Your own aquarium store?

The way I see it, you need to find a good location preferably close to an existing LFS so you can get traffic from them(less advertising). Then you need the capital to pretty much pay for the shop for ATLEAST 6 months in advanced including utilites and your lease dont forget employees. Your new tanks in the store need to time cycle and your livestock needs time be in quarantine and fully adjust so you can sell quality livestock. Ive seen so many people try to rush into this only to fail. This is all about WHO you know and not what you know. Just because you dont have a lot experience doesnt mean you cant hire somebody who does.

 

I totally agree with you. It boils down to one thing that I dont have much of...........Money. Im waiting for the Lotto Gods to look my way so I can start a LFS and hire Geek, Otty, Tangster, Matt, Jason Mc and Coralreefer.:yelrotflmI wonder how much would they charge?

 

if you wanna pay to relocate all of us, LMAO!

It would be one heck of show to have all of us in one room talking about tanks! All the different opinions and practices that clash!

 

LMAO, that would be a disaster, imagine that. 1st rule, no guns or weapons allowed in and around the store. LOL

 

one day in the distant future I wouldnt mind selling some things out of the home kinda deal, just on the side a little as I have some ideas for some wicked big tanks, I am only 21 now, but have always liked keeping fish, and just started my first nano, I'll be a lifer now, next tank will be when I get a house, it will be at least a 265 for a reef tank, If I could afford it I woulda bought one now, shouldnt have let my 75 I had for FW go...but maybe sell some corals, as I want to get into fragging and growing them, and a few fish here and there, I like getting smaller fish and watching them grow

 

I owned a store that I was starting up from scratch. It wasn't crap to look at, but it had a few good things going for it. The only reason I closed it was because my job, which actually pays the bills instead of creating them forced me to a schedule of 24 hour shifts every other day. I didn't trust anyone enough to run the place in my absence. Employee theft is the number one cause for loss in a retail business. I had a small child with another due soon and I couldn't bear being a slave to the place on my precious off days. So I consolidated and reorganized and went back to strictly online.

The thing I had going for me with my business is I did it without taking out a single loan. When I closed my actual storefront up, I owed no one anything. The store was ugly and growing slowly because of this, but I would still do it that way again. I do not keep lines of credit with any vendors either. It's too easy to get behind and then stuck big time. It's cash and that's it. I know it can certainly be easier to do it the other way, but it takes HUGE discipline. I'd rather sleep easy at night.

First, I can't stress this enough. Write a business plan. And not one through rose clolored glasses. Anyone can skew numbers to make things look better to themselves but that's the only person you're fooling...yourself. Write an honest to goodness, reality based business plan. Research! You HAVE to know the market. HAVE to or you will not succeed. Know your competitors. Everything about them. What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong?

Another thing which is huge is working capital. Yeah you can open a place with only $100K. But how will you keep it running while your customer base grows? You think you're going to do $10K a month right off the bat? Hell no. You're skinny, sweating behind, will be working non stop for that store but you won't be drawing a salary for a long time. If I remember correctly in my business plan my store couldn't support even a tiny salary until after more than a year.

Someone mentioned having 15K set aside for utilities. You'll need a hell of a lot more than that. Electric bills, of course depending on location, can easily approach several thousand. Everyone says location location location...well what comes with the best location? The highest rent! Easily a few thousand there. PER MONTH. This is on top of what you need to keep new livestock flowing in. You can't wait until you clear out your old stuff before you bring in new stuff. People are not going to come if you're not getting regular orders with new and exciting stuff. No one wants to trek to your store just to look at the same finger leather week after week. In short, your store is not going to be profitable for a long time. You need enough reserved to carry you through that. Once people see you're starting to wain, they will stop coming, guaranteed.

Matt, you mentioned farmed corals, etc etc. It's noble for sure, but it's rose colored glasses again. Us people who frequent these boards are a MINORITY of the actual people in the hobby. People speak with their wallets regardless of what the say here. You will rarely sell a farmed frag of coral for $40 when people can buy full colonies from the other games in town for $30. I guarantee man. There's always a few. But those few are not going to be able to support your store to profitability.

