As long-time boating enthusiasts and professionals, it’s easy for us to forget how much first-time boat buyers don’t know about boating.   Last week, for example, I watched as a new boat owner tried more than a dozen times to back his trailer down the ramp to retrieve his boat. He gave up and asked […]

Every business, regardless of its size or structure, face various challenges with natural disasters and periods of financial hardship.  As small business owners in a weather-dependent industry like recreational boating, the effects of floods, storms, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are familiar, yet frustrating, territory. There is no question that extreme natural disasters around the […]

Every year the market place throws a mix of new challenges at you and your business. Whether they’re personnel changes, technological obstacles, product line updates or evolving customer or partner preferences, they change the dynamics of how you approach selling and servicing boats.   With little-to-no warning, the boating industry changed forever with the health […]

It has been such a delight to hear from every dealer who I’ve spoken with over the last couple of months tell me about their record pace for sales and service, in addition, to the amount of new business coming from new boaters. New blood is what this industry has needed and talked about for […]

Well, we got our wish. For the last decade, or maybe longer, we’ve been gasping at how the average age of our boat buyers has increased by about 8 or 9 months every single year. The same people who were leading the boat-buying parade in the 80s are still the ones buying boats today.   […]

Many of the legal experts that have been providing businesses with advice throughout the COVID health crisis have recommended the creation of systems and processes to track efforts to keep employees and customers safe. Now, under newly revised policies issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), its Compliance Safety […]

Here we are on the cusp of summer. With Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. and Victoria Day in Canada unofficially kicking off the season, this is typically a busy time of year for dealers.   We hope this is a busy, revenue-generating time for you as well.   But we also know this year […]

If you’re not one of the many marine industry disciples who actually wore their life jacket to work last Friday — affectionately known as Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day — you should be aware that the week prior to Memorial Day here in the States is always honored as National Safe Boating Week.   […]

With the memory of the significant toll that the Great Recession had on our industry still somewhat fresh in our minds, I think it’s important to note that this downturn is different in a number of ways.   Between the crash in 2008 and the middle of 2010, nearly 2,000 boat dealerships were forced out […]