Why You Should Avoid Discounted Classes

By Duane Johnson | Feature Posts, Training

Many Cheap Things Can't Be Good

I should start off with an apology. This will be more of a rant than anything too useful. But since no one else is paying my web hosting fees, I’m free to do what I want on my blog. I was talking with a prospective student this week about a couple courses he was interested in taking. Specifically, my buoyancy and wreck diver courses. Just like many people before him, the first question was “Why are your prices so much higher than everyone else?” He seemed intent on trying to nickel and dime me on my course pricing. I stood my ground. [Read more...]

Criticism and Professionalism – When the Line Gets Crossed

By Duane Johnson | Scuba Business

Tread Carefully in the Scuba Industry

“At this point, ******* and ***** are barely aware of your existence. I doubt that either of them would ever sanction a full-blown campaign to put you out of business. You need to ask yourself if you could withstand an effort like that and if you think that publicly dissing them is worth it.” This is a message someone sent me a while ago trying to give me business advice. I think this person is missing a vital point in business, that is the customer is always right. Even as a dive professional, we are also consumers and have consumer rights. [Read more...]

Precision Diving Sponsorship Experiment

By Duane Johnson | Uncategorized

I’ve been looking for new ways to grow the readership of this blog. So I’ve decided to have a contest. Rather than make people pay for sponsorship, I’d like to do something that will get people more engaged in being a sponsor, without having to pay for it right away.

I’m going to open up a few spots for anyone who would like to have a sponsorship on this blog in order to promote your own blog/web site, dive store, dive charter, or diving business. The benefit, get some free traffic to your business. [Read more...]

Mastery – What Should you Expect from a Tech Instructor?

By Duane Johnson | Training

Duane Johnson - Tech Instructor

I was chatting with some friends on the west coast recently and we got into a discussion about technical diving education and whether it is in a state of decline, quality wise, like recreational diving (arguably). This got me reminiscing about my experiences in the past as well as some of the things I’ve seen other people experience.

I think back to my experiences as a tech student. Even though I learned the skills and was able to not kill myself or my buddy, I quickly learned that there had to be something more than my current performance. After a hard look at my skills, I quickly realized that I should not be diving on helium to 200+ feet, regardless of certification. This started my journey, my search for mastery. [Read more...]