To be successful you do not have to have a huge facility with employees, many people make money or even a living without infrastructure like BHB or NERD
Scaling down and restructuring to a more manageable, lower maintenance (eliminating everything but snakes) yet profitable collection can be an option however it will not change the part where you can just go away on long vacations (we all make that sacrifice) or the heartbreaks (will all experience it as well)
After that if you still want to pursue it and make it profitable it’s about marketing yourself and finding your niche. For the last 10 years the sky has been falling and people complain that the market is awful but more often than not it’s their inability to adjust to that market that is the real issue. Adjusting to the market is a necessity like in any business and to do that you must have specific goals and let go of animals that no longer fit projects or no longer make sense to keep financially, you have to constantly evolve.
I have scaled down and restructured to 3 main BP projects, select Hypo, Clown and Pied combos now it’s about less animals but much higher end ones which took time since I first started from scratch. I still however have some diversity as well but those side projects are very small in numbers.
Having employee trust me is not making it easier, first it is very hard in this industry to trust someone (let alone a stranger that will make minimum wage), the job might be done well for a while than not up to your standard, and dealing with employees is often a big headache, there is a HUGE turn around in facilities like NERD and BHB from employees quitting, to those not doing their job or those caught stealing.
It’s not an easy business there is a lot of sacrifices to be made and if the passion is not there it’s either restructuring and getting that passion back or quitting it all and keeping one or two pets. But passion has to be there because even with small manageable number if the passion is not there there is no point.
Ultimately only you can decide what the best decision is for yourself.
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