When I teach an Open Water SCUBA class, my purpose is to create a safe diver who had fun and will continue to dive. When I teach an Advanced Open Water SCUBA class, my purpose is to further educate my divers in a controlled environment while showing them some of the many options for types of diving available. When I teach Rescue Diver, my purpose is to make my students hate me because I drive them hard, but at the end of the certification, they appreciate the lessons learned.

For every class we teach, we have a greater purpose than just issuing a certification. The teaching methods may change slightly, the types of language (verbal and non-verbal) may change and the overall tone is different.

Below is a fun example combining the opening music from Baywatch with clips from Lost (an addiction of mine). For those who haven’t seen, Lost is a serious show with a lot of mystery. Baywatch is…well, Baywatch. When we take just the music from the cheesy “fun” show and apply it creatively to a mysterious, serious show, everything changes.

Before you teach your next SCUBA class, consider what message you’re trying to convey. Are you doing it?

By not understanding the purpose of your classes, you could be training your students inadequately for the tasks at hand. Realizing the subtle changes can impact the quality of your divers will help you train more effectively. Teach in a way that reflects the purpose of your classes.

Photo via hawaii

I am frequently asked, “How do I know if what I’m doing is successful? How do I place value on Twitter followers, Facebook fans, site visitors or email subscribers?”

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Some experts who use new/social media marketing (I hate the term, but it’s frequently used to describe the concept of using tools like blogs and social networks to more passively market) say you can’t track ROI for social media marketing, but it’s not true.

While some people are looking for the ultimate answer, you must first know the ultimate question. Only you can know your own ultimate question for your SCUBA business.

What Do I Want Out Of This?

Everyone has a different goal, but most people agree that eventually they’d like more business.

Some people focus on Twitter followers or Facebook fans. Having a supportive network can be great motivation. If it results in business, you are a success.

Some people focus on site traffic or comments. Also great motivation and site traffic can be a great indicator that people are paying attention to you. Unfortunately, comments aren’t always the best indicator since most people are Spectators, not Critics.

Some people may not even care about real business conversions, they just like chatting with friends on Facebook or Twitter or sharing ideas on a blog. While I think this is great, that methodology keeps these social tools as social tools, not social marketing tools.

My Example

I’m averaging 1.9 comments per post over the last 8 months, which doesn’t seem like a lot, even to me. Every week, unique visitors are up at least 10%, bounce rate is decreasing by at least 1% and time on site is increasing at least 12 seconds despite shorter articles. Twitter followers and Facebook fans are increasing without any form of active recruitment. Email subscribers are increasing almost 20% every week. I now rank on the first page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) for well over 20 different long tail search terms and within the top 3 for many of those.

BIG DEAL

Those numbers really mean absolutely nothing. Sure, I like to pat myself on the back and say, “Good job Nick!” but a pat on the back doesn’t pay for my SCUBA instructor insurance.

From the beginning, my goal has been to eventually focus on SCUBA, both instruction and marketing consulting. Guess what? Mission accomplished

I can’t provide full details just yet, but I have generated enough business from my site to allow me to do this full time. One guy, one site, eight months.

So does all of this blogging and social networking stuff work? You’d better believe it does.

Photo via BrittneyBush

I had an email marketing related article planned for today, but Duane at Precision Diving forced my hand.

Duane wrote an article discussing a very simple, yet incredibly powerful technique to market yourself as an independent SCUBA instructor: go SCUBA diving.

“Duh” You Say?

I was fortunate to “grow up” in a SCUBA program that focused heavily on SCUBA diving skills, but I frequently ran into SCUBA instructors from other dive centers while teaching classes that couldn’t teach their way out of a wet paper bag.

The only dives they ever did were with students.

They didn’t talk to anyone outside of their group.

By virtue of being mediocre SCUBA divers, not diving regularly and not engaging with other divers, they told people do take classes somewhere else.

Go read Duane’s article, he’s completely correct.

Online Vs. Offline Marketing

I know I focus on the online marketing side of your SCUBA business, but the bottom line is that if you’re not out in the world and available and are a mediocre (at best) instructor, all of the online marketing in the world won’t help you.

Get your SCUBA diving skills figured out first, then market yourself.

Photo via tracer.ca

As SCUBA instructors, our job functions often include teacher, marriage counselor (for the couples in the class) and therapist (for people taking the class because they once almost drowned). An often overlooked skill set is that of a career counselor. In order to build our programs or dive centers, we need staff, therefore we need to teach as if every student wants to become a SCUBA instructor.

