Nevadan at Work: Boat dealer’s ready to serve hopes of harboring

Business prospects have dramatically improved for Stuart Litjens, owner of Boulder Boats in Boulder City.

Sales have increased every year since he opened Boulder Boats on a dirt lot in 2006, and he's expanding to a 16,000-square-foot showroom and service bay on 2.8 acres at 615 W. Lake Mead Parkway in Henderson.

It's triple the size of his former location, which he plans to keep. That way, he gets customers going to Lake Mead from the south and from the west.

"We haven't had a down year despite this difficult economic climate," Litjens said. "In fact, our only challenge is we really needed to expand."

After researching his finance options, Litjens went through Nevada State Development Corp. and Nevada State Bank to get an SBA 504 loan for $1.45 million to acquire the bank-owned property, plus about $200,000 for tenant improvements such as fencing, parking lot lights, signs and painting.

He had to put only 10 percent down on the SBA 505 loan, a commercial real estate loan through the Small Business Administration, compared with 30 percent required by most traditional lenders.

Boulder Boats has about 20 employees and will be adding 10 to 15 more when the new location opens. A grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Litjens said he got into the boat business after his friend, Mark Walker, who's now general manager of Boulder Boats, introduced him to water sports. After a couple of trips to Lake Powell, he was hooked.

He came back to Las Vegas and bought a boat, then another and another until he ended up with too many boats in front of his house and had to sell them.

"I owned about 15 boats before I started the business. I just enjoyed it and now it's turned into a business," Litjens said.

Boulder Boats is now the largest boat seller in Nevada, with a full-service boat dealership and service center. The company is a factory-authorized dealer for MasterCraft, Cobalt, Four Winns, Moomba, Supra, Axis and Berkshire Pontoons. Prices range from $5,000 for a used boat to $500,000 for the top of the line.

Question: How were you able to expand your business during a recession?

Answer: For the past three years, people would ask, "How's business?" They anticipate me to hang my head and cry. We've actually increased sales every year. People ask, "What are you doing to get through the recession?" Other businesses turned off the lights and laid off employees. We did the opposite. We went out and invested in our inventory and facilities and advertising and marketing. As a result, we send boats worldwide, to Australia, Vietnam, Canada. Most of our sales are not in Nevada. So for us, the Internet is a big part of our success, but also our inventory and people. The biggest problem is not having inventory. If you're in retail, you can't make sales if you don't have inventory.

Question: How has the used-boat business been for you?

Answer: The used-boat market's been huge for us because of all the repossessions. That's what carried us through because we go buy them at auctions and through our relationship with banks. The numbers at auction have dropped in half, so it's really driven the price of used boats up to where they're close to new prices. It costs me 30 percent more now for the same used boat I bought in 2009.

Question: What were your business beginnings like?

Answer: I had no clue what I was doing, how to work stuff. It took a couple of years to get efficient and not be an accident waiting to happen. We take that to our customers. We've got a lot of first-time buyers. Boating, docking ... that's something we stress, the education. Every boat we sell, we take them down to the lake so they can experience the whole backing up and docking. It can be stressful if you don't know what you're doing. When you come in to buy a boat, we ask questions. Why do you want this boat? What are you going to use it for? It takes experience. They want to buy a boat to take the kids on the lake and stay overnight, but it's got a Fiberglas cabin and it's 120 degrees.

Question: Why did you feel now was the time to take on debt for real estate acquisition?

Answer: It took a year to put this deal together. Our business has been built on cash flow. We don't have a bunch of money to come in and build. Had we been at this level in 2007, we might have bought this and wouldn't have weathered the storm. Fortunately, we were in a slow-growth mode. Not really slow. We were up 20 percent a year and this year we're up 30 percent. We already moved from our original location in Boulder City. I bought Boulder City Marine in 2004 and started Boulder Boats in 2006. I grew and built it up and moved it and then sold it back to one of the owners I bought it from.

Question: Why not sell the Boulder City property and use the money to pay down debt?

Answer: We're doing fine there. Our Achilles heel there was really not having enough space and service bays. Here, we've got a big service business and we have an indoor showroom. Now we're reaching customers both ways to the lake. We're going to specialize in used boats over there primarily, and also (recreational vehicles.) When we started Boulder Boats, we bought an acre and half of it was leased to a guy and we hoped he'd stay and pay $1,500 a month for our security blanket. As soon as we moved in, we realized we needed more space. Right now, we rent space all over Boulder City.

Question: How does the Henderson store complement the Boulder City?

Answer: This will be good for our customers from Las Vegas who bring their boats in for service. This will be a lot more accommodating for their needs. Being in Boulder City, on some level that hurts us on the local market. There's this perception of being in Boulder City. It hurts us on Google and Internet marketing. When you search for Las Vegas boats, Boulder City isn't Las Vegas, so as far as Google searches, it comes way down the list.

Question: Is there increased competition for boat business in Henderson?

Answer: There are only two other dealers on our street. One of them does motorcycles and off-road vehicles. Nobody has a business like ours, based on selection and inventory. We do 350 boats a year. That makes us one of the largest in the Western states. Most boat dealers sell one brand. We're not trying to railroad them into our product. With our selection of 120 boats and used boats, we can get them into a boat cheaper.

Question: What's a good sales tactic for selling a $50,000 boat?

Answer: This is one of the few things you can do as a family with teenage kids. You can't go to the skate park with them. They don't want you going to the mall or the movies. But they need you for this. It's great for families. It brings them together. And it's an investment. Sure it costs to operate and maintain a boat, but you have something with equity that you can sell. You go on a ski vacation, sure you have pictures and memories, but you have nothing to show for it.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.