Dive Pros / Instructors / Industry insiders - How did you do it?

[Garrobo]

Go hang around a dive shop for a while and listen to the skuttle-butt put out by the permanent/temporary workers there. That'll give you an idea of what you are up against.

 

[lobbolt]

Thank you all for the replies, they give me much-needed perspective. Your insight helps me in more ways than you might expect.

Get a real career going.Do not expect to make much in the dive industry unless you have alot of $$$$$$ to invest and take a chance with.

I have a real job that pays the bills and run dive trips on weekends and vacations. Here, it would just not pay to be full time since we are not a viable, 12-month draw.

A question I have for the instructors / dive shop owners / dive pros, (only if you're comfortable with answering) : do you have another career / source of income in addition to what you do in the dive industry? If so, in what field and what percentage of your total income comes from the the dive industry?

Or in other words, with prices the way they are you would need to find .... and be able to accomodate .... roughly 12000-15000 clients a year consistently or in terms of day to day running of the business you would have an average of 40 clients under the roof on any given day, 365 days a year for 10 years.

I'm curious as to the average number of clients per day per average dive op (a dive industry average, not a specific geographical market). This would give me a much clearer idea of what I'm up against; if the average is 5-6 and I'm counting on 40, obviously this is a longshot requiring something extraordinary.

Assuming the normal "net" rate is for dive shops in Thailand is about 10% (which I would expect in a market as saturated as Thailand is) and you took 1/2 of that for yourself and banked 1/2 to keep the shop alive in case of disaster then to reach your goal you're looking at netting roughly 700k per year which would require you to turn over about 7 million per year.

Markets such as Thailand and the Philippines are obviously saturated; where are the under-served dive markets? While I was at Mermaid's in Thailand, someone mentioned that China had one course director for the entire country.

I am also a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. What's your take on the prospects of developing this market?

 

[jagfish]

China is a hugely growing market, but the language barrier might be a problem. Wherever you are located, you could set up a Chinese website to attract that clientele. One of my colleagues here has done that with success, as well as some colleagues in the Philippines.

Retracing some of my thoughts, I think there are two nice recipes for "success" (depends on how you define that, your definition and mine are rather different) I've seen work:

1. You serve folks that travel to your for great diving. You have awesome sites and a boat to get them there.

2. You are a well-balanced training center that does training all the way up to pro. You have DM/Instructor candidates helping out with training at all levels and every class is a multi-level affair with instruction, assistant instruction, assistance, observation and evaluation. Best if you can have interns stay somewhere close at hand cheaply, or even included in their deal.

Number two works easiest with a local market, I feel, but if you are located in a desirable place and can advertise well, they will come to you. In this scenario, you need to be a course director or have a close relationship with one.

Some combination of the two is great. We're a combination that leans more toward #2, but as I said in previous posts, we are a weekend only operation. I have a real job that pays the real bills...

If I lived in a more tropical place, I'd be more tempted to make a go at scuba alone...

 

[Diver0001]

I'm curious as to the average number of clients per day per average dive op (a dive industry average, not a specific geographical market). This would give me a much clearer idea of what I'm up against; if the average is 5-6 and I'm counting on 40, obviously this is a longshot requiring something extraordinary.

I have no idea about average shop sizes but I would think that outside of the prime locations in the tropics the chances of finding a shop this big are slim to none. As far as finding a shop that works, location is everything. In some places just being 50 metres further up or down the same street can make a big difference. Maybe PADI can give you the information you're looking for if you call them.

Markets such as Thailand and the Philippines are obviously saturated; where are the under-served dive markets? While I was at Mermaid's in Thailand, someone mentioned that China had one course director for the entire country.

I am also a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. What's your take on the prospects of developing this market?

Well China's market has an absurd amount of untapped potential, of course. Maybe your timing isn't too bad either and although it could be very interesting I don't think you can start now and retire at 35 if you're thinking about building something from the ground up. I also don't know if China has any locations that lend themselves to dive tourism. Vietnam is another market that hasn't been well developed yet but has, at least in terms of potential for dive tourism, some interesting prospects.

And one last word of advice. If you want to become rich then keep away from women and avoid having children at all costs. Relationships (actually more the settling down than the relationship itself) and raising children are awfully big money-sinks.

R..

 

[H2O Photo Pros]

Ive been in the industry for 8 years now and a business owner for 5. Its absolutely true what you hear...if you want to make a million in the dive industry, START WITH TWO!

 

[Cerveza]

Ive been in the industry for 8 years now and a business owner for 5. Its absolutely true what you hear...if you want to make a million in the dive industry, START WITH TWO!

100% agreement with you!

 

[lobbolt]

1. You serve folks that travel to your for great diving. You have awesome sites and a boat to get them there.

2. You are a well-balanced training center that does training all the way up to pro. You have DM/Instructor candidates helping out with training at all levels and every class is a multi-level affair with instruction, assistant instruction, assistance, observation and evaluation. Best if you can have interns stay somewhere close at hand cheaply, or even included in their deal.

#2 worked out very well is what I saw with the Mermaid's op in Pattaya. The diving there wasn't world-class by far, though there were some relatively pristine sites. The way it's run, they've got at least 20 paying interns, and several instructors working for free or for very low pay.