Push Every Student Through the SCUBA System

I’m not advocating that we create barely passable instructor generation machines, but we need to start thinking that every student that signs up for our Open Water SCUBA classes actually wants to become a SCUBA Instructor.

I didn’t know it when I signed up for my Open Water SCUBA course, but on my first pool dive, I knew I wanted to become an instructor. Luckily, I was in an environment that made that dream a reality.

The Ski Instructor Who Hates Their Job

Imagine going to a ski resort for your first time. You’re excited, otherwise you wouldn’t spend the $100+ for the lift ticket and gear rental. You decide to take a lesson so you are less likely to kill yourself. The instructor acts bored, complains about their pay and doesn’t really want to be there.

You probably won’t enjoy yourself very much and aren’t very likely to learn the skills you need.

Now imagine someone who is excited. A little too excited. It’s a beautiful day, they’re going to show you the best parts of the mountain and they invite you back when done. They don’t talk about the money, they simply love what they’re doing.

It would be next to impossible to keep the idea out of your head, “Wow, being a ski instructor would be incredible! Ski every day, meet lots of people, travel to all the best resorts!”

Plant the Open Water SCUBA Instructor Seed Early by Simply Loving Your Job

If you are having a great time while teaching and have a staff that obviously loves what they’re doing, you will see increases in your continuing education ratios all the way to the top of the SCUBA hierarchy.

This Works for SCUBA Resorts Too

A few years ago, I traveled to Cozumel and went diving with SCUBA Tony. Although my wife and I have an unofficial rule of not revisiting the same destination twice, we often discuss returning to Cozumel to dive with Tony because he loves diving. Not only does he love diving, but when talking about the island, we could tell he loves Cozumel. He made the trip enjoyable, his personality showed a passion for his business and it pays off in a steady stream of referral business.

Whenever I visit Hawaii (I have friends who live there, so this doesn’t count in my repeat-SCUBA-trips rule), I try to dive with Keller Laros and Jack’s Diving Locker because they enjoy what they’re doing and share that enjoyment with me.

On the other hand, we traveled to Fiji last year and have less interest in returning because the staff didn’t have the same level of enthusiasm and passion.

Start the SCUBA Career Path Early

The PADI teaching system requires promoting continuing education while teaching. Although it may not be appropriate to promote the Instructor Development Course during an Open Water SCUBA Diver course, why not start mentioning it in the Advanced Open Water SCUBA Diver course?

How quickly do you start identifying potential instructor candidates?

Photo via larryzou@

Regardless of your stance on their politics and mission, the Sea Shepherds are running their operation with the one thing many dive centers I’ve visited lack: passion.

If you are a SCUBA instructor or dive shop owner who is holding on to your “business” just because you love to dive please stop.

If you are in the SCUBA business because you love diving instead of love teaching others to dive or love taking others diving in exotic destinations you are a hobbyist and you are probably more of a hindrance to the SCUBA industry than a help.

Sea Shepherds have Passion

Again, you may love or hate them, but you can’t argue that they are passionate about what they do. They risk life and limb in harsh conditions against a huge industry for whales.

Do you have that same passion for the business of SCUBA?

Return on Passion (ROP)

I consider myself an environmentalist. Three or four years ago, had I asked my Greenpeace and Sierra Club member friends if they knew who the Sea Shepherds were, I would have received a blank stare.

Now, they are a household term. They’re about to begin  their third season on Animal Planet. They even have an entire South Park episode “dedicated” to them.

What has been their Return on Passion? An almost $2 million dollar vessel in the form of the Ady Gil. $5 million from Bob Barker (with plans for more).

Lack of Passion Hurts Us All

If you are in the business of SCUBA because you like to dive, you are doing your SCUBA professional compatriots a disservice because you are not the best SCUBA instructor, boat operator, divemaster or SCUBA store owner possible. Your customers will not enjoy themselves as much and the entire industry suffers.

Have Passion

You are a gateway to the most beautiful places on this planet. You have the potential to open the eyes, hearts and minds of hundreds, if not thousands of people every year. You live in or travel to some of the most breathtaking locations.

Be passionate about the business of SCUBA, it’s the best business in the world.

Photo via guano

In my effort to return to the starting point of Internet Marketing for your SCUBA business, a gift fell into my lap in the form of a prime example of why we need to include Internet marketing in our business plan.

