How to start making profit?

[RicheXotics]

I have a decent size collection of reptiles, and have been breeding for the past year. But I'm still in the red as far as money in to trying to get my business going. Im not asking for advertising advice. I just would like to know if its wholesale is the way to go as far to start making a living off of my hobby/business. And if not is it really just a waiting game to get to 350+ reptile breeding groups, before ill be able to nearly rely on this as a business. Please understand, Im not someone that is just getting into breeding for fast cash. I just want to get my name out there sooner than later, and to start making money and being able to expand my collection sooner than later.

Thanks for your time, looking forward to hearing from you all.

[bimmer28]

I dont run a reptile business but u do run a company. From that standpoint i suggest making an excel or graph showing where your money is going.

Find out what your biggest cost is. Then expand on how you can lower that.
as for bulk. Maybe contact several breedings and share an order of F/T to get a better price. Or buying something in bulk and working as a COOP
tgeres ways to lower costs. Just gotta examine them.
Example 15% on feeding F/T. Compared to breeding your own rats.
Supplies like deli cups. Can you buy in bigger bulk to see a savings.

The more info you have the more control you have.

Decide what you want your business to make you a year. Then take the stock you have and price out. How much more do you need to add? Then look at what happens if you shave 5% off your costs by doing something different.

Everyones goals are different. So advice will vary based on what you want.

I started red breeding balls purely out of fun. I would be surprised if i turn a profit when you add in the hours spent compared to what id make at my job. However for my gf her time is worth it.

The one real piece of advice i do have. Do what you love and success will follow. Because wheb you love it. You put 150% into it. And success is measured in more than dollars.

[CD CONSTRICTORS]

Just get your name out there. Facebook is a great means to do some marketing of your name. Go to some shows, meet some larger breeders, make a few purchases from some larger breeders.... basically rub elbows.

To keep your costs down, start by expanding (or starting) your rodent collection. Our largest cost besides investing in new genetics is our rodent bill. ~$4.5K in 2013 breeding a small portion of our rodents. We picked up the pace on breeding rodents while nearly doubling our collection and our rodent bill in 2014 was ~$3K. If you have 100 snakes and feed once a week that is about $150- $200 a week if you have to buy all your feeders. I feed twice a week... Monday and Thursday. It starts adding up to a car payment very quickly. I know a lot of people do F/T, but the cost savings is minimal, if at all, compared to breeding your own rats, and you'll save hours of time a week vs thawing rats and doing the "zombie" dance. For a substantial collection, feeding F/T would be very time consuming.

Currently we are holding back all female rats from our litters as our female bp's go off feed while breeding, and will be building our rodent breeding to ~100 females vs the 30 we have been breeding the past year.

[Blue Apple Herps]

The problem with reptiles (or any animals for that matter) is that so much is out of your control. Maybe a female lays a bunch of slugs, maybe you hit terrible odds and only get one morph in a clutch of 12, maybe a powerhouse male you bought (eg a $5k investment) isn't interested in breeding, etc, etc.

There are so many variables that IMO, until you really get up to a very large scale where you can absorb those variables, it's going to hard to consistently make a profit. I've had a couple of years where I had incredible odds (eg het x het gave me 6 visuals out of 7 eggs) where I had many more valuable animals to sell that I ended up in the black for that year. But those are far and few between. Most years I'm in the red, but that's OK with me. I do this for fun because I enjoy it, not for money.

I think if you go into it trying to make money, or expecting to make money, you're going to be very very disappointed. I always tell people to go into this as you would any other hobby and that's essentially as a money pit. Don't "invest" with the intent of making that money back, because you likely won't.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Currently we are holding back all female rats from our litters as our female bp's go off feed while breeding, and will be building our rodent breeding to ~100 females vs the 30 we have been breeding the past year.

