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You aren�t looking at the right scarcity. There are plenty of people who will pay $99 for a course. They are the same people that have no money to buy equipment after they are certified. Give me a handful of reasonable intelligent, middle income, fairly in shape individuals and I will guarantee they will pay your fees (whatever they may be) while they are surrounded by $99 courses. You have to show them the value of the courses. If you put together a great course that gets a lot of people excited about diving it doesn�t matter what people charge for it. I am not saying to take advantage of your customers but I mean come on. I put ten years of teaching in, got my Course Director rating, and done more dives than most people and the best I can do is $6.67 an hour! Could you live on that? Could you buy a house on that? Or raise a family? The diving industry needs to change. Otherwise we will keep seeing the same bad instructors that are willing to live on that wage certifying the same bad students each year. If you want quality instructors it will cost money. And I don�t think people will mind paying for it. For some reason, people feel guilty about making money in the diving industry. I don�t know why. There are many professional people that put a lot of time and energy into becoming scuba instructors, then they give it away for free. I don�t get it. --- Kevin Connell <kevin@nw*.co*> wrote: > Todd, you can't "say goodbye to economics" . There > is this thing called > scarcity. We all contend for pieces of the same > pie. You CANNOT simply > "change the price structure". Hello again. We also > don't "drive out" > people. They do things on their own recognizance > based on what they know. > > Yes, creating the market for good instruction is > what we are trying to do > here, no doubt. I totally agree. > > But what you are saying is completely bogus about > fixing prices and driving > out consumers. Would you pay a golf pro $125.00/hr > if he was a complete > idiot and did absolutely no golfing (was infact, not > a pro)? Nope, me > neither, but I've paid a couple of crappy dive > instructors $50/day for > "Technical" training before learning about JJ. As > the man says "Discounted > training is not a good value". > > Did you take economics at lewis and clark, or reed? > :-) > > At 06:28 AM 4/14/2000 -0700, Todd Baldi wrote: > >I minored in economics in college thank you. The > >diving industry said goodbye to economics a long > time > >ago. As I stated in my other post there has been no > >increase in pricing structure in the past 50 years. > >Inflation took the profit margin out 49 years ago. > How > >can a golf pro charge $125 for an hour and a scuba > >insrtuctor only make $40 per student for a 5 week > >course (48 hours of work approx). So lets say you > have > >8 students. You make $6.67 an hour before tax. No > >wonder all the smart people leave the diving > industry. > > > > > >If you have ever been in a high class dive shop > (and > >there are a lot out there) you will see them charge > a > >hefty profit margin, cater to their clientele, and > >make some money in this industry. So we drive out > the > >people who want to clean their boat bottoms and > >recieve $99 courses, big deal. How much does the > >average tech diver spend on equipment to get set > up. I > >would guess $5,000 - $10,000 on total equipment. > >Paying an extra $100 or $200 is inconsequential for > >better instruction. > > > >TB > > > >--- Kevin Connell <kevin@nw*.co*> wrote: > > > You can't CHANGE the pricing structure, it is > the > > > result of a formula > > > called SUPPLY AND DEMAND. > > > > > > If you want to try reeducating the consumers so > that > > > there is *NO* demand > > > for poor instruction than so be it. But don't > go > > > around suggesting you can > > > fix prices. You can't. Say hello to economics > > > (also known as human nature) > > > > > > > > > At 06:42 AM 4/13/2000 -0700, you wrote: > > > >I agree completely. If the diving industry ever > got > > > a > > > >leader and changed tack we could get some > quality > > > >instructors out there. That is only if they > changed > > > >the pricing structure around and added a lot of > > > >professionalism to it. I knew of a dive shop in > > > >Beverley Hills that was catering to the rich > folk > > > up > > > >there. They charge $5,000 for lessons. You > could > > > put > > > >as many people as you wanted in it. They had an > > > >Instructor (not assistant, an instructor) for > every > > > >student. They did only boat dives, dove DUI > dry > > > >suits, carried the gear, washed it for the > people, > > > and > > > >made it as easy as possible. You know what? > They > > > made > > > >so much money that they closed the shop down > > > because > > > >they didn't need the overhead and now just > teach > > > >privately to the rich and famous. > > > > > > > > > ---------------------------------- > > > Kevin Connell <kevin@nw*.co*> > > > > > > NW Labor Systems, Inc > > > http://www.nwls.com > > > > > > Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate. > > > (plurality should not be posited without > > > necessity - Occam's razor) > > > > > > > > > ---------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > >__________________________________________________ > >Do You Yahoo!? > >Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites. > >http://invites.yahoo.com > > > ---------------------------------- > Kevin Connell <kevin@nw*.co*> > > NW Labor Systems, Inc > http://www.nwls.com > > *I* moved your cheese. > > > ---------------------------------- > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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