goals for yourself and accomplish them. Start out with your Christmas money and buy and sell a few things, find deals on stuff and "flip them" hopefully for a profit. If you are successful, by the time you are 18 you could have enough start up change to open your shop. Understand that not everything is going to happen like you hope it would, you will make mistakes, you will lose money, people will piss you off, its all part of running a business. Try to learn from these bumps in the road and move forward from them.


Use the opinions of those that believe you will fail as motivation. Don't waste your time trying to convince them otherwise, show them with action and results. This is America, you still have some freedoms and abilities to succeed left for now. If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen.

good luck!

I would advise interning at a dive shop first.

I'm a 25 year old manager of a dive shop. The part owner dumped his share recently and I have inherited all of his responsibility. I work about 60 hours a week in the summer.

Yeah that makes sense, but like I said it's been a dream of mine since I started diving. But again, I see where you're coming from, I totally understand that owning and running a business may not be a so called "fun" or "glamorous" job, but it is sorta my thing. I love being in the water, love interacting with and helping people, and love diving. I'm still going to take what both of you all said into consideration. A lot of people have told me that my Volunteer Program (which involved fairly extensive training) would be lots of work and may not be the "glamorous" or "fun" job that people like. I turned out to enjoy it immensely, I'm just saying, nobody knows whether or not I'll like that type of lifestyle or not.

I own my a dive shop in Playa del Carmen, and while it is fun to dive every day, I still have to put in about another 10 hrs/day dealing with administrative stuff. Like others have said, try to intern at a dive shop for a while doing grunt work (which believe me, shop owners do as well), and then decide if this is something you want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into. I would say go to college, get your degree(s) and then decide. Thats how I did it. 20+years diving, 2 bachelors degrees, 2 masters and phd, plus many years of the daily grind till I finally decided this is what i wanted to do with my life. Just dont loose your focus

Well thank you very much! It's very motivational to read this actually, I may do what you said and start buying and selling equipment. That's actually a great idea, I also have connections as far as somebody who is able to design and code a website for me, teach me and help me manage finances, and potentially even invest in the future. Thanks again!

---------- Post added November 29th, 2013 at 03:44 PM ----------

Ok awesome! Sounds good to me! I have a few dive shops around me that are smaller, less well known as I live in Maryland, but that's a great idea. Thank you very much!

Go to school, get a job, make alot of money, make your wife/kids happy. After all that see what you have time for.

cameronhelfeldt:

I love being in the water, love interacting with and helping people, and love diving.

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That's the fun and glamourous part. Figuring out how to make a life doing those things for a long time can not be so fun and glamourous.

Doing an internship at a local store will give you some real insight into what it takes to operate a facility.