Going to get rich!

All I have to do is throw two snakes together that I find at a local flea market... and a couple weeks later I can sell the babies for thousands of dollars right? Certainly it is a get rich instantly idea! I'm all in!

LOL

Seriously, As some of you know, I am considering opening a reptile shop in the future. It will sell snakes, other reptiles, supplies, and feeders. The research I have done so far shows that the feeder sales would be the backbone of the business. The biggest start up costs would be the rent and the display cagng... But so far it seems totaly doable.

I am sure there are others out there with similar plans... I am sure their are some out there that have already made this dream become a reality. Please share your thoughts! List the thousands of things that I am not thinking of that are key to consider!

Mike

Don't forget about all of the paperwork you'll have to do in order to start a legitimate business. There will be substancial fees and other costs that the state or county will charge in order to open a business.

After that, you'll have to begin upfitting the store which will also require permits for anything beyond shelving. Permits cost money and also take time to obtain. Also don't forget to check your local wildlife agency to see if you need any special permits to carry some of the animals in our hobby.

And your lease - many places want businesses to sign on a for a number of years. Make sure that you have the funds available to pay your rent for at least the first year UP FRONT because new businesses seldom make enough to cover all of their expenses in the first year or two of operation. Some take longer.

I don't see how even a small pet store could open with anything less than $50-75k in startup capital, so make arrangements accordingly.

true true, i wrote up a biz plan for a small herp shop and the cost was right at $55k.

Wen I did my business proposial for Wildmorphs. my starting capital needed was 15,000.00 and that was home based. That has gone up cause of renivations and additional animals added.

I wouldn't want to do it :)
but good luck to you if you decide to go for it.

As the internet becomes more and more prominent, won't the need for pet stores decrease?

JonV

Well, we'll see.
The internet is exceedingly prominent and with shipping costs going through the roof (fuel shortages and expenses) I'm not sure how well that will hold up.... :oops:

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Originally Posted by starmom

The internet is exceedingly prominent and with shipping costs going through the roof (fuel shortages and expenses) I'm not sure how well that will hold up.

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Brick and mortar businesses are just as, if not more, susceptible than internet businesses to the impact of high shipping costs. In addition their proprietors have to pay the increasing energy bills, payrolls, and assorted taxes associated with maintaining a physical presence outside of their home.

the internet can be as prominent as you want it to be, but the fact remains, as the hobby grows, the larger the cross section of people who would rather do business face to face will grow. if your prices are comparable then you'll succeed because your service will almost invaritably be better.
its just like banking - people love the convenience of internet banking, but when it really comes down to it, 90% of the customers would still like to go into the branch for most banking functions.

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Originally Posted by kzooherpetoculturist

the internet can be as prominent as you want it to be, but the fact remains, as the hobby grows, the larger the cross section of people who would rather do business face to face will grow. if your prices are comparable then you'll succeed because your service will almost invaritably be better.
its just like banking - people love the convenience of internet banking, but when it really comes down to it, 90% of the customers would still like to go into the branch for most banking functions.

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I guess that will depend on how much of your business you expect to do locally. If I opened a shop in my area and had any ball python morphs over $200, I would expect to sell very few if any. There's just not a local market for that here.

JonV

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Originally Posted by kzooherpetoculturist

people love the convenience of internet banking, but when it really comes down to it, 90% of the customers would still like to go into the branch for most banking functions.

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I think that's a bit apple-and-orange-ish, since banking is a service, whereas pet stores are in to providing goods. A better comparison may be one of online music stores vs. their physical counterparts, which are largely non-existent these days. When the option is available to browse and locate the best product at the best price, while in your underwear, the majority of people will choose to do that.

In all honesty I think a combination of the two is what it will take. Also you don't have to pay a lot extra for a store front. You just have to be careful when selecting the real estate you plan to call home and make sure it is zoned correctly. I went directly to RDR and picked up our double het for VPI snow. Loved the person to person interaction. While Ralph does not have a store front, I enjoyed the ability to walk around and see the facilities he has and :bow:. Also it was great just meeting him in person. Online I was a little miffed as he doesn't come across as well as he does in person. As my job moves sends me here and there I hope to have the chance to meet other breeders in person as well. One guy I really want to meet in person in Michael Cole. He has been a big help and I would love to actually put an actual person with all the help he has given us!

Also a store front doesn't have to be a full blown pet store or reptile store even for that matter. Just a place that allows people to come in and see!

The real competition to businesses whether they be storefront or Internet as I see it are the shows or expo's offering lower end pricing, no shipping costs, low overhead, and often no sales tax. Store owners often seem to have a plan that they will sell a customer a reptile, some type of glass tank and accessories and then continue a relationship with the customer by supplying them food. All that stuff can be obtained at a show for half the cost or less which most customers soon figure out. The overhead of operating a store makes it impossible to match or beat show prices. I am not trying to be negative but I think that it would be a very rough row to hoe to shepherd a retail store through the first 3 years particularly as we seem to be headed into a recession. I think that anyone starting a store had better go into it with eyes wide open.

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Originally Posted by ctrlfreq

I think that's a bit apple-and-orange-ish, since banking is a service, whereas pet stores are in to providing goods.

