racialfish;1402541; said:
Ok well I'm going to tell you both of my sides on owning a fish store. Don't do it, the income is very slow, especially FW, the only way you can really make money is buy selling bread and butter stuff. One thing that most experienced hobbyists don't realize is that fish stores sell alot more fish to noobies and most noobies want fish like guppies and platies. We don't like to order rare fish because they sit longer and are ofter harder to take care of. And even at that petco will most likely have a lower price. If you also have SW you will make a alot more money because chain stores are to retarded to do it but they also have a lot more work. Doing an aquarium service out of the store will provide a lot more income. At my store I have both FW and SW fish and do a mainenance service and the service alone provides 75% of the income. If I just had the store like I originally planned I would have went bankrupt by now. It is very hard and If I could do it again I would move down to florida or somewhere on the coast and do the service or be a wholesaler because it gets really old dealing with constant retards that come into the store. Overall I make enough money but it takes a long time to get the accounts and get people to trust you etc.
I would take this advice. That's pretty much on par with what has been said to me by fish store owners that I myself speak to.
If you're LUCKY you can open a store dealing with oddball fish, gain a reputation and make money, HOWEVER, most stores make the majority of their money selling equipment, aquariums and misc. items and cute little cheap fish. The stores I know that deal in oddballs make a lot of income on tank maintenance and they're all in big cities that will support such a business.
I know very few stores that simply make money selling oddball fish.
If you want to open a store you basically have to have a heck of a lot of start up money. You have to go into it knowing that there's a chance you may lose your ass and have a backup plan, or you will be left with nothing. You also have to realize that it may be a heck of a long time before you make your money back or start gaining actual income.
My advice would be if you just want to open a store because you love fish and you think you make money selling the fish that you love DON'T. Get as much business sense as possible and realize you will likely have to sell more of the stuff that you're NOT interested in and cater to more people that AREN'T going to stay in the hobby and DON'T want rare or odd fish than the people that have the same opinions and interests as you.
Another thing you will HAVE to learn the market you're selling to. Just because you think it will sell and it's something YOU think is neat doesn't mean you will make money on it.
That's the reason me and my husband haven't opened a fish store here. There isn't a market for it. It would be a losing proposition, which you have to realize is true of a lot of businesses.
The best bet would either be to pick what you love and move into a market that supports it, which may require going out of state, OR learn the market you already reside in and set your business up to grow and change with that.
That said, you will learn A LOT more from local business owners than you will from asking questions online. People online, even actual store owners, only know their own market and it may be slightly different in your locality.
Watch at your LFS. See what they make money on and what they don't. See what items most people buy.
Oh yeah, just a little aside - ask what their electric bill is per month. That will give you at least a little bit of an idea what simple upkeep on the store will cost compared to what you'll likely be making.
For the stores here in town it's often near $1,000 and it will vary higher or lower depending on time of year. That cost is actually pretty reasonable compared to some numbers I've heard from stores in other cities.