Over in the DiversOne Forum, there is a discussion regarding Oceanic getting into the retail business. I’ve been watching this thread since it first popped up and was amazed to see the frustration turn from Oceanic to LeisurePro. LP has been called a religious organization and has been blamed with people losing their jobs.

What Apple, Amazon and Google have in common

They innovate. They keep up. They lead. Despite what some people will say, they are always trying to impress the consumer.

Are you doing the same in your SCUBA classes, in your SCUBA store or at your dive resort?

I don’t claim to be the best-traveled individual out there, but in all of my travels, I stop by SCUBA businesses. It makes me feel like I’ve taken a step back into the 1970s. This isn’t a good thing.

In the US, “Nearly two-thirds of adults claim they go online every day, the majority for more than one hour” according to eMarketer. These numbers will only continue to rise.

We need to move our SCUBA business online as much as we can. Obviously, people still need to come to us to complete SCUBA certifications, fill air and have equipment serviced, but why don’t we spend our marketing budget (or for some, create a marketing budget) for use online? It’s cost effective, reaches a very wide audience and is fast.

Should we add LeisurePro to the ranks of Apple, Amazon and Google?

They don’t reach as many people, so I don’t think they can be considered on the same level, but they are one of the big game-changers in the SCUBA industry. Instead of looking at them and hating them, try to learn from them, see what you could be doing too.

On a more personal note, I’m an Aqualung guy and LeisurePro does not out-price my local Aqualung dive centers, so maybe you should be placing blame with the manufacturers, not LeisurePro.

In case you need a little more persuasion, take a look at this great presentation I’ve kept bookmarked for a few months:

Are you ready?

It’s no wonder PADI places such an emphasis on continuing education ratios for their Course Director Training Course: it is one of your best returns on investment while making your divers exceptionally strong.

Loss Leaders

In my experience, I saw myself and other new Open Water SCUBA Instructors come out of their Instructor Examination to immediately jump into private open water SCUBA classes. At most dive centers I’ve spoken with, private classes cost more and in turn pay the instructor more than group classes.

The problem I’ve run into and heard from many others is that sometimes the private class is complete in three days. Other times it takes three months. When it takes three days, your return on (time) investment is incredible. When it takes three months, you’ve taken a decent loss (or worked for pennies per hour).

High Margin SCUBA Classes

On the opposite side are continuing education classes such as Advanced, Rescue and Specialties. If properly scheduled, you can combine a specialty with a core class trip and pocket a decent profit quickly and easily.

Quality SCUBA Divers

Many people I ran into at DEMA were complaining that the new, more relaxed (I prefer to think of them as modern) are pumping out poor quality SCUBA divers. Many instructors I’ve talked to believe that divers aren’t “safe” until they’ve been through the Rescue level.

So why aren’t you selling new students on the Rescue Diver course?

Most dive centers sell people on one class at a time, starting with Open Water. Why not sell them on a package that takes them through the courses you think are necessary to make them safe divers? If you look at them on a per-class basis, your profit margins is low on some and high on others, but if you look at it as a complete package, your margins are far more attractive.

Tell your new SCUBA divers right off the bat they need to go beyond Open Water and see what happens.

Are you selling complete training packages or just single classes?

Photo via Nemo’s Great Uncle

Our industry is old and getting older. That’s not a good thing.

According to DEMA’s Annual Activity Report (PDF link, stats on p. 37), the average age of SCUBA divers in the US is 45 years old. Several people at the DEMA show explained that age actually goes up every year, showing that our industry is aging.

Older Divers are Better Divers

I’ve seen this all over the various SCUBA forums and it bothers me. The argument is this:

• Older divers have more money to spend on classes/equipment/travel
• Older divers are beyond the “I’m invincible” phase, so they are safer divers
• I’m old too and I like talking about yesteryear with other old people

How about these points?

• Older divers have 45 years worth of hobbies and activities fighting for their limited time
• Older divers are fully entrenched in the rat race of working 50+ hour weeks and saving their money for a hopeful retirement
• Older divers have probably taken most of the classes they plan to and bought the gear they need
• Older divers have more yes’ on their medical forms, making the concept of Dive Today impractical

Younger Divers are Our Future

Like them or not, younger divers are the future of this industry (duh). They are the reason this industry is shrinking: activities like kite boarding, snowboarding, bungee jumping and simply travelling are beating us to them.

