My Lfs

[Bazza57]

I've always fancied working in aquatics, & recently having being made redundant from my old job, then paying off the mortgage, I have a little amount of savings put aside.

My LFS has been running for many years & in my opinion - is a good little shop, good stock friendly staff, but has lost a lot of trade due to odd opening hours, it hasn't got a website either - so is missing out on sales & advertising opportunities. I have known the owner for around 20 years. I have been keeping fish for over 25 years - specialising in rift valley cichlids & catfish. I know many experienced & knowledgeable fishkeepers & I am comfortable handling fish & have plenty of contacts (I have no retail experience, so would have to learn that side, but have many years experience in business management)

I have 2 options here:

1/ enquire about part - time work at the shop, highlighting the opportunity to extend his opening hours.

2/ Offer to buy a share in the business, though this would mean I would press for more normal opening times & creating a website with on-line sales potential, which he may not want.

What do you fellow fishkeepers think I should do here? Any suggestions/solutions are welcome

 

[micko]

Either option is ok. Put both to him. I couldn't see why he would choose against option two as more normal hours and a website.r

 

[Wills]

I would go for number 2 hands down Totally agree that some shops fail because of lazy opening hours and lack of promotion of what they actually sell and import.

If he is not opening at regular hours its most likely because he does not want to and if he has been doing it for 20 years may be a little tired of opening early? But if someone with new enthusiasm came in I could see a reason for him to do it.

I would love to open my own shop but just lack of cash and in my current job I have a degree of security. And my career is not one where you can take a break and come back so it would be an end to that for me but.... if I was debt free (ish) and had a bit of cash and been laid off I reckon that doing that would be my best option

Good luck with it!
Wills

 

[Duz]

You can always put both ideas to him. If you phase it in a certain way saying that the website will produce a lot more money for you I'm sure he might consider it. In the end what have you got to lose, if he says no then nothing will change but if he says yes then looks like you just got yourself a small business. Either way it would be nice to see what happens so keep us informed

 

[Bazza57]

Cheers for the feedback folks...

Option 1 seems to be the safest bet, I could always make an offer at a later stage.

But My feelings about not having a website & e-sales is based on the fact that:
"whilst the shop is closed, nothing is on sale" at least with a webpage, stock is constantly on sale, dry goods mainly, but fish stocks are being advertised to a wider clientele.

The risk is that he could feel that I am trying to take over, rather than improving sales potential for the business, this is where I will have to do a lot of work in persuading - at the end of the day, it's his business & he may not want to make any changes

 

[Duz]

But My feelings about not having a website & e-sales is based on the fact that:
"whilst the shop is closed, nothing is on sale" at least with a webpage, stock is constantly on sale, dry goods mainly, but fish stocks are being advertised to a wider clientele.

The risk is that he could feel that I am trying to take over, rather than improving sales potential for the business, this is where I will have to do a lot of work in persuading - at the end of the day, it's his business & he may not want to make any changes

If you believe it could work and have a plan to make the shop extra money then I'm sure he is likely to listen at least. He may say no to having a webpage for a number of reasons:

• Who will set it up.
• How will everything be delivered. (free delivery?)
• Does he currently have enough money to lunch the website.

But there are lots of positives:

• Larger retail base (more customers).
• People might prefer tanks being delivered to them as they can be quite big.
• Can make sales even when the shop is closed.

Just a few ideas to help you think. Hope that helps.