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an excellent point...
as an employee of one of the largest banks in the US though, i gotta say, we treat everything as retail. it's kind of an in between... we are not nearly as much of a 'service' industry as say, a plumbing company or cell phone provider... something like that.
either way, i guess my point is that there will always be stores and my thought is that reptiles will always be interesting enough that people would rather see them in person than online. once they're in the door, the rest is up to you as the owner.

I'd say go for it and good luck if you decide to!

Granted it always costs a lot of money to start up any business, but if you balance your time, money, and effort properly you can succeed on a budget.

I'd say there will always be a need for retail. If you can carry the right products, animals, services, and find a good location with a nice customer base around the area, I think you should be absolutly fine.

But I can agree with most others that it's a tough operation to pull off with still offering low pricing with the overhead of owning a retail shop. But I think it would just depend on what you are carrying and breeding on your own (breeding mice and rats is a great + for a pet store, even for pets and not just food). There are many other things aside from exotic reptiles, such as Aquatics, Small Animals, Dogs, Cats, etc.

I can tell you there are millions of people that spend unimaginable amounts of money on their pets, especially in the dog and cat area.

Anyways, good luck!

Unfortunately, don't most pet stores rely on selling goods over animals to pay the bills so to speak?

A fellow herper, an ex-pet store owner, said he was always torn between his $300+ electricity bill and selling a snake to some total dufus who he knew wouldn't take good care of it. I think as a business you'd have to take the sale, but I think that's one advantage to having a lower overhead...you can not make the sale and you're okay.

JonV

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Originally Posted by nevohraalnavnoj

A fellow herper, an ex-pet store owner, said he was always torn between his $300+ electricity bill and selling a snake to some total dufus who he knew wouldn't take good care of it. I think as a business you'd have to take the sale, but I think that's one advantage to having a lower overhead...you can not make the sale and you're okay.

JonV

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I know a couple that has a pet store and refuses to sell certain snakes(those that get large) to anyone with kids.They barely eat and struggle to pay the bills each month because of it.So if you love to eat and pay your bills you basicly have to make the sale when it comes about.

Pet stores don't really make much off of reptiles, but they do off of reptile supplies and feeders.

Over my past experiences with pet stores I have to say if you want to stay in business you MUST have knowledge on ALL the animals you sell... Too many stores try to sell everyone who buys a snake a 100$ glass tank to make money when they know(or shouldnt know) that a plasict rubbermaid tub is probably the best fit for the snake. Know what the animals really need to survive and only sell that.

I think more customers will support your store if you display the image that you're not out there to make money(which we obviously know isnt true), you're out there to give the animals great homes and great lives. Ive been to too many stores where the owners dont care when the animal they sold you last week died. Its even better when you realize over time the reason your animal died is bc the person selling it told you BS on the care to get you to buy other crap you didnt need!

Breeding ball pythons is easy but selling a $500 snake to sombody that thinks "Screw you man petco has them things for $40" isnt easy. Average Joes dont buy $1200 ball pythons unless you can think of a sales pitch and these days its "Buy this guy and breed your own to make your money back". Breeding normal and albinos wil most likely make more money then what most people consider "Hi dallor" morphs.

A friend of mine opened an exotics store in Manhattan (Uptown Birds, LLC) a few months ago and if I remember correctly, his total cost to get everything up and running (rent, lawyers, contractors, display, products, animals, etc) was in the $250k range.

You may want to branch out and keep a few arachnids/other insects around for sale as well. There's a few of us out there with both. Be sure you get knowledgeable or hire somebody who is though.

A friend of mine has owned a local pet store for about ten years now. She no longer sells snakes. There just wasn't a local market for it. And the random phone call from some idiot saying "the #%@#&^$ snake you sold me last year just bit my neighbors kid" didn't help.

She quickly learned that the real money was in dog grooming and fish.

It takes a lot. My friend started up a general pet store 5 years ago, and this year she had to take on a second job and downsize a bit. She is still going, but she deals mainly in fish/tank supplies, and the local walmart has beat on her sales badly. She can't sell things for as cheaply as the big box stores do.. yet she does do well enough to float the store, even if it does not really make her money (her husband works fulltime too.) They also run a farm, and that in itself is more of a labor of love these days as far as I can see, Not a way to make money.
BUT there are niches out there. I know of another couple who opened a shop in Buffalo and they deal mainly with reptiles. And they are doing good! However both of them have outside jobs (he makes quite a bit of money at his fulltime job) and I have never exactly asked him for his financial info! But they are doing great and getting into breeding. If you want to do this, my advice would e to do it without expecting to make huge $$, but with the Internet, hey, you could drastically augment things in that department. I personally would count on most snake sales to be online. Like Jenn just said.. my friend has trouble moving snakes out of her store, and that coupled with people's relative ignorance on them locally, pushed her to not really sell them. She'll take them in on consignment but does not breed or order them in. Yet, she is also not big on internet herp selling, so if you are and you have a snazzy website and a steller rep on forums like this.. there you go!

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And the random phone call from some idiot saying "the #%@#&^$ snake you sold me last year just bit my neighbors kid" didn't help.

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To which my reply would be, did you not realize you bought a snake?

:snake:

Anyway, I think it would be a fun endeavor to open a pet store. However, if I was in the OP's shoes, I would hold off until at least the election or this soon to be recession is over.