Larry Dague could be described with many labels: college drop-out, musician, diver, programmer, web designer, even inventor. The one that is most evident now, however, is online success.
Just type “Scuba Gear” into the AltaVista search engine and his ScubaToys.com is number one. On Yahoo he’s in the top ten. He didn’t get there by accident.
After dropping out of the University of Madison (WI), Larry began traveling as a musician with a band. At the same time he developed a passion for scuba diving. In Larry’s own words: “Any time we were near water, I’d jump in!”
After traveling for several years, he settled in Dallas and started his first business–a retail music store. Larry continued diving during this time, eventually becoming a diving instructor.
And the diving “hobby” was about to pay off in a big way.
While diving, Larry noticed he was using the same few tools again and again to set up and maintain his gear. He came up with and patented a unique tool to do all the “routine”. He began manufacturing his scuba tool in his music studio and wholesaling it to dive shops all over the US.
He eventually sold his Scuba Tool Company and took a job doing tech support for Windows 95, following that with a stint working in someone else’s dive shop. After deciding he could run a better shop than the people he was working for, Larry started his own.
Larry “stumbled” from there to the Internet, starting a site called “Aquaholic.com”–a non-sales site. When people began coming into his shop telling him they found it through Aquaholic, he decided to give online retail a try.
This year, ScubaToys,com is expected to do $2.5 million in sales. Not bad.
If you would like to see the specific strategies Larry uses to generate this level of sales (including his ASK JOE & LARRY piece that ANY site can use to increase sales) go to:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/sots
Kevin Bidwell is owner of
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