Ever thought about starting a fish store?

[mistahoo]

If everybody stayed at the store, when would they take care of their own fish?

Nevermind... free employees!

Hells yeah!

[black_knight]

I had a good friend, who use to import fish and sell them out of his garage. He made some extra money that way and supported his hobby. He then wanted to open a store. You never look at a fish the same way after that is what I told them. I've been hanging around pet and fish stores since I was a kid, and I've seen them come and go. It's a tough business. You have to compete with Petsmart and Petco. There is a very small profit margin with fish. Fish die, brokers and international shippers rip you off. He opened up a shop. His family practicaly camped out there. They were sick of fish. He was sick of fish. It's tough to cater to everyone. Many of us "serious" hobbyist want rare hard to find stuff, so shops need to order in large quatities, many of which they will never sell, so the cost goes up. Bread and butter fish , are cheap, and so you have to sell a huge number. There's always that person who wants the single $1.50 neon, that'll make the store clerk chase the one neon of 100 for a half hour. It's a rough business.
I often thought it would be cool to own my own fish store that caters to the "serious" hobbyist, but I'm afraid it would take the joy and the money out of me. But if I had one I'd call it "THE WET ADDICTION". I'd have shelves of peat moss packed killifish eggs. Live food culures for sale. I'd have some rare livebearers ( seperate male and female tanks). A wild betta and labyrinth fish section. Shelves, with mosses (acurately marked christmass, willow ect.), Invert section. I'd sell tropheus fry, and petro fry. I'd probably sell coffee and put in a wiifi system and lounge chairs. I'd place a tag with links online info. sites for each species I'd sell. And I would love to have two thousand gallon display tanks. The first one would have petro trews (large adult school ) and tropheus bulu points. The other tank would be a tank of Paratilapia Bleekri , Paretroplus Menerambo, and a huge group of madagascar rainbowfish. I'd put it in The WoodLands or Inner Loop area.

[NDsuperduty]

Ever thought about starting a fish store?

Black Knight is right. It is good to do something you love but you should keep your hobbies separate from you job IMO. I've been a fitness geek since I was a kid and every job I have had since college is in a Gym or supplement store. You would think its great because you get to deal with like minded people all day....wrong. What you quickly realize is that the people that are serious about fitness, or fish in this case, are maybe 1-10% of your customers. The other 90%+ are people that don't have a clue about what they are doing. That doesn't mean they are bad or annoying but they don't care about the hobby the way you might. And of course a portion of the clueless 90% are complete *******s or really annoying.

Even if the above doesn't bother you, it takes a special person to be in retail. You HAVE TO be able to keep a cool head at all times. The worst thing you can do is lose your cool with a customer. It's the dreaded 311 rule. If you really help a customer and make them feel good they will tell 3 people, but if you piss someone off they will tell 11. Look at the retailers forum, there is always more post of complaints about store than post saying how great they are.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I love my job running a supplement store but when I owned a gym it really took the fun out of working out.

[mistahoo]

Sounds like I'd be perfect for running my own business then I've gotta deal with customers like that at my current job and I've definitely got a handle on that. They're much more snobby there (generally rich spoiled people) than my general location. Besides I'd do it just to be able to own and care for several types of fish (even if for a short time). Not for hoping to speak with like-minded people. It's called business for a reason lol. Besides, it'd be a cool little hangout, and instead of having a few hours with the hobby at home while working another job, you have all day with the hobby as your job.

[SteveCGG]

ND is right...it's not as much fun when it is a JOB and you have to be there 7 days a week to feed and clean since you probably won't be able to afford too many employees right away. I can't even imagine what the electric and water bills would be :ertrink:

[NDsuperduty]

Ever thought about starting a fish store?

IMO, if anyone seriously is consider this I would advice you to start your business in your garage or in an insulated & AC'ed warehouse before you invest in a retail location. And I would not move it to a retail spot until your making quite a bit of profit. The warehouse isn't a bad idea as most places are $600-1000 a month for 1500sq ft, and warehouses usually only make you do a 1 year contract or maybe less, while retail stores are 2-5x the price per square foot and usually require a 5 year commitment.

[mistahoo]

Yup.

[armthehomeless]

Re: Ever thought about starting a fish store?

IMO, if anyone seriously is consider this I would advice you to start your business in your garage or in an insulated & AC'ed warehouse before you invest in a retail location. And I would not move it to a retail spot until your making quite a bit of profit. The warehouse isn't a bad idea as most places are $600-1000 a month for 1500sq ft, and warehouses usually only make you do a 1 year contract or maybe less, while retail stores are 2-5x the price per square foot and usually require a 5 year commitment.

Well said.

[moganman]

Very true. When I majored in wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M I had a research lab job and I was responsible for maintaining about 25 tanks totaling well over 2000 gallons and at that time I started to lose interest in keeping fish. I eventually left that major the semester before I was supposed to graduate lol.

[black_knight]

When a hobby becomes a business that you have to feed your family with or turn a profit, the pressure some times takes the fun out of it. He's right about the garage business thing. That friend of mine was doing much better selling out of his garage. I could see him burning himself out when he opened his own store. NDsuperduty is right. You mainly hear complaints about stores. We want to find great deals for ourselves, but the store owner has to make something, and can't spend all day with you (be we often think of them as rude if they're in a rush). I love shopping at our LFS and rarely buy from the big chain stores, even if it cost me a little more. Because if we loose our LFS, we are gonna be stuck with the big chain selections, and quality will go down.