Marina Dock Age, November/December 1995

Create Your Own Comparable Data
by Dennis P. Kissman

Anyone who has tried to obtain statistical operating information on the marina industry realizes it is almost an impossible task. Our industry is very fragmented and those working in it are suspicious of sharing any information. Through the years, marina organizations and other groups have attempted to compile and publish such information with very limited success or accuracy.

Today more and more marina owners realize the importance of using comparative information as a means of measuring their business performance. Since there are no "industry standards" to compare your results to, establish your own historical data or goals to compare current results. First, comparing raw numbers does not always provide accurate comparisons because there may be extraordinary factors that increase or decrease the amount recorded in a given period from year to year. Second, marina activity is heavily weighted to weekend boating activity. For example, July 1995 had five weekends to record income and expenses. Third, weather has a big impact on marina activity.

You may be saying to yourself that the gathering of information is one reason we have computers. We expect our computers to provide us with all the answers and we are quick to blame the computer when there is a problem with the results. Unfortunately a computer is no smarter than the person who operates it. You must first understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.

For some of us who are not as computer literate as others or maybe have a little difficulty with number relationships, let’s see what the rationale is and how we can do it by hand before we attempt to set up the information on our computers. Continue »