Page 62 - MARINAOFTHEYEAR

As we mentioned in Section Three, Facilities Improvement we spent the first 37 years of the
marina concentrating on the growth of buildings and land acquisition. The most recent 19 years
have been spent on maximizing the profit per square foot.

CHALLENGE ONE: We are land locked.
We are locked in on the number of boat slips we can have. We are locked in on the number of
dry stack licenses we can have. We are locked in on the number of parking spaces we can have.
This means one thing. To experience economic growth we have to increase rates, cut costs, and
look at innovative ways to increase revenue.

The trend in the United States is toward a rental economy and combine with our “Land Locked”
growth position is the perfect recipe for a successful boat club. We can house one boat for our
boat club in the space of a rental slip and instead of acquiring $4,000 for a summer slip, we can
acquire 7 memberships per boat at $3,000 each or $21,000! Because we have a forklift, we can
actually grow our boat club and occupy dry stack spaces. It’s a huge growth potential. We
started the club in 2009 and have grown it slowly to ensure we provided a service that is
outstanding. In 2016 we started our season with 22 members. In 2017 we ended our season
with 48 members. So far, our governing body has not regulated boat clubs with a cap on how
many boats you can host per lakeshore footage as they do with wet slips and dry stack spaces.

What have we learned?
Boat club members are NOT boaters. You need to teach them how to enjoy boating. We spend
a great deal of time educating the members how to boat, not how to operate a boat, but what to
do with a boat. They want to be boaters but often have never tried this activity!

CHALLENGE TWO: Staffing
Another current challenge is staffing. We understand the industry wide shortage of technicians.
In addition we have a general labor shortage in our area. There are plenty of people to work,
they just don’t. This fall we had a restaurant close a month early because they couldn’t get
applicants. We had a Subway about 7 miles away shut down permanently due to staffing
issues. I can site about 5 other examples, but there is just a lack of emphasis by parents on the
value of teens working.

What have we learned?

We are automating what we can. Our online reservations for pontoon boats has streamlined our
labor process by one person. We are installing a “pay pump” for our gas dock in an effort to
reduce staff time for evening accounting. We are exploring a “fast track” check out process for
pontoon boats that will involve customers watching videos to “check in”. And finally, we are
in the process of creating the “learn and earn” program to get parents on board with our
employment opportunities and include an educational component and scholarship possibility.

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