Why We Are Idiots For Using Kingsnake.com To Price Our Animals

[neilgolli]

Below is a post that I made on this topic almost 2 years ago on Ralphs board.
Here is a link to the orginal thread

http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/fo...74&whichpage=1

My post is made on page 5.



Posted - 06/27/2007 : 12:13:31 PM
This industry is different than most, joe blow cannot walk into best buy, purchase a few items and then next year be shooting tvs out their rear end. People are not prepared for the work or care thus need to move their product and are afraid they will never be able to sell their product next to the big boys so they must drop their prices, it takes a little intestinal fortitude to run any business and most people just don't have what it takes to actually be successful.

The other enormous problem is that people want to look at this as a business, want to make their money back but don't want to spend money to sell their product. No offense to KS but people who want to sell 10, 20, 50 ,100K worth of animals and only want to spend a $100 a year for their marketing budget on KS are the ones who complain the most about stagnant product who drop their prices because its not moving. Within weeks they'll drop their price $500 but would never think of dropping $500 on a banner, some business cards and a table at a show where they can display all of their product rather than just discounting a single animal to make it go away.

On the other hand the guys that do spend the money to go out and find new customers, often go about it terribly wrong. They have one bad show or don't sell anything at a tiny show and give up, feeling its pointless when in reality people want to buy from people they are comfortable with. They want to see your name on KS and other sites, they want to see you at a few shows know your going to be around and if your sitting behind your table with a stick up your butt, your arms crossed and frustrated who in their right mind would want to buy from you.

This business is literally what you make it. You want to wholesale your product you can, you want to make an extra $10,000 a year or literally a million a year, its entirely possible, but its a business, a new business and its a hell of a lot of work. There is absolutely no better way to make a living in my opinion than what we do however you have to fight for it and work damn hard.

I completely sell out every year without any trouble and do very little trading, I'm not afraid to hold onto my animals and dont care what others sell their stuff for, I get what they are worth to me. I sell some early and I sell a lot at the end of the season at 300 - 500 grams, by then many are out of stock, the whores have run out and come November I normally get the prices that in September people thought I was crazy for asking.