Transworld Snowboarding...

An Interview with Glass & Powder Boardshop

Located in Richmond, Virginia, Glass & Powder Boardshop recently moved into new digs in Carytown, a happening shopping street near the city’s historic Fan District. The bright new shop is four times the size of their old store just down the street. Partners Scott Dickens (president and CEO), his wife Cara (vice president and COO), and Sandy Appelman (treasurer and CFO) report business is booming. Known as, “The only shop that rocks harder than a convertible on prom night,” we stopped by the bustling new location to chat with Scott about a wide variety of things.

How did you get started?

My wife, Cara, and I were living in San Francisco. I was a National Sales Manager for a software compny, then later a Manager for Ziff-Davis Publishing. I traveled alot for my job--like 3 weeks out of every month. Basically, I planned all my business travel around snowboarding and wakeboarding. If I had meetings in Denver, I would schedule them for a Thursday so I could take Friday-Sunday to go up to Breckenridge and snowboard! The company didn’t mind because I got cheaper airfares with the weekend stay. Whenever I went to Vegas, I would plan an extra day so that I could go wakeboarding at Lake Mead. Basically, I was financing my fun with “real work.”

When corporate America started wearing on me, I made the decision to make a professional change and go into the business that I loved--snowboarding and wakeboarding. I briefly looked into the manufacturer’s side of things as a sales manager or something similar, but we also wanted to move back to Virginia where our families were from. Most of the companies were west coast. So from there, we decided to move back to Richmond, Virginia. We wrote the business plan and searched for the ideal location for our new shop. Carytown, where we ultimately opened the business four months later, was the perfect choice for us--foot traffic; central location is a city environment; and central to lakes, mountains, but in a populous area.

How many years have you been in business?

We opened our doors February 20th, 1999. We’ll be celebrating our three year anniversary with a huge party, live music, a monster sale, and tons of special events that week!

How many people do you employ?

We have 10 employees in addition to the three owners. We have a fantastic staff right now. We only hire snowboarders and wakeboarders and our expectations are very high. I don’t have what I call “yo dudes” working for us – I’m sure you know the type: you walk in to a typical shop and some guy behind the counter trying to look cool says “whassup” then turns back to his magazine or video. I absolutely don’t believe in that at all. Each member of our staff is attentive and professional. We work with people in a very hands-on environment to help them find the right equipment for them. I also don’t hire seasonal employees. I don’t think that someone working for a month out of the year can possibly give the right advice or provide the required level of service to a customer who’s checking out equipment or learning about the sports for the first time. Each of our staff goes through training to learn about every product in the store.

What is the secret to your success?

Service and dedication to the sports. I like to think that each customer that comes in our shop gets blown away by knowledge, service, and support. If you look at our original business plan, our mission states, “World-class service and exceptional product knowledge will ensure that we continually lead the market, rather than follow it. Our commitment is to conduct our daily operations with the highest level of ethical standards, honesty and integrity. We will know and exceed our customers’ expectations by offering service above and beyond that of other retailers. Equally important is that we maintain our commitment to the growth and education of both wakeboarding and snowboarding.” We have also sponsored and initiated the largest snowboarding and wakeboarding event series in the area to involve more people in the sports.We also just expanded the size of our shop, moving across the street to a much larger location. We are now roughly 5,000 square feet, all dedicated to snowboarding! I think it’s important for a shop to have a great selection and offer choices and options for every customer that walks in the door.

How do you help to grow the sport of snowboarding?

By introducing as many people to the sport as possible. By being good ambassadors and having a team that competes and spreads the love and word of the shop. We also help by sponsoring events at Snowshoe Mountain, Massanutten, and Wintergreen, the closest local resorts. We have a huge rental fleet of snowboards, especially for an urban location--featuring some of the best brands ever in a rental fleet, like Northwave, Drake, GNU, and LibTech. You absolutely will not find rental boards like these on any mountain locally, so we try to give relative beginners great equipment to learn on! Usually they see the benefits and decide to bring their business to us when they buy their first setup. We also sponsored a great beginners’ instructional video this year called “Rider’s Ed” to help those beginners out there that need a sound foundation and have no idea where to begin. We’re also sponsoring “Rider’s Ed Volume II” this season, which addresses more halfpipe/terrain park riding.

What makes a good shop?

One that is INTENSELY dedicated to the growth of the sport and the development of its customers! You have to be ready to go the extra mile for each and every customer that walks through the door, whether they make a purchase or not. Whether they buy a $1 sticker or a $1,200 snowboard package, each customer has to be your priority! A good shop also gives back to the sport by sponsoring events. A good shop has employees that can speak intelligently and concisely about the products they carry and offer solid advice about purchases. A good shop carries the best equipment and stands behind everything that they sell for the sake of the customer.

What do you look for in your reps (i.e., what makes a good rep)?

Unfortunately for us, we have very little say in who gets hired as our rep for each company. But on the bright side, our reps are very good, with just a few exceptions. A rep should be able to think from both perspectives: the retailer and the manufacturer. A rep should always remember that the dealers are the ones that really pay their salaries! If we didn’t buy, they wouldn’t make money. A rep should always look out for your interests as a dealer in the market--don’t flood the market or bring on dealers who would dilute the value of the products to the paying customers.

What do you look for in a brand?

Number one: solid workmanship, performance, warranty, distribution. Number two: team and advertising/marketing support.

We like to get behind brands and stick with them for the long-haul to build brand awareness in the marketplace. Solid performers for us include Northwave, Drake, Lib Tech, GNU, Burton, Option, Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare, among many others. We don’t carry any ski brands, not because they’re bad, but because we’re a “boardshop”. I would prefer to support brands that are snowboard-specific and have a positive vision for the industry--brands like LibTech that are made in America.

Is the shop an Internet presence?

Our Internet business has been great. We have a decent website online at www.glassandpowder.com, which features most of the products we carry, information about them, and some bonus stuff like free desktop images/wallpaper that anyone can download and use on their PCs. We also participate in newsgroups, discussion groups, websites, bulletin boards, and more--that has really helped us solidify ourselves as a valuable resource to the snowboarding/wakeboarding enthusiast. We have been consistently averaging about 15%-20% of our sales volume from the web and e-mail orders (many orders are out-of-state and international).

That sounds like how you’ve used your video. Can you tell us more about that?

I own another company called Ground Zero Media Services (we named the company last year before the 9/11 attack and I can’t believe how much they keep referring to our company in the news!). As I mentioned, we produced “Rider’s Ed,” a basic snowboarding instructional. The intention was to create a great beginner’s instructional that you could sell with a rider’s first major snowboard purchase or rental to take some of the bruises out of the first few days on the snow. The reaction from customers has been awesome! Despite a mediocre review in Transworld Snowboarding, everyone that has purchased the video seems to find it extremely valuable. It is not intended for experienced riders, but more of a basic one-on-one instructional for people who are approaching the sport for the first time. We’re in the process of shooting “Rider’s Ed Volume II” right now – it will pick up where Volume I left off and take the viewer into halfpipe and terrain park riding.