Market again. I know people would love to be specialty. But what's the market for that really? Freshwater is the bread and butter. You've got to do it. I forget the number but fish keepers approached in numbers dog and cat keepers! The number reallt is staggering. What do you think the vast majority are? Fresh water fish keepers. You need a piece of that pie or you will starve. The more you narrow down what you offer the more you narrow down your potential customer base.

Location again. Due to mother earth, the hub of this industry is out west in CA. Just the way it is. The further east you are from there the bigger disadvantage you suffer. Those who can actually cherry pick their stuff from the wholesaler have the most to gain. They are only buying the best stuff. Nothing so so. Nothing "meh". The best. Now, does mother nature make only the best in our eyes? Nope. This stuff is in limited production. For every AWESOME piece there are probably 20 "meh" pieces. SOMEONE has to buy them. Wholesalers are not in business to stock pile so so looking corals. Who do you think is going to get those? The ones coming in to buy face to face? Or the store owner in northern maine who can't do anything about what they get except buy elsewhere and start the cycle all over again? The only thing close to leveling the playing field is transhipping. But first, this is ethically wrong the further away you live from the center of the indutry and two, it's incredibly risky financially. I refuse to tranship. It's just wrong. You may luck out for a while and things will be all fine and dandy, but it's a hot potato. At some point it will be your turn to hold it. One tranship order that goes wrong can completely obliterate your funds set aside for livestock. You think you're going to get a guarantee from your supplier like your customers demand of you?! ROFL. Fat chance. You can't get much for boxes of smelly goo and dead skeletons from your customers. When that bomb goes off you're on your own. It's worth the extra money for acclimated livestock.

Now many brick and mortar stores complain about etailers. Etc etc. Personally, I think everyone has to branch into etail to survive, but that's neither here nor there. What about wholesalers who are competeing directly with you? You don't think yours is? Better look really hard into that. MANY wholesalers also sell retail but they won't do it blatantly in front of your face. You need to investigate and see who's who out there and you'll be VERY surprised I guarantee. And who's better suited to compete against you? Many wholesalers have their own collecting station, they are getting their stuff for less than you are, not paying the shipping you are and are selling retail prices. Who's got the better chance to succeed? Same if you go etail and have to compete with those out west. Fuel prices are not plunging. They are getting their corals and putting them up online for $30. But you have the same coral and you need $40 to clear. Why? Cause you had to pay to have that coral shipped to you. Plus box charges. Plus heat/cold pack charges. Plus time to go to the airport. Plus fuel to get there. Etc etc. The closer you are to the hub of the activity the easier it is for you to succeed.

LOL, you'd never think somethig like fish was such a cut throat business. But it is. It can also be fun too though. I really enjoyed having a store. I really enjoy what I do now too though it has jaded me a bit. I haven't touched on everything for sure, but there's enough there for some food for thought.

There's a reason the saying exists..."The best way to make a small fortune in the fish business, is to start out with a big one". LOL, I know I painted quite the nightmare. I am not saying it can't be done. Of course it can, people do it every day. Only thing I am saying is, be true to yourself. Know what you're getting into. There's plenty of business out there for everyone. You can succeed too if you set yourself up right the FIRST time from the BEGINNING.

 

We would never get anything done...;D

You forgot the girls and brass poles in the shop....

Justphish: Sounds like you have a lot of experience there!

 

Failure rate is high help can't be trusted and profit margin is low and in general around its rough business I would never ever open or run one .. Get a damn bar no matter what the economy is doing they drink and smoke and never ask how much. Hell the worse the economy is the more customers a bar has $$$$$$$$$$$$$ ..

 

Wanna open one together? We'll call it "Drink Wit Da Fishes".

And I don't drink so you know I won't be dipping into profits.

 

OMG LMAO


That has to be the funniest truth I have seen!!!!