Have you ever considered managing your business and enjoying the unique lifestyle of a PADI Dive Shop / Rsort owner? Are you ready for:
- Create your dream job?
- Love what you do and be the boss of yourself?
- Being paid to immerse yourself and help others transform their lives?
- Listening to people’s exclamations of wonder when you explain what you do for a living?
If you answered yes to some of these questions, then you are ready to enter the entrepreneurial mode and open a dive center. A PADI Dive Center / Resort is the heart of the diving industry. As a dive center owner you will have the privilege and responsibility of introducing your community to the fabulous world of diving and aquatic conservation.
How to start your underwater business
Starting your business can be exciting and difficult. To be successful, especially in the modern market – which has more sophisticated competition and customers than ever before, it takes entrepreneurial skills and realism.
Tips to start
- Learn about powerful PADI benefits , including business training programs for owners and managers of diving centers.
- Get the following PADI products: The Professional Reference Collection DVD and The Business of Diving publication – A Guide to Success in the Recreational Dive Industry . This product also includes the book – Children and Scuba Diving: A Resource Guide for Instructors and Parents and a collection of key articles called – The Best of The Undersea Journal , which provides you with a more in-depth analysis of the underwater business. You can get this DVD from your PADI Regional Headquqrters.
- Do a search on what it takes to open a business. In many countries, as a method of promoting their business packages, bank service providers offer initial advice for small businesses. This could be useful when you need to prepare your business plan. Use resources such as the US Small Business Administration – www.sba.gov
- Consider buying an existing sub center instead of opening one again. If you are a PADI Member, check the Classified Ads on the PADI Pros website .
- Create a business plan that includes strategies for the facilities you plan to use, the operations and educational procedures you need, marketing and public relations, understanding your local market and demographic, the cost of investments and projections collection.
- Check the PADI statistics .
- Give yourself a good time to open your dive center .
- It starts! Get in touch with the PADI Retail and Resort Association at your PADI Regional Headquarters. Ask the standards for the PADI Dive Center and Resort. Also check the affiliation levels of the PADI centers .
