Business View Magazine - March 2016

80 Business View Magazine - April 2016 Business View Magazine - April 2016 81 erships are not going to invest themselves so deeply in one niche. If you want a pontoon or a runabout or a fishing boat or a ski boat –they’re not going to spe- cialize in one area. We wholeheartedly only support the inboard, ski boat and wakeboard market. We don’t work on outboards, we don’t sell outboards,” he adds adamantly. Outside of doing boat shows to gather leads and pros- pects, deAndrade reveals that the company does ab- solutely no radio, TV, or print advertising, whatsoever, because, as he explains, with such a limited number of potential buyers out there, “we don’t think we’d get our dollars’ worth. How many inboard ski and wake- board boats are sold in the entire world? That number is probably less than 15,000 units; where the IO (In- board/Outboard) market is a quarter million; pontoon: the same or more. So, we’ve always seen traditional advertising as risky. Where’s the payoff?” Luckily, White Lake Marine is a business that has al- ways thrived on word-of-mouth. “My parents and I have always tried to view our customers as long-term investments and relationships,” deAndrade says. “So we have customers that come in – new customers - that we’ve never seen before, and normally the conver- sation starts out with: ‘My friend bought a boat from you,’ or ‘my parent bought a boat years ago.’ Some- body they know referred them. After 60 years, we’ve been very blessed to have built up a name and a brand recognition in our area.” Even so, the Great Recession took a huge bite out of White Lake’s business. “Before 2008, when we had that economic downturn, we had two full-blown dealer- ships,” deAndrade recounts, “one here at White Lake and one just west of Raleigh, in a town called Graham. And we were selling one brand of boat, just the Nau- tiques, and we were pushing about 60 units a year. 5440 Schenck Avenue, Rockledge, FL 32955 321-632-4466 • customerservice@seadek.com www.seadek.com Made in the USA • Comfortable, durable, EVA foam • 3M™ Peel & stick application • Great wet/dry traction • Easily cut to fit • Customizable • Covers spider cracks and other surface imperfections Authorized Converter