I am a skier, snowboarder and mountain biker and can personally verify that getting started with any of these sports is on par with SCUBA. Yet I keep hearing the argument, usually from SCUBA industry professionals, that we can’t compete with those sports on price. You are wrong. That is an excuse. SCUBA diving is BETTER than any of those other sports, so cost is not an issue.

Get With the Program

Here’s a few ideas I’ve used to successfully attract younger divers:

• Affiliate with the local snow sports and bike store. If younger, adventurous people are going there, get them to come to you also. Even if you’re paying out 15% of your class fee, work them into continuing education, equipment and travel to recoup those costs.
• Go to your local athletic club (I’ve had better luck at private clubs as opposed to 24 Hour Fitness or Bally’s) and offer a Bubblemaker/Seal Team (or equivalent) daycare. Parents work out and drop their kids off to play with SCUBA for an hour or two. Get your new/eager instructors to conduct these for free as a way to build up their classes. If a kid wants to learn to dive, at least one of their parents will too.
• Talk to homeschooled kids (and their parents). Find out if there is a state-subsidized home school organization. I helped to run a program with one of these organizations and it was incredible. Our class price went up by almost $100, but the cost to the student after the subsidy was less than $50! It was a great deal all around.
• Start a college program! I’ll leave it at that for now, since this is a big topic.

Do these four things and you will need a staff of at least 8 instructors, all who will be making decent money from teaching SCUBA diving.

What are you doing to attract younger divers?

This article is part of our DEMA Expo 2009 round-up.

At what point on the SCUBA food chain do people need to start connecting? As a SCUBA instructor, dive center or SCUBA certification agency, we encourage divers to find buddies to go diving with, but do we need even more connection, and if so, where?

The Suunto Example

Yesterday, I was discussing the beta version of Suunto’s new web site. I was a bit surprised to see that Suunto is on Twitter and Facebook, which leads me to believe they understand internet marketing at least a little bit. Comments have been going back and forth, but mostly pointing out that this new “beta” site is not the most impressive update.

As a large brand, I would expect them to have at least someone on staff who monitors chatter about them online. If they did, the comments would be an excellent opportunity to share their vision and perhaps get some free user testing. Companies like Comcast, JetBlue and Zillow all monitor the usage of their brand online, why can’t companies like NAUI, Aqualung and Suunto?

Certification Agency Brand Monitoring

SDI/TDI has a sub-forum on SCUBA Board that they monitor closely. Several PADI employees subscribe to my RSS to email newsletter and have commented on Facebook to my posts. But if someone says on Twitter “interested in learning how to dive”, why don’t any of the certification agencies jump on that?

Dive Center Online Marketing

As a test, months ago I sent out a tweet expressing my interest in learning to dive in Austin, TX. I have a friend who thinks that Austin is far cooler and tech savvy than where I’m located, but my test proved her wrong. Not one person offered a suggestion and no dive centers contacted me directly. That should have been an easy victory by simply setting a search alert for “Austin SCUBA” and checking it once a day (or more frequently if staffing allows).

Whose job is it?

Some may think SCUBA certification agencies and SCUBA equipment manufacturers have larger budgets, so they should be reaching out. Others think that training and equipment sales are a local business, so it should be the local SCUBA diving centers and SCUBA instructors. Or perhaps there’s some gray area in the middle where everyone should be doing it (bingo!)

What do you think?

Photo via ~Prescott

I had a surprisingly large number of people contact me after yesterdays article regarding digital underwater photography. The most common issue was that people didn’t understand the emphasis on photography in the pool. “Pools are boring” and “I don’t have my own pool that I can make exciting” were two recurring themes.

Make Pool Photography Fun

There are two great benefits to shooting photos while on SCUBA in the pool:

1. You can allow your entry level students to do it, which just sold your Underwater Photographer specialty course.
2. It allows your students to familiarize themselves with their camera equipment in a comfortable environment.

Allow me to share a great technique that some of you may be using, but it sounds like many other aren’t. I saw my first variation of this idea with Kevin McDonnell when he used a roll of green plastic garden fence rolled in a spiral with fake fish attached. It was cheesy, but it worked well.

I saw the modern version of this idea at DEMA. The upgraded idea is to take pond forms or kids rock climbing walls that can be painted to more closely resemble your local dive conditions and decorated with fish and other fake marine life. Here are a few “reefs” I found that I like:

Add some fish like these:

Or some coral like this:

And suddenly you have a portable reef for your digital underwater photography classes.

