If you were to start an LFS....

[SirMinion]

Here's what I would do:

• With enough room & funds, I would actually build a public aquarium into the store and charge admission.
  
• The aquarium would house adult sized fish of all the commonly sold large species, such as Pacu, RTC, TSH, Balas, Mbu, large plecs etc so that people considering buying them could see what they are letting themselves in for.
  Many of the fish in these tanks would be donations from people who no longer have the room for them.
  
• I would have a small photography concession in there too, selling camera films and a small range of cameras & accesories.
  
• I would give admission vouchers as sales incentives such as buy £2000 of hardware, get free admission for a year or spend £100, get two free tickets.
  
• My staff would all be fishkeepers themselves, each having an interest in a different range of species.
  
• Each tank would be labled with the fish's water requirements, it's adult size and it's temperament. There would be tape measures on strings so people could see what 36 inches actually looks like.
  
• Each tank would be labled as to it's suitabilty to the local water.
  
• I would have a separate section for beginner's fish where all the easy to keep fish could be found.
  
• I would have a 'photo wall' where people could pin up photos of the fish they've bought and are thriving - I'm attempting to make the store into a community and build customer loyalty.
  
• I would have a cafe in the public aquarium, surrounded by large fish while you drink your tea. The main lighting in the cafe would be the dancing light reflected from the water in the tanks.
  The cafe would also be hired out as a function room and conference facility.

 

[livelife]

One little thing that I would *LOVE* an LFS to do... on the tanks, along with name of fish and price, a little card stating max size of fish, good tank mates and needed conditions.

example:

Zebra Danios
max size 2.5''
schooling fish
semi-agressive
good tank mates: gourami, blah blah blah

(I was improvising here, since I really don't know anything about danios, but you get my drift.) It would help prospective owners know the needs of the fish before they brought them home and would save loads of frustration. It would be a bit of work, but gosh it would be soooooooo nice.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I'd figure out what lfs are around the area I'm looking into and find out what they sell or can special order, so that you can possibly offer people stuff they can't get from the othe lfs. I'd ask people what they love/hate about their lfs experiences, even if they are beginners and find out what kind of fish most people buy in each section, i.e. community, species only, marine, reef, oddballs, brackish, and especially invertibrates (sp?lol) in fresh brackish and marine. I'd have at least three show tanks depending on the space, nothing too large, but with one oddball, species, and marine, since most people have seen community tanks before. I'd have a huge bookshelf with subjects together in groups, and magazines. Instead of gravel bags and tanks sitting on a shelf and taking up showroom I'd put out a picture chart of all the gravel and tanks, full color and life sized (the gravel, not the tanks), and keep the actual gravel in a back storeroom with the tanks. Keep the food in the proper places and types, moving from cold, tropical and marine.

As to the tank themselves, I always liked the seperate tanks on shelves in an isle format, that way you could walk up one side and down the other without having any interuptions in your viewing. I'd keep the tanks about a foot and a half off the ground, and keep the top tanks with their bottoms at five feet because of shorter people not being able to see into the tanks, and because its hard to hold a kid up high for any extended amount of time and keep all the tanks together in sections (cold, fresh ect.) and make sure they are labeled as such. As to stocking, an even mix of cold, fresh and marine, ranging from beginner to a few expert, and I'd do what my lfs does and measure out the adult length of each fish with colored tape and stick it to the tank, so people can get a visual on just how big each fish will get. Also I'd carry live and frozen food too, because not everyone carries them, and keep a list beside them describing the types of fish that would eat what food. Feeder tanks are good, I wouldn't carry too many feeder goldfish though since if they don't sell fast enough so I wouldn't get stuck with a lot of common goldfish. I'd do free water tests and advertise that I do, hand out info sheets with each purchase of whatever fish and give a cycle sheet out with every tank, listing both fishless and fish cycling, and sheets on lighting and plant types for each kind of lighting. I'd take most fish for credit. Also, I would advertise in my store that I will special order, so people know that it's a possibility.

Oh, almost forgot, I'd stock bettas, but not too many and not all veiltails. If I were to hire anyone I would get people who already keep fish and try to get at least on person each of cold, fresh marine so I'd have an even balance on knowledge (that sounds funny). I have more, but I have to get off the computer....

 

[freddyk]

Hey Enchanted

I've thought about this and spoken to a number of people. These are the concernes I dug up.

First is the chain stores. Are they near you? Have you taken stock of their selection, and prices? When it comes to livestock, an independent business will have a very hard time matching the prices, since chains will buy in much higher quantity. Remember, almost all people buy for price before anything these days, and everything else, including customer service, comes after.

IN STORE LIVESTOCK
Most people are perfectly happy buying a Common Fish for $2 without questioning further. Unfortunately because you can't buy in such high quantity, you will have to sell it for $3. A fish like this is the 'bread and butter' of the fish industry, but now you won't sell as many because of the price. It's not just the price of the fish you need to worry about, but the overhead. The chain can carry 30 of the Common Fish in the tank, and sell them rapidly. For you it doesn't make sense to carry more then 10, and as it is they will last twice as long. This means they can keep more fish per sq. foot then you, and turning them around faster means less overhead, less fish loss. All of this adds up to more profit in a fairly low profit business. Tough competietion there.

