#699
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From LariatAdvance: Any so-called instructor should know its gonna take x number of required dives, they should know about how many tanks of air per student that will require, and they should know if there’s a charter boat required. If they don’t’ they have no business being in business.
My dive shop knows, we’re going to take the 6-pack out to the Aeolus, that will be a deep dive at 110 feet, (that’s gonna cost us x amount of dollars) we’re going to take the pontoon boat to the rock jetty and that will be a night dive (that’s gonna cost us x amount of dollars). We’re gonna take the pontoon boat to the rock jetty the next day and that will be a navigation dive (that’s gonna cost us x amount of dollars), and we’re going to take the 12-pack out to the Indra on the last day and that is our wreck dive at 65 feet (that’s gonna cost us x amount of dollars). If you’ve been in business more than a day, you can calculate almost to the dollar what that expenses will be and pass that along to the student as a flat rate for the course. You know what you are paying your staff. You know what it costs you to pay the captain and what it costs you to go out 22 miles with the 6-pack. You know you’re gonna need 6 tanks of air per student and you charge $5.34 cents for a tank filled with air.
It gets to be a problem when you are a business required to collect sales tax. If I were to include those things then I would have to charge you sales tax on them. The fees paid to fill your tanks would be cost of goods sold just like your book and would be marked up accordingly or I end up taking a loss on it.
If you are paying your own fees you are getting the "wholesale price". Anyone who is in business knows that anything you do has a cost—even reselling someone else’s services.
There is also something to be said about the educational value of learning what a fill costs, what a boat trip costs, and how that process works. Students who are given an all inclusive price tend to over estimate what the instructor is paid and under estimate what the other fees are.
One exception is if I can leverage group buying power. I am currently organizing a trip to St. Croix. The rooms and diving that includes 10 boat dives and unlimited air fills for all the shore diving you can handle is included in one price. I am reselling this package because I got a good deal for bringing a group and no individual could come close to the price I am offering by buying in bulk. It wouldn’t make sense to have everyone pay their own dive fees because it would cost them more. I couldn’t get a good deal on the airfare so everyone is paying that on their own—if I can’t add value for the customer, I don’t need to be involved.
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