Money Made By Fish Store Owners
- Thread starter JCA
- Start date
thanks for the good info guys, it just struck my curiousity. everything you all said makes a lot of sense!
i have been thinking about starting a fish store when i get out of college with a buddy of mine. Where we are there are basically 2 LFS and then Petcos, PetSmarts, and Walmarts. One guys shop is extremely dingy and cramped, with a bad selection and high prices. The otehr guy also has a cramped store and is about the same price. The funny thing is they get there fish from the same supplier, Segrest Farms, as do all the petcos and teh Petsmart i work at!!! So basically you can go to either a LFS or a chain petstore and basically the same fish, lets say Yellow Lab from LFS $25 or Petsmart/Petco $11? My area is one of the fastest growing areas in the country and i get countless people every week at the fish wall that complain about the LFS and want a better one to come in with a newer selection and cheaper prices, because they just dont like getting all there fish from the chain stores. So hopefully we can come in and dominate the market. We both have about a year left, and we have already picked our suppliers for both fresh and salt as well as location and many other things.
fishmaven;522994; said:
Dude, you win the CHOMPERS Post Of The Year award. Nice job!!!
I was actually going to chime in with the hardships of being a business owner. I couldn't have said it better...
OscarHook;523508; said:
First, see if you can still find "The E-myth" by Michael Gerber.
Second, your building rent will cost you a minimum of four thousand dollars per month if you are going to stay in business. (Any less and you will be in a location that customers can not find you, or do not think of you.) You also have to pay your employees and pay for your electricity, taxes, and so on even if you do not sell any fish. On top of that, you have to sell enough fish and (dog food) to pay for 1. what you just sold. and 2. your rent, people, etc.
You will need to sell well over a quarter million dollars each year before you get to take any money home. You will need to sell about half a million dollars of inventory each year to have a meager lifestyle. Oh wait, there will be two of you? If you are not going to marry each other or live in the same trailer, then you will need to expect to sell 3/4 million each year. This is no joke. When you are in business, the money you take in goes right back out. The expenses in running a business are unbelievable and huge.
Generally, the more you sell, the higher your expenses. There are fixed expenses and there are variable expenses. Your fixed expenses are things like rent and electricity. They won't change reguardless if you sell nothing or if you sell everything. (there are floating rent clauses that will be a thorn in your side...basically if you sell so much, your landlord will raise your rent for that month). Variable expenses change with your sales. The more you sell, the more inventory you have to buy. Additionally, when business starts to get good, then you have to hire someone to help handle the extra work. Get the idea.
In a nut shell, your LFS's are not there by chance. They are there because they found a niche so they could survive against Walmart and Petco, et al. Don't be surprised if they do not rely on the income from their fish store. My nearest LFS was born to money and has his store to get away from his wife. Next door is a buddy of mine that runs a radio repair shop. He made his money on the road with Eric Clapton. He doesn't make money from his business...it to is just a place to get away from his wife. The whole block is owned by his father in law who works in an adjoining building as an engineer. He made his money as an engineer, is 73, and still goes to work...to get away from his wife. No joke, they all say the same thing. Must be comparing notes.
By the way, I am studying engineering. What are you studying?
Most people don't know what goes on outside the store, they just see people coming into the store and spend money. So people think that all that money must go to the peoples pocket in the store. But it doesn't work that way, It cost money to run the tanks,feed the fish, treat the fish if they get sick,and i can keep going, not to mention you loose money evrytime a fish dies. You need to sell supplies just to keep your store running. And more than likely they are leasing the building they have thier store in, which is another monthly bill. So just to let you people know out there owning/running a LFS is not all it's cracked up to be.messiner;522806; said:
But don't get me wrong, it has its benefits.
Any business that you own is hard for the most part. It's YOUR responsibility. If something goes wrong, it's YOUR fault. I've thought about owning my own business, but there's more risk than rewards (for the most part), especially with pet stores. I used to work in one, where a customer wanted to see a 3' Monitor that we had. He claimed to know all about reptiles and refused to believe that this Monitor was semi-aggressive. The girl opened up it's terrarium and next thing I heard was a guy screaming in pain with a 3' Monitor attached to his hand when I turned around!