WoW........ I have 96 female rats breeding

[CD CONSTRICTORS]

WoW........ I have 96 female rats breeding

Just didn't have the time, or the space last season. The rodents don't fare well in 95F heat here in FL in the summer, so we expanded and they are now in AC. Cutting back on hours as a RN to one day a week, and just doing my lawn service and breeding has allowed me the time to build the rodent colony to where I will need it. Perfect time to build the colony up as the big females are going off feed getting ready to ovy

[bcr229]

I have a decent size collection of reptiles, and have been breeding for the past year. But I'm still in the red as far as money in to trying to get my business going. Im not asking for advertising advice. I just would like to know if its wholesale is the way to go as far to start making a living off of my hobby/business. And if not is it really just a waiting game to get to 350+ reptile breeding groups, before ill be able to nearly rely on this as a business. Please understand, Im not someone that is just getting into breeding for fast cash. I just want to get my name out there sooner than later, and to start making money and being able to expand my collection sooner than later.

Thanks for your time, looking forward to hearing from you all.

Most businesses, not just those related to animals, show losses for the first 2-3 years due to startup costs. If you've only been breeding for a year then figure on another two before you start to show a profit.

[Jhill001]

I dont run a reptile business but u do run a company. From that standpoint i suggest making an excel or graph showing where your money is going.

Find out what your biggest cost is. Then expand on how you can lower that.
as for bulk. Maybe contact several breedings and share an order of F/T to get a better price. Or buying something in bulk and working as a COOP
tgeres ways to lower costs. Just gotta examine them.
Example 15% on feeding F/T. Compared to breeding your own rats.
Supplies like deli cups. Can you buy in bigger bulk to see a savings.

The more info you have the more control you have.

Decide what you want your business to make you a year. Then take the stock you have and price out. How much more do you need to add? Then look at what happens if you shave 5% off your costs by doing something different.

Everyones goals are different. So advice will vary based on what you want.

I started red breeding balls purely out of fun. I would be surprised if i turn a profit when you add in the hours spent compared to what id make at my job. However for my gf her time is worth it.

The one real piece of advice i do have. Do what you love and success will follow. Because wheb you love it. You put 150% into it. And success is measured in more than dollars.

This is the best advice you'll find. The most common reason for a business to fail is improper accounting. If you want to turn a profit you have to look at it fully as a business to the point it will not really be a hobby any more.

For example 3 years down the line when a species you really like becomes unprofitable you may have to sell them all off. Everything changes when your sole lively hood is based off your "hobby". Either its a hobby you might make a buck off or its a business. If you aren't fully committed to making money to live off then keep it a hobby. Your brain and animals will thank you.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Either its a hobby you might make a buck off or its a business.

I have to disagree there are different levels of hobbyist without being someone doing this for a living.

It can be a hobby and make a lot more than a few bucks.

I make a profit (more than a few bucks, even more than a few thousands ) but this is a hobby, I do not rely on it to pay bills and do not wish to make a living out of it.

So the question for the OP is what kind of profit are you looking to make? Do you want to make a living out of this?

If so you will need to treat it like a business and have a solid business plan and meaningful initial investment.

[JMBall's]

From what I've seen quality over quantity is best if you're looking to turn a profit...that and immaculate record keeping as stated above. I know a hobbyist who has over 30 balls. When he produces this year his "holy grail" that he could personally reach if he hits the odds is maybe a 1000-1500$ dollar snake. Not bad money but most likely he'll make 50-500$ snakes. With his current inventory of breeders and soon to be hatching snakes he has to house and feed his overhead costs are significantly higher then mine will be in my first season next year. For example, my first clutch will be from a killer clown x fire clown. If I hatch(sell) a pastel clown and a single firefly clown I'll have paid for that project and made a decent lil profit. If I hit the odds and get 2 or 3 fireflies then I'm off to a great start. Only firefly clown genes I've seen for sale were firefly clown hets for 4k$; which is more then I paid for the project. I think from a "business" pov, spending 10-?k $ on a couple powerful males and a couple gf's for each boy and producing 4 and possibly 5 digit$ offspring as opposed to getting 30 or 40 cheaper more common gene snakes and making 3 and possibly 4 digit $ offspring is what you should do. My feeding costs are currently under 20$ a week if I buy live. My friends feeding costs per week live would be in excess of 100$. Lower your overhead. This is definitely one of those "it takes money to make money" situations.