Norfolk Broads question...

[Lakesailor]

I see an awful lot of moaning about "rip-offs" and overcharging and robbing bastards on these forums.
I've worked for myself (and still do) for 30 years. I can hand on heart say that I have rarely met anyone in business in a small way who is making a killing. Most get by, some really struggle.
What may seem to others as a penny pinching and extortionate charging are really attempts to cover overheads and turn a profit.
Those who are in business in a small way will recognise what I'm mean if I say that costs rise unremittingly, but attempts to put up charges are met with scorn and antagonism.
I wouldn't work for anyone else. I like the way things are, but if there's one thing you can say about self-employment it's that it is not a licence to print money.

Next time a boatyard owner wants payment for a minor facility he offers, just remember that he may be driving home in a 20 year-old Landrover because that's all he can afford. Not because he's quirky or mean.

 

[the_wanderer]

Well, many boatyards on the Broads are going down the pan. I am a regular visitor to the Broads and all I hear from the hirers I meet is that they could have had a better holiday elsware, unfortunately for our economy that usually means in another country taking our currency away from our own tourist industry.

My sister and brother in law had a boat holiday last year with their five year old son on the Broads. Whilst they had a mild interest in the countryside as opposed to my keen interest they were all bored out of their boxes especially the little one who wanted to go home mid week.

Also with regards to the attitude "we have had your money now depart" and that is the polite version, my brother in law lost his mobile phone and phoned the boatyard to enquire if it had been found, only to be told "that's a shame innit?".
The will not be going back again.


Regards.

Alan.

 

[Lakesailor]

Those incidents you report are perhaps more to do with the changing face of society. If there's no access to a games consoles, the internet, I'm A Celebrity or whatever and patchy mobile reception many youngsters think they have been surgically removed from life. The peaceful enjoyment of gliding through beautiful countryside has become a minority passion.

I've known a few small businessmen who have had ailing (failing) businesses and have noted that their attitude to their customers and the trade in general has soured. They became very despondant and depressed and unfortunately, as often as not, took it out on their few remaining customers, ensuring the continued demise of their businesses.
I'm not making excuses or justifying poor customer relations, but just telling you what I've noticed happen. Not many businessmen with thriving businesses would become "difficult" like that. Unless of course they have always been like that, but we now expect a bit more pampering.

 

[the_wanderer]

Yes it is a shame the way things are going for the Broads business wise. Whilst the countryside is not everybody's cup of tea and I must agree with "the doctor" Ranworth is well worth a visit as are many other places. When visiting, my binoculars are always to hand as you never know what wildlife will turn up. I even spotted the rather rare swallow tail butterfly on my last visit at Hickling Broad.

I suppose really people want to hire what is virtually a floating flat and not a boat.
SWMBO will accept nothing less. Personally, if I hired a boat there I would probably go for the boats at Martham Boat Building and Development Company (they are on the internet) real, propper Broads boats.

Regards.

Alan.