Running A Fish Shop

[Davo86]

Hi MW
Its best to mention any jobs you've previously had where you had to 'manage people', obviously you will be needed to give orders to employees but also communicate with suppliers and ultimately keep customers sweet at certain times when they have been sold wrong fish or return a faulty pump or filter for example.

Another thing that has been mentioned is the paperwork side, being familiar with orders is the obvious one but also wastage is very important,

Also certain things like Health and Safety which is something you may not think of but will essentially be your responsibility

Lastly something that employers like is for their staff to be hands on, some people just don't realise the amount of cleaning and maintenaince work that is required.

Also i'm not sure if your LFS has a pond section but it may be worth researching into pump/filters/brands/products into a lot of detail, When i started at my LFS i knew little about the pond side of things and was very quickly caught out,

If your called into an interview I would think of all the questions you don't know the answers to, again things regarding products/fish they sell etc. and research those answers before you go in, without previous LFS experienceyou are bound to be tested on certain areas before being offered a job

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thankyou davo that's very helpful. I'm heavily involed with H&S in my job now so that's one more string to my bow.

I don't yet know which LFS it's with to know what they stock (it's through an agency and they never give company names out until you're going through for interview) but when/if I find out I'll be certain to pop down there as a 'mystery shopper' and check out where they do most of their trade and buff up on it!

and no problem with getting my hands dirty, I'm happiest up to my armpits in fishtank

 

[Attilauk]

im afraid i have no advice to give but i would like to say good luck to both of you

im a site engineer so i can sympathise with your position, i know quite a few people who have been caught out by the slow down in the construction industry. the only things that seem to be still going are govenment funded jobs like the school im working on and even on my site it seems everyone is tightening their belts.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thankyou, yeah i'm a sort of management consultant in an engineering consultancy and Ian's a builder....... so both of us have been caught out by the building trade slowing down.

 

[nudzy]

Just wanted to say good luck with the job.

My oh works in the aircraft industry, and after 9/11 it all went belly up and he was made redundant took 9 months to sort it out. Hope its quicker for you, and you get the job. From what ive read on here it would be perfect for you.

So im sure if you just be yourself, with your knowledge of fishkeeping and your people skills ill keep my fingers crossed, that you (or your oh) get it.

all the best and heres hoping.

 

[shelaghfishface]

fingers crossed for both of you,im confident one of you will get it
good luck
shelagh xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[vinylman]

Sorry to hear you're out of work, MW, I had no idea (just been off work for a fortnight). Best of luck, anyway. I sincerely hope it's not in Armley..................

 

[england]

why don't you tell them how passionate you and ian our about fish, say to them if they have internet access to log on to this site and show them some of the threads you've done in your time on here
Remember be confident/outgoing/smart/friendly and as said before truthful,

 

[aaronnorth]

I know you have produced a couple of excellent topics on here, some that have been pinned, how about printing them off?

 

[sb_onefish]

Miss W, I'm so sorry for your misfortune. Best of luck getting this position, I think they would be lucky to have you!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sorry to hear you're out of work, MW, I had no idea (just been off work for a fortnight). Best of luck, anyway. I sincerely hope it's not in Armley..................

i wouldn't take it!!!

it's advertised as bradford, but don't know which shop...... fingers crossed for QSS although highly unlikely

thankyou for the kind messages everyone.

 

[rabbut]

thanks everyone

god it's hard writing a CV about fishkeeping, I mean what can you say?! 'I know lots about fish, I've kept x,y and z and I go on a forum and help people out with their fishtanks' doesn't sound half as impressive as the rest of my professional cv!!

Interestingly, I've never met anyone in a high position in a LFS that likes Forums. If you ask them, they tend to tell you that the scum of the earth reside on them, due to the ammounts of forums that caurse rebelius customers comming back at them about poor advise. I'd acctually surgest not mentioning this place directly, rather beeing "ecconomical about the truth". Phrase it that you have helped may beginners start-up tanks, advise on stocking, hardwear e.t.c, but don't mention that it was through a forum, or you may loose it.

H+S
Stocking
Hardwear
Fault identification
Troubleshoots
Stock ordering
Employee break rostering
staff shift planning
research into new products
costing
fault fixing
employee training

Are all regular tasks in a supervisory role in a LFS. Managers will probibly do each of those tasks at a higher level than anyone whom supervises the fish room. As a supervisor/manager, you realy need to watch your staff. Consultancy management in construction has to be different to a shop floor manager, so you need to find the points that cross-over and focus on them. On the shop floor you will have to be able to get nasty at times and feel happy contradicting an over-ruling staff directly. The staff member you don't watch will be the one that caurses the issues. Inbetween serving and doing the paperwrok and dealing with complaints, you somehow have to keep track of exactly what each staff member is selling to what tank and which customer. If you get complacent, something will slip the net and it reflects badly on the shop and you.

There is a big leap from hobbyist to LFS worker and an equally big leap into any supervisory role in an LFS. I'm not officialy the supervisor at work, so I cannot get into too serious trouble if something goes wrong, but I do still have to watch some staff when they are finding their feet and/or less experienced than other team members When you manage a fish room, everyone will expect you to have an answer imediately to everything. Nothing with frustrate your team more than having to wait on orders/guidance while you "think about it" When you are unshure, you will have to pull the team together, and control them while they put their ideas about a fix foreward and then take the desicion over whos idea to follow. It goes without saying that the 4-5 strog saturday staff team all yelling at once makes a racket and nobody gets heard

If you still plan on trying for work at my place, bring your CV along, and I'll look it over and give more specific pointers if needed before tempting the boss with it Likewise if you want an LFS workers eye over it for the other job

On a side note, if it is Armley based Dieing World that needs a manager, take it. Management is the issue in that place, you could turn it arround

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup well i think we all know that there's a definate love/hate relationship between hobbyists, fish shops and forums a lot of the time.

Thanks Rabbut, appreciate the info

I think the living deaths problem is that it's run entirley by scrotes....... but that's another story!

yeah it'd certainly be a change and going from a hobbyist to running a fish shop is definately a career change, but pay wise it'd be a demotion for me which i think works in my favour against other applicants. That way it doesn't look like it's such a big 'step up'.

Staff management is essentially the same wherever you are, obviously there are differences but it's mostly people skills and background knowledge.

ah well see anyway, on a positive note i got an interview for another job today, doubt i'll get it but if i do it's actually double my current salary which would be nice

 

[vinylman]

Speaking of the shop in Armley, I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but two or three years ago, there was an excellent shop on Gelderd Road in Leeds called 'Animal House'. It sold nothing but aquatics. The first time I went, I was knocked out by the sheer range, number and general health of the fish and plants they had. Same the second time I went, too; the display tanks were fabulous. The next time I went, around a year later, there were dead fish in almost every tank, the tanks themselves looked as though they hadn't seen a water change in months and were overrun with algae. I left after a couple of minutes. A few months ago, I typed 'Animal House' into Google and guess what address it came up with?. Armley Road.

 

[ALW]

Speaking of the shop in Armley, I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but two or three years ago, there was an excellent shop on Gelderd Road in Leeds called 'Animal House'. It sold nothing but aquatics. The first time I went, I was knocked out by the sheer range, number and general health of the fish and plants they had. Same the second time I went, too; the display tanks were fabulous. The next time I went, around a year later, there were dead fish in almost every tank, the tanks themselves looked as though they hadn't seen a water change in months and were overrun with algae. I left after a couple of minutes. A few months ago, I typed 'Animal House' into Google and guess what address it came up with?. Armley Road.

Tis the same place