I have, loved, owned and cared for many types of reptiles over the years, however, my new, however small, breeding project is barely underway, and of course it will revolve around ball pythons.

But, speaking from a purely business point of view, which I know a lot about being a web developer and business owner for over 15 years, I felt the need to offer some thoughts on the breeding business.

If we look at large established breeders as the “Microsoft’s” of the Ball Python world, we are then naturally “the small guy in the room”, and, in all probability, we will never be a “Microsoft

To that end, some of you who are far more knowledgeable than I will have to point out “Ball Python” or “Breeding Business” anomalies that may expose weakness in my analysis, but I will continue.

Like any other small business, money can be an issue, supplies and resources can be limited and/or scarce, and so, what can one do? How does one even attempt to compete? Should we even play the game?

I have heard that in the breeding business people sometimes trade specimens and/or loan out snakes for breeding projects and some revenue is shared, or hatchlings are divvied up, etc. One of the reasons this happens is simple; not everyone has 25K-50K to buy high-end breeding ready stock (as in BREED NOW, not tomorrow, not next year, NOW) that gets right into production, and thus, some resources (snakes) are shared in that way.

Personally, I am going into this in a relatively small way, which will end up somewhere between 4K-5K, which in all reality isn’t a lot of money when considering that most of that 4K-5K will be purchasing snakes that won’t be breedable for 2 to 3 years (not counting inexpensive male morphs that we can match to breedable normal females) The only reason I partly don’t mind is because I love snakes in the first place, so if this means I just get to breed sweet morphs for myself, then I figure there are worse things in the world. It’s like being an artist; if nobody buys my paintings (morph creations), then I at least still have my own art.

But, back to my little rant…, what this means is that, by the time our initial investment is viable for breeding, there is no way of knowing how much the cost prohibitive morphs of today will be 2 to 3 years down the road.
I just picked up a female spider ball for $200 and a male Mojave for $200 as well, and we all know how much these were going for not so long ago.

So, I think there are only 2 remedies.

1) Strategic partnerships:

Pool resources, plan, plan, plan, get with someone you can trust, or a group you can trust, and form a co-op that buys high end breedable stock and revenue share.

2) Invest larger, not smaller:

I am a poor example of this, because I committing just 4K-5K, but to use myself as a good example of what not to do, I am probably hurting myself more by investing 5K, than if I invested 15K to 20K. What I am saying is that one can easily under invest; by going in with more viable breeding stock, stock that can BREED NOW, it could essentially put you a few years ahead of someone that is doing what I am doing.

I am interested in hearing any other thoughts you business minded types would like to offer, as well as those who are pure breeders and know the business better than I.

One thing that might bode well for me is that, along with becoming somewhat of a breeder, I am a web developer and marketer, which means I can design and upkeep my own website, as well as market it via the web, which is what I do for a living. That, at the very least, puts me ahead of the curve when it comes to all things web related, because I am also a creator of brands and branding campaigns, which after all, if you don’t market yourself well, you will lose more often than not.

I hope somewhere in this rambling I formed what could be considered a coherent thought.

BrandonBalls