Some of the reef bases I shared are definitely large, but should be able to fit into any truck bed. This should allow any instructor, regardless of pool ownership, to have their own reef for digital underwater photography classes.

Just like most aspects of SCUBA, you can spend a small fortune on this project. I recommend starting small since you can always add on.

Do you have an artificial reef? Let me know and I’ll feature it here!

In case you weren’t aware, I love internet marketing. It’s inexpensive, relatively easy and allows you to reach a almost limitless amount SCUBA diving customers. Like knowing to take off your snorkel on a manta night dive, you must be aware of your surroundings to be most effective with your SCUBA marketing.

I was recently helping two different consulting customers of mine to help strategize their marketing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and continuing into the holiday season.

One customer is a team of independent SCUBA instructors. Their clientele are mostly employees of high-tech companies. Since they don’t have SCUBA gear to sell, only SCUBA instruction, their goals are geared towards driving class sign ups. Since their clientele is a tech-savvy group, we determined an email marketing campaign targeting Cyber Monday would be a beneficial technique. We scheduled a series of emails starting several weeks ago through today showing off class package discounts.

Results so far: We’re barely half way through Cyber Monday in their time zone and they already have all of their scheduled classed through March booked with lengthy waiting lists.

My other customer is a dive center. Their clientele is not as tech savvy due to limited high-speed internet in their community. Their goal is to both drive class sign ups as well as retail sales. We determined that a Black Friday promotion would be a great opportunity. Since their clientele doesn’t have the best access to online media, we determined a direct mail and street signage campaign would be best. Again, mailers started going out several weeks ago. They did limited hours of operation on Friday. Almost every piece of gear was discounted slightly, but they included pool training with everything. This will hopefully increase their instruction business while building value instead of deeply discounting.

Friday’s results: it was the best Black Friday this SCUBA diving center had ever had. To be fair, they had never done a Black Friday promotion in the past, but it still shows that a little marketing goes a long way.

The Lesson

You need to understand your customer. Although internet marketing is faster, easier to track and more cost-effective, sometimes traditional tools such as direct mail can find your customer more effectively.

Did you run any Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotions? Did they help?

I’m not taking sides in this issue since only one side has been represented so far, but Kids Sea Camp Palau gives me a great example of the lack of understanding of online reputation management for many businesses.

As of the writing of this article, 18 hours ago a patron of Kids Sea Camp Palau shared a story on Sport Diver Magazine about what they feel to be a negative experience. There is still no response. To make matters worse, a search for Kids Sea Camp Palau has the negative post from Sport Diver ranked #6 (again, as of the writing of this article).

The Customer Service Business

Like it or not, we are all in the customer service industry. If you do not give the service your customers expect, they are likely to vote with their dollars and buy elsewhere. When economies weaken, this becomes even more prevalent as people are going to be more cautious with their expenses.

When someone has a good experience, they tell one person. When they have a bad experience, they tell ten.

Unfortunately, we can’t always make everyone happy all the time, but we must make the effort to know when people are talking about us. In a world of Facebook, Twitter and blogs, our reputation can be damaged within hours if it isn’t managed correctly.

Not Just Damage Control

Online reputation management can also be used to attract new customers. If people are discussing SCUBA diving in your area on Twitter, you should know about it and engage them.

How To Monitor Your Online Reputation

There are a few tools I recommend, two of which are free and one is worth the price.

1. Google Alerts are the baseline for monitoring yourself online. Enter your search term (if using a name, such as your own, be sure to put it in quotation marks), choose comprehensive, decide how often you want to be updated (I like as-it-happens) and enter your email address. You’ll now get email alerts any time your search terms are found online.
   

   Click to enlarge

2. Twitter Search is a great way to watch real time discussions about you, your area and your industry. Enter your search parameters, then subscribe to the RSS feed to stay up to date.
3. Trackur is a paid tool that monitors several search terms across a variety of online communication tools. This is the best one-stop-shop to stay connected to what people are saying about you and your business. The only downside is that pricing starts at $14 per month, but it is well worth it.

How are you monitoring your online reputation and potential customers? Or are you?

Does the idea of a horde of Divemasters becoming Open Water SCUBA Instructors frighten you more than a gory zombie flick? Do new SCUBA divers saying they want to “go pro” creep you out more than Pee Wee Herman?

