Quote Originally Posted by j_h_smith View Post
Feeders will be where you'll make your money. Dry goods will sap your wallet dry. How often will you sell a high end thermostat?

Breeding can work, but trying to your entire stock will become a full time job and a stinky one too. Rats and mice stink enough. Wait until you get a wiff of a colony of crickets.

I would recommend having your breeding facility somewhere other than your store. I'm not sure, but check with the health department in your area and see if you can have a breeding facility in this location. If there are food stores in the same center, you may not be able to do this. You will probably have to invest in an air filtration system if you plan on venting the air from your breeding room outside.

Also, you mention the store being large and in a strip center. There may be more overhead than a new start-up store can handle. Electricity costs are going to be a big part of your monthly expenses. My pet store has an electric bill of $2500 and more. However he does have a lot of aquariums with fish. But he does have a central air pumping station, so that will reduce his costs somewhat. I would also recommend a seperate reptile room. Something where you can control the heat and humidity without having to do the same for your entire store.

I wish you the very best, it can be very rewarding starting your own company, but that's the easy part. Keeping it going can become a real hassle.

I've opened many businesses in the past with some success. But each time when the business got too large, I was able to sell and get out before the company's success ruined it.

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I would suggest a rock solid business plan. A visit to a business lawyer and setting up an LLC. An accountant service that specializes in retail sales. A business mentor and also someone in the retail pet trade.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith
There is a lot of room in the store, which I plan to keep the animals and dry goods in, but there is a large back room (Kind of like a walk in closet) in the back of the store, which is where I planned to keep all of the breeders/ feeders. I breed most of my own feeders as is, so I know they can smell, but with regular cleaning, they don't smell too bad. I didn't think of regulations or anything on breeding in the store, so I will have to look into that.

I am planning on using flex watt for most of the reptiles, except those that need special lighting. I will not be doing fish, I'm not even sure about doing feeder fish, just because they are very expensive to run and they are not very big sellers. I am actually working with Repti racks to get a large quantity of cages from them, I had a few that held heat and humidity very well, so I may use that as an option as their cages are very nice and would hold up better than commercial display cages, which are also much more expensive. I am definitely thinking about the costs, all the way around, but starting is always expensive, so I'm thinking more along electric, water, ordering supplies etc.

I really appreciate your advice, it gave me a little more to think about and work with. I am definitely not jumping into opening the shop, I will have a solid business plan before opening.

Thanks again.