RETAILING The Giant Stride, Part 3: Plan Before You Plunge – by Michael Connors & Rachael Scott, Owners, American Dive Zone, Grand Rapids, MI In 2024, we bought a dive shop in Grand Rapids, MI. Not inherited. Not franchised. Bought it. This is our story.
Most instructors dreaming of shop ownership imagine the Insta- gram-worthy parts first – the logo on the door, the pool full of new stu- dents, the exotic trip calendar. That’s natural. But the truth is, the first thing you need isn’t a logo or a lease. It’s a plan.
pers, we knew exactly what we’d tackle first: 1. Revamp the digital presence. New website, social media promotion, stronger connection to our community. 2. Consolidate inventory. If we don’t dive it, we don’t sell it. We became trusted curators, not just gear resellers. 3. Build partnerships. Schools, camps, corporations – we ex- pand the funnel instead of waiting for walk-ins. 4. Standardize operations. A staff handbook gave everyone a single source of truth. 5.Digitize the business. Our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system turned guesswork into clarity. Notice what’s missing: “go diving more.” Owning a dive shop isn’t a lifestyle perk – it’s an opportunity to lead and grow a community around the sport you love. Our Framework: We didn’t borrow a corporate playbook. We wrote our own, built around six essentials: Services and revenue mix ▪ Customer profiles ▪ Product mix ▪
A strategic plan is your compass. It’s what keeps you ori- ented when the current picks up, and it’s what makes sure you’re swimming toward the shop you actually want to own. Why Plan Before Closing? Owning a dive shop is not just about spending more time underwater. It’s about building something that lasts. A plan helps you test whether the dream in your head ▪ matches the reality on the ground. It forces you to ask hard but essential questions: Where does this shop actually make ▪ money? What levers can I pull to grow it? ▪ Which fires need to be put out in the first ▪ 90 days?
Financial projections ▪ Supplier relationships ▪ SWOT (Strengths and Weaknesses and ▪ external Opportunities and Threats) analysis Out of that came a clear, tactical playbook. Not a 50-page binder gathering dust. A living document that guided our decisions. What Worked, What Didn’t: Most of our
The right plan doesn’t take away the passion – it channels it. It makes sure you’re not just buy- ing yourself a job, but building a business that supports your life, your divers, and your com- munity.
Think of it like planning a deep dive. You wouldn’t giant-stride into 130 feet without a plan. Buying a shop is the same – except the surface interval is measured in years, not minutes. How We Built Ours: When Rachael and I set out to buy American Dive Zone, we didn’t just get excited about the shiny parts – the community, the brand, the access to gear. We zoomed in on the fundamentals: Where does the profit come from? That single question shaped everything. We broke revenue down by category, stud- ied competitors, scanned the industry for trends, and leaned on our corporate backgrounds to see the business with clear eyes. This wasn’t about killing the romance of the dream. It was about giving that dream the structure it needed to become real. Our First-Year Priorities: By the time we signed the pa-
plan held up. Some didn’t – and that’s the point. Our miss: thinking operational standardization would be quick. Documenting decades of “it’s just how we do it” was like untangling a box of old hoses – every time we thought we were done, another knot appeared. Our win: digitization. Moving to a robust ERP system early gave us visibility and control. It turned chaos into clarity. Why Dive Shops Are Unique: Planning for a dive shop means factoring in the quirks that make this industry differ- ent: Seasonality. Summers are busy and winters are slow. ▪ Your cash flow has to sustain you year-round. Instructor schedules. Most are part-time. Aligning peo- ▪ ple with demand is everything.
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