How Hard Is It To Run A Lfs?

[andywg]

what is wrong with marines?

Indeed. Almost all the fish stores in the Southend and South Essex area which do not do marine have shut down. Those that do marine are doing very well.

My thoughts on this are that many people with FW tanks still like to look at SW tanks. They go to the store to look at the pretty SW fish and then end up buying something from the FW section.

One of the first things to realise before buying an lfs is that there is a whole world of keeping fish outside of the normal advice on TFF.

 

[aaronnorth]

Sorry my point is misleading an slightly on the wrong side of things, i should have gone further, i meant marine fish/ corals because of the cost of running them/ maintenance, if you are just starting and at the moment with the credit crunch it doesnt help, unless you are ok in terms of finance, there is also a lot more maintenance.
FW is also more profitable, 6x profit made on FW whereas it is only 2x on marine.

Although if the rest of the fish shops close by are FW, then going into SW might be the better option to go for.

 

[petertr]

There was a mostly marines shop near me (funnily enough, called Mostly Marine) - it closed recently


I can't help but think theres no market - 2 closures in 3 months.




PS - This is VERY pie-in-the-sky - Im not 100% serious here.

 

[Lord Fishheart]

There was a mostly marines shop near me (funnily enough, called Mostly Marine) - it closed recently


I can't help but think theres no market - 2 closures in 3 months.




PS - This is VERY pie-in-the-sky - Im not 100% serious here.

If you need a website mate im your man

 

[S6TGP]

hello mate

im doing my a-levels at the moment and opening my own business ( not literally but doing all the business plan lol) and there are many aspects you have got to cover before you open a shop. You need to know the reason why it shut, your local competitors, what the neighbourhood is like, you could os some research like do a questionnaire aorund the area to see how people would fill for a fish shop to be open, and you need ot have the money behind you to do it, if not you need to find a way in raisin capital, also what ownership you what ot do, whether you want to go has a sole trader liek on oyur own, or partnership where there a few of you running the shop

hope this info helps you mate

tom

 

[Tolak]

One of the first things to realise before buying an lfs is that there is a whole world of keeping fish outside of the normal advice on TFF.

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[kniesh]

s said by Andy, running an LFS is going to be a whole lot different to what you read on here. This forum is mostly about the conservation and best interests of the fish. If that's what you are about then owning a fish shop probably isnt the way to go. I was seriously looking into it for once I finish my Wildlife Conservation degree but then had a thought. I probably couldnt make it work, or at least it would be very difficult, asking the right questions and giving the correct advice all the time. In the long run probably, once the reputation was built, but again geography could be a big player there too. Liverpool isnt fantastic for aquatic shops although there are a few.

Instead I decided to go on to breeding. Hopefully I am looking to get into a breeding programme already up and running in a museum or similar, of rare fish being overfished in the wild. I will hopefully build up from small as a supplier at the same time. Breeding fish so they dont have to be overfished or inported. Every little helps....

 

[kevinthecow]

maybe TFF should all pull together and buy it

I'd so be in with that plan.

Anyways, I suspect it would be. If you get a co-operative team, know

 

[Dorkhedeos]

If you are trying to just survive off of it, you might be able to pull it off. I would wait till things arent as crappy as they are right now.

Running a fish shop is extremely hard. I was paid to run one, and I ended up quitting because of the work/pay ratio. Keep in mind I didnt even have to deal with ordering shipments and customer requests. Everyday, you have to show up at the shop at least 30 minutes before opening to make sure everything is in working order. You also have to take out all the dead fish(usually about 15-20 a day for a shop with about 100 tanks) and this continues throughout the day. You have to clean the inside of tanks every few days, depending on your stocking level. You have to worry about getting bad batches of fish and trying to keep them alive. Weekly water changes arent that bad, but they still take time. It takes even more time when you forget to turn the hose off. You have to change the live food everyday as well. There is a lot more to it than what I said, im just telling you the basic easy need no knowledge tasks.

The thing that just killed it for me was the customers. You try to tell them something, but they dont listen to you. If you push them too much, they just ignore you further and go somewhere else to get their fish. You cant really refuse sales either because that is just bad for business.