So you may decide to focus on an Exotic Fish instead. Your's go for $14. That costs you $7, so you make $7 per fish. Unfortunately, you are only selling 4 Exotic Fish, making $28. Any losses of fish will also be greater for you.
Then there is the fact that you need to donate a tank to these 4 fish. A full tank, out of only 30, donated to a fish you will sell 4 off. That adds up to some serious overhead. Heck, you've just paid $24 in a month for that 2 ft sq. of space. Meanwhile the competitor has sold 30 Common Fish in two weeks and made $45, using the same amount of physical store space! (All numbers mean nothing, just random examples) You can see where making money on exotics can be trickier.

In addition, the enthusiasts soon learn other sources of livestock. Auctions, friends, online, etc. This means they won't come back as often, and as much as they love your store, you may find them coming less over time.

IN STORE EQUIPMENT

Again, we run into the quantity problem. With you selling 4 Eheim Pro's every month, can you really compete in price with the chain, who sells 25? Equipment and supplies are where the real profit is in a fish store, yet why would people buy from you when they can get it from Big Bills superstore down the street for less? Quality isn't an issue, it's the same product. Then there is the online competition. This is becoming a more and more popular choice. Many online places will sell products even cheaper then you can get them wholesale! Can you really compete with places selling as cheap as, say, bigalsonline? On top of the chain store, and the superstore. You may find your products collecting dust.

ONLINE

So you brought up online selling. The question again, can you compete with established companies purchasing in such bulk? Big Als purchases supplies for many, many stores in both Canada and the U.S, and their online stores reach even further. Matching their prices will be a very tough thing to do. They often ofter free shipping even. Can you?

For livestock, it is very tough to make money online. Many breeders will sell directly, making for tough competition, and a very, very low percentage of fish keepers order livestock online. Rare and exotic species will not sell enough to make a living, and it's easier to go down the street to pick up the common species.

Anyway, not to sound negetive, and certainly not to say it isn't possible, but to be realistic it is very important to consider all of this, because making money in this business is not easy. In order to stay successful, IMO, you will want to come up with something different about your store. Something refreshing. Something nobody around you has done yet. A reason for people to say WOW! Unfortunately, customer service counts for little these days, so it'll need to be more then that.

And lastly, remember, trying to do everything is impossible. Want wide isles and big show tanks? OK, but that's some valuable real estate that could be used for profit. You want to give the betta's more space? Nice intentions, but now you can only keep 6 in the space the competitor can keep 12. You want to offer 6 different kinds of pleco, for variety? OK, but that valuable space could have kept fancy guppies, which sell 30 for every 1 of your fancy plecos. You want a whole aisle for plants? OK, but is it really feasable in the space you can afford? You want highly trained employees? OK, but expect to pay them more then the minimum wage your competitors are paying them. It doesn't matter because you'll train them yourself? OK, but I hope you can find the time, because maintaining a fish store is A LOT of work, and turnaround for these low-income jobs tends to be high.

Anyway, all I'm saying is every idea needs to be looked at from every angle, because with every pro comes a con, and they need to be weighed very carefully. You are entering a very tough business. Hopefully my cynical point of view will not be taken amiss.

Good Luck!

 

[Matty]

I like sirminion's idea

 

[SirMinion]

I like sirminion's idea

So do I!

My ideas are based around creating income from as many sources as possible, The aquariums, the stock, the concessions, the cafe, the conference centre etc and not just relying on the sale of guppies & 10 gallon tanks.

 

[enchanted]

Some people have really got the idea and posted some really cool info. Take Sir Minion for example and jordan barnhart and some others.

Others are focusing on me. So I want to say a few things. On a business sense I have already done the research of viability, funds involved to start, profit margins, distributors, direct purchases, etc...

I know what things sell for in Boise, Portland, Spokane, Lewiston, and Seattle, all the major places in the northwest. I know where to buy what and for what price and how I can price to compete or beat the chain stores along with competing the other LFS who already beat the chain stores pricing on most fish.

Now, that being said, I want to hear more like what some people have said who have truly grasp what I asked.

What I asked is what would you do? Forget money, accounting, and the backside of the business. On the front side what would you do? What would you do to attract customers, what would you do for tanks, etc...

The display ideas, the tags, these are the kind of things that are interesting.

Sir Minion, I hope you get to open your store someday, seriously. It would probably draw people from all over.

 

[Matty]

ok, I'll try again

I think that if you have big tanks of everything, you will really attract people. In my LFS, people are always crowded around the shark tank and the 100gs at the back because they want to see the big fish, but if you were to have several 100g filled with neon tetras, and other small community fish, people would be amazed. It also look more natural.

