Ever thought of opening a fish store?

[crash83]

i did this very thing about 8 years ago, a friend of mine and his dad opened a store and i started working there part time,evenings,weekends ,and before long i was ordering all the fish and taking care of all the tanks.
my friends dad came to me and asked if i wanted to buy his half,and i did.we ran it for about 6 years then my friend brian[my partner ]came to me and wanted me to buy his half and become soul owner.and i really wanted to but my carrer was starting to really take off[my real job]so i told him no.a year later a guy came in and made us an offer we couldnt refuse.so we sold it.
ive been ready to open one again ever since.i learned alot in those years.i wanted to order every odd cichlid i could get my hands on,and slowly become a more speacized store.but i learned you cant do that ,some can but most cannot.you have to have great location and i mean great,you have to keep your bread and butter fish,and be a smart orderer.if i had 40 k to start id wait till i had 60k,lol.

[paranoid1123]

Re: Ever thought of opening a fish store?

east houston lack a quality pet store

South Houston nothing here need a good quality fish store in pearland.

[Darbex]

Well soon ADG will have there store

[billansor]

Jose..

Several things that are more in need of doing that are practical.

#1 Go to a Business college or University and ask for one of the business professors to assign a business major senior or undergraduate to work with you on putting a business plan together.
Without a business plan, you will fail inside of 3 to 7 years... or Die of a heart attack. The business plan prepares you for everything....

Part of the business plan looks at your market... All aspects of the market is looked at from traffic flow, to number of families in area, what ages they are, how many schools and so forth... part of the business plan also looks at what your ability will be to supply that area and the maturity of the type of fish you would have.

Some areas are so very new in their fish that they only want guppies, swordtails and goldfish.

Your Business plan will for you to look realistic at your short term goal and your long term goals.

You can also go to SCORE which uses retired people to help people like you wanting to start a pet shop.

Your business plan can include starting out as an aquarium maintenance specialist and again.. The business plan will give an exact detailing of how you are going to accomplish that... Your business plan will and can include transitions from Aquarium maintenance to a store front business and will detail how you expect to accomplish that.

To be very honest, when a person does a business plan, it becomes more and more likely that they will succeed in the business because they know what they need to do from day one to the next day!!

An Example would be.

Market A had 750 individual professional businesses in this area.
Market A has 300 business corporations in the area.
There are 25 elementary schools
8 middle schools
4 highschools
Market A has 25 grocery stores in the area.
Market A has 40 health clinics in the area
Market A has 55 Drs. Dentists, and others in the area.

To garner business for Axel Fish shop, The following steps will be done in addition to my part time job

Visit the area grocery stores and offer to put a 55 gallon tank as display for advertising purposes...
The display will be free for one month.
Using the display to help them sell their pet supplies such as dog food and so forth.
By the end of 2 weeks, all the grocery stores will be visited along with information kept as to who the manager is and so forth and potential business.

All the Drs office, dentist office will be visited the following two weeks and free display promotion will again be used.

During the Drs time, also visit professional buildings and clinics... This may take six months.



If you do a business plan, I will be more than happy to help you with it as I have done several business plans over the years.

The people at SCORE are great and many times the Business colleges and Universities use them as part of the planning process.

A good business plan is required by banks and also for places that give you a line of credit.

May you have a great time planning for your future success..

Bill

[paranoid1123]

Re: Ever thought of opening a fish store?

Well soon ADG will have there store

Tick tick......

[Jose]

I had to put this off because my income took a hit. I had friend tell me they would go half in with me which i'm still debating on that. I did the maintenance thing but didn't put myself out there. I still want to do this but just has to be pushed back. Meanwhile, the ideas keep piling up.

[danielp]

Well soon ADG will have there store

Is there a opening date for this store? So far as the retail side goes?

I go by there every afternoon and I saw most of their service truck parked out front.