Scuba As a Second Job

By Ryan Vickers

 

We can all pop onto YouTube and see a great video advertising the wonderful beaches of the Caribbean and the beautiful blue crystal-clear water that goes with it.

 

But what if you live in a place where you can’t necessarily make it your full-time job? Well, it is time to be creative!

 

About eighteen months ago, I took leave from my full-time job as an educator in Canada. Like many people, my world had changed, and what I knew pre-2020 wasn’t what I was experiencing at that time. I needed to explore some new options.

 

During this period, I have worked a series of freelance jobs – some work in television, some in language development and some with children. Among them, I worked on fitting in some work in the scuba industry.

 

But how can someone make diving a second job? The secret is to take the skill sets you already know in your life and the underwater world and use them to develop your scuba successes!

 

You can start with the concept of “pounding the pavement.” One of my television jobs required me to contact schools to see if they would be interested in participating in the program. I had already booked a flight to a specific area for some “downtime.” By that, I mean relaxing. So, I reached out to a dive club in the area, asking to attend their pool session, and they invited me out. Next, I contacted over one hundred schools in the area that I was to visit to see if there was interest in signing up to be part of the program that I was working for. I’ll never know if there was interest as – and this may come as a shock – not a single school email was replied to. It is entirely possible that some of those emails were never delivered because of filters; maybe they were sent during an especially challenging time in the school year. I may never find out, but I was not to be deterred.

 

When I arrived in the area, I rented a car for a day and grabbed a map of the city where I would be. I then circled as many schools as possible on that map and started giving out flyers to every school I could during one sunny morning and talking with school principals as much as possible when given a chance. Guess what – I made contact with fifteen schools in three hours. Sometimes, face-to-face just plain works best. If you apply this to the diving industry, you’re likely to be more successful than not!

 

So, how can you add some diving income to your mix?

 

First, try to determine the best “entry point” to your services for prospective divers/customers.

 

Do you want to continue to educate the divers who have, for example, completed their open-water certification course? Are you looking for non-divers to join in? I, for one, am a big proponent of a discover scuba session. Why not send out communication to people that you know in your area (say, within 30 miles/50 kilometres) and let them know that your dive establishment is offering this exciting program? They can come by themselves, use it as a date night, or make it a family fun event. Make sure to sweeten the deal by letting them know you can do fun things like play underwater basketball or juggling and maybe even throw in an underwater photo or two.

 

The above ideas are ones that you can accomplish amongst other jobs that you have. You don’t have to, for example, send out emails for eight hours straight on a Monday morning, nor do you have to be at the pool leading new divers in the underwater world every evening for seven days a week. Your success depends on your dedication to this sport, and maybe, just maybe, by feeding your diving passion periodically amongst your other commitments, you will become just that bit better!