 

[parker313]

Show tanks displaying some of the more unique (read: expensive) tanks that you'd carry. My lfs has bowfronts and those wavefront tanks as their display tanks. That way, customers can see how nice these unique tanks look and they cost far more $$ than their traditional rectangular counterparts They also make a nice showcase for some of the more unique fish species.

I definitely like the idea of an in-store fish compatibility guide - maybe in grid format? Something tangible that people can hold in their hands and walk around with. Not to take the place of employees, but maybe to get people thinking about fish they hadn't considered before.

I don't know, I'm not very creative These are just the first things that popped in my head.

 

[Matty]

well i liked it

 

[jordan barnhart]

I say we all join together and start an LFS lol. Do you know awesome we could make that sucker.

So many good Ideas and freddy makes some really nice points.

I would call it the TFF Den, the friendliest LFS around.

 

[Vip]

I would have something at the front window witch has that WOW factor to get people in, do a walk around the city and leave letters in peoples mailbox's. I think the pond idea is great as there are more pond owners than tank owners.
I would get a huge range of goldfish seeing as they seem to sell the most and i would also get a huge range of small fish.
If it was upto me i would have a room full of large agressive cichlids, but lets face it those fish just dont sell besides oscars.
Have you thought of anynames for it?

 

[BigLou]

In response to VIP's post. I don't know about the laws in Australia, but in the US you can't go around putting stuff in people's mailboxes, it's a federal crime. Just figured I'd fill you in. Don't want any of our friends getting in trouble...especially as a business. As an alternative you can put them in people's windshield wipers, or on their front doors.

 

[SirMinion]

In response to VIP's post. I don't know about the laws in Australia, but in the US you can't go around putting stuff in people's mailboxes, it's a federal crime.

Really? blimey!
Here in the UK people are forever stuffing leaflets through the mailslot. Advertisments for takeaway food, window cleaning, double glazing, lost cats, handymen.. the list goes on & on.

 

[fishdudein]

Wow, enchanted, this post has really got my wheels turning. I have thought many, many times about starting my own LFS. However, unlike you, money has always been a stumbling block for me, so I have become content to just raise fish in my fishroom and sell to the LFS.

It appears you have done considerable research, so I hate to ask this, but are you familiar with Bob Fenner's site? He has a whole section devoted to aquatics businesses and the aquarium industry. Don't know how good I am at posting links, but we'll give it a try:
http/www.wetwebmedia.com/AqBizSubWebInde...Biz%20index.htm
Hope that worked. He has lots of good stuff there.

OK, what would I do? I liked an awful lot of what Sir Minion had to say, esp. the part about the public aquarium. Seeing the fish displayed in a more natural environment and then being able to purchase those same fish might help to prod people into actually thinking about the needs of their fish rather than "is Nemo going to be lonely without Dory?" So excellent idea.

I would also get in contact with local schools, youth groups, Cub Scouts, etc. and actively promote store tours for children. This hobby needs more young kids involved, need to get them off of the TV, video games, and the couch. Maybe give out certificates to these kids for discounts on aquarium supplies to get started if they are so inclined. One of my most fond memories as a kid in this hobby back in the land before time was when I picked out a hifin sword out of a tankful of regular red velvet swords. The owner of the shop took a loss on it, but explained to me what it was, that it should be more expensive but that he was going to let me have it for less because I had "such a good eye for fish". Little things like that make a kid feel good; they need encouraged, not discouraged.

If there is a fish club in the area, my store would need to be an active part of it. If there isn't, I would be instrumental in getting one up and running. I have mentioned this to my lfs on occasion, and they are kind of dragging their heels. It seems like there would be nothing better for business than to be a core part of a group of people that are addicted to fish to the extent that they will join a club. You mention your computer skills...many fish clubs are on-line now, so the members are even more in contact with each other.

My shop would run the whole nine yards as far as the fish keeping experience would go. Freshwater, brackish, marine, ponds, coldwater, tropical. Most of these areas I have some experience in, but a good staff is indispensable. The lfs that I go to has a lot of university kids working there that really love the hobby. They don't all have the same strengths but they know each other and refer you to someone at the store who knows what they are talking about if they can't personally answer your question. It's usually a good experience there, which judging from some of the posts on this board, is unusual.

I worked for a small shop at one time. They specialized in saltwater only. Had some really gorgeous display tanks. A large 1800 gal. shark tank. Most orders were cherry-picked for them and incoming stock was quarantined and eating well before it was allowed to be sold. Some of the best advice around...actually had customers coming in from surrounding states to shop there. Sounds like a wonderful scenario, yes? But there would be people coming in daily looking for freshwater fish that we didn't carry, we would have to send them to the competition. While they were there getting their freshwater supplies, they would get their marine supplies too. The world is becoming infatuated with this "one-stop shopping" thing. Also need to make sure that new stock is coming in on a regular basis. The owners of that store would make one large order every month or so. Customers would come in to see what was new, if they kept seeing the same fish over and over again, they eventually go to the competition. I think it would be better to get a small order once a week or so, you would be in a constant state of quarantine and acclimation, but your customers would stay interested in your stock.

As usual, I have written a mini-novel..... Hope some of this helps