SCUBA Dive Center Owners Fear Con Ed More Than Frankenstein*

If there are more SCUBA diving professionals, there’s more competition, right? Competition is both scary and bad, so continuing education should not be encouraged! Forget that a larger staff means more word of mouth marketing, bigger classes and more SCUBA diving equipment and SCUBA vacations can be sold. Nevermind that you could be employing more people and sharing the underwater world with new SCUBA divers.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.”

Fearing competition stifles innovation. Most dive centers I walk into look like a set out of Sea Hunt. Most dive center web sites look like they were designed by a fifth grader (back in 1995). Is this marketing to a modern SCUBA diver? I certainly hope not.

So give it a thought, what is it really that frightens you so much about promoting Continuing Education for your SCUBA divers?

*not an actual statistic

Back in August, SDI announced they now offer Divemaster online. Although I have grown up on and thoroughly enjoy the Internet, I have to stop to ponder how much online interaction is too much.

Quality

As an instructor who has trained and certified quite a few Divemasters (and heck, was even one myself for a while), I would be concerned about quality. I’m not questioning SDI’s quality standards, I have seen that they provide excellent training, but I would be concerned about my SCUBA diving program quality.

When I was at a higher volume location, I saw distinct differences between the three main programs at the same SCUBA center. This can only be attributed to the individual instructors who trained their staff. Now, the Divemasters could mix amongst programs, but there were definitely nuances to each program that could only be learned by assisting with that lead instructor.

Respect

I learned to respect my PADI Course Director when I came to my Divemaster class unprepared. Once. I had my commitment challenged. It was tough love. But I became a better Divemaster and a better Instructor because of it. Had I completed the knowledge portion online, I may not have that same level of respect for my instructor.

Sean Harrison, VP Training and Member Services for SDI claims, “Often, the instructor who is best suited to develop dive leaders is the one person who has the least time available.” I can see this being true for a young program, but an instructor who is suited to develop dive leaders should also be committed to developing them.

When I took over my college program, I only had a couple of Divemasters. It was hard work running the other classes and work with Divemasters, but in the end, I had great Divemasters who promoted my classes who built the program which justified them becoming SCUBA Instructors… You get the idea.

If you’re an SDI Instructor, have you started anyone in the online Divemaster program? If so, how is it going?

Do you run a SCUBA diving center, resort or large instructional program? Are you actively recruiting independent instructors? If not, you’re missing the boat.

The SCUBA industry frequently appears to have a closed door policy. Many dive centers I have visited appear to only work with SCUBA instructors that have “grown up” through their program. Other dive centers actually discourage their people from ever becoming SCUBA instructors so not to challenge their existing staff or SCUBA dive center.

Independent SCUBA Instructors Are Marketers

Sure, they may or may not have formal marketing training, but they are passionate about what they do. Passion builds excitement, which brings you customers. A student for an independent SCUBA instructor may make them a couple hundred dollars, but it makes you as a SCUBA store owner the potential for thousands more. Gear sales, continuing education and trips are all your benefits attached to every student your SCUBA instructors bring through the door.

Realistic Expectations

You can’t just let any independent SCUBA instructor off the street into your store, your home, to teach your potential customers without some pre-screening and no self-respecting independent SCUBA instructor would go to work with a SCUBA store without knowing some basics. The rest of the business world has job applications, requirements and interviews, you should utilize these tools in your SCUBA diving business.

A Multi-Tool for Your Toolbox

I am currently developing an independent SCUBA instructor recruiting workbook (as an ebook) that should be available within the next couple of weeks. It will include items like:

• Independent SCUBA instructor application form
  • Get some basic, yet necessary information from anyone wanting to teach for you.
• Independent SCUBA Instructor/SCUBA Diving Center Agreement of Understanding (benefits, pay, etc)
  • If you have your agreement in writing, it sets realistic expectations for your new independent contractor.
• Contract SCUBA Instructor/Sub-contractor Agreement of Understanding
  • Having a unified policy regarding pay, certification and any additional benefits down to Assistant Instructors and Divemasters builds unity amongst your entire staff.
• Promotion possibilities and procedures
  • Do you encourage people to get to higher rankings? How does an instructor qualify for any advancement?
• Assessment forms
  • Unfortunately, you can’t just take people at their word, you should assess their abilities. Let them know what your procedure entails.

This will be distributed as a PDF e-book and will have a variety of easy to use fields so you can customize your information for your specific situation.

Do you have a policy for bringing on instructors that you didn’t personally train?