What Do You Think To These Prices..?

[creeker]

Kelly-Jo, If at all possible get a job at a fish shop now. You will learn about suppliers, importing fish, trans-shipping, etc. You will be able to establish contacts and relationships with wholesalers of fish and dry goods. You can learn from the shop owner, good or bad. Use their years of experience to your advantage. Once you have your own store, other shop owners won't be so willing to help you. I used to manage shops and then went on to get a sales rep job with one of my fish suppliers. I was stepping foot in about 50 shops a week. I got to see what worked and what didn't, first hand. Those with the most experience starting out usually did the best.

 

[micko]

Interesting topic.
Have seen a point in everyones comments.

If I right, wholesalers will not deliver livestock or dry goods to an unregistered shop. At least that's the way here in Northern Ireland anyway.

Its something me and my partner have discussed and whilst she's all for it, surprisingly as she's not really into fish, I can see the downside which I won't go into as I don't wish to turn this into a negative.

As for breeding then selling, this I would find incredibly hard to do as culling would have to be involved I think. People will not wish to buy fish they don't like, or that aren't looking great.

I have 18 3ft tanks sitting out in my shed doing nothing and plan to open up a fish house. Just for me. If I plan on breeding then that's fine, if I don't, I can seperate them.
Selling online is grand but once people see the postage costs involved its a bit of a put off. I mean who wants to buy 7 common guppies at £2 each and then pay next day postage on that?
Having rarer fish, wilds, pure breds etc will make you money and whilst its a smaller market, the people who want wilds or pure breds won't mind paying the extra.

It sounds like you have your head screwed on and you know this isn't happening today or tomorrow so you've given yourself time to think about, prepare and organise everything.

Well done on getting in there with your family and their units/warehouses, that must make it all a bit easier.

I do wish you all the best and hope it works out.

 

[micko]

I forgot to add in about the prices.

Guppies- £2.50 - expensive, usually around £2 in my local fish shop
Zebra Danios- £2.00 - cheap, £3-£3.50 near me
Harlequins- £1.50 - cheap, £2-£2.50 near me
Scissortails- £2.00 - £3-£4 near me
Tiger barbs- £2.50 - £3 near me
Cherry barbs- £2.00 - £4 near me
3 spot gourami- £2.95
Gold Gourami- £2.95
Moonlight gourami- £2.95
Sparkling gourami- £2.95
Dwarf gourami- £2.95
All gouramis near me are £3.50-£6 depending on breed
Small black angels- £3.50
Small marbled angels- £3.50
Small gold angels- £3.50
All angels are from £4-£6 depending on breed/colour obviously bigger ones are more expensive.
Bolivan Rams- £4.95 -£6 near me
Kribs- £3.95 - £7 near me


All prices are taken from the 3 LFS's I go to in the whole of Northern Ireland. Most I wouldn't touch and its the same with a lot of others I know so if your shop is good then people will travel.
By the way, the fish are more expensive over here for some reason, any different cichlids or oddballs are rare here and you really have a hard job to get the ones you want so this reflects on prices too.

 

[Gelt]

Alot of decisions will await you, especially in the current economic climate.
online would be the quickest way to establish yourself and build up a client base. From there it progresses to reputation , reliability and competitive pricing . If you are just selling fish and want to make any profit margin at all that's alot of fish turnover and restocking from suppliers. Hence why any LFS will sell the bolt ons , the tanks , filters and all the kit from food to air stones .
A sound business plan will be needed and be prepared for some heavy and sometimes upsetting knock backs. As an independent it will be difficult , us aquarists are fickle, price service quality and where we feel comfortable only warrants revisits over the years.
Worst case you may have to trade on a deficit for a while , along with more outgoings than actual sales.
There is room for independent LFS , starting as a small concession within an established garden centre or independent ironmongery may be idea. Don't be scarred to approach major brands and offer exclusivity in your company for product lines.
I know of at least for or five garden centres independent sometimes family run within about 15 mile radius that don't have a LFS franchise in them let alone sell pond stuff.

My best advice would be a 5 year plan starting with online , eBay shop or similar , get to know the business, experience the highs and lows , then go for retail space if you come through it intact!

I admire your enthusiasm and passion, good luck and stay focused and objective.
Keep us informed.

 

[TropicalJuwel]

It can be done, just ordipends on luck and the spot you choose for your shop. My lfs only opened last year, he's a great guy with good experience, very helpful and isn't affraid to tell people no you can't have............ Or there no good for your setup and he just won s/e shop of the year in pfk. Thats all in 1 year start up to being busy and winning awards. This is a very popular trade and is not aimed at just 1 type of person, young old, male female all types, but as said before you will have to be careful. I wish you luck if you do manage to get to do this and that if any people on this forum live near by come and visit you, but remember when ever starting a new business the hardest part is getting started, once you do and things are going well it makes life easier. Good luck!

 

[Crazybob]

I'm sorry if I am repeating something already said as I've only just skimmed most of the posts, but I always thought it would be really awesome if a fish store that had a web presence also had some sort of live feed of a particular tank or something. If you decide to specialize in a certain area maybe have a few webcams of your most unique fish for sale.

On a side note, the fish place I used to work at had every tank on its own system and was run via under gravel filtration so we only needed a large air supply.

You can also keep your store at a warm temp to eliminate the need to heat your tanks individually (aside from very warm water requirements). That's more of a cost savings thing tho.

 

[TropicalJuwel]

Few things I did think that might help you, as said above I would run tanks seperatly or in different sections of the shop, it will work out costing more but think of the hassle when you have new fish arriving, you would only need a few fish to be ill and it could spread to every or more tanks. Location, is it easy to park outside, bays or free parking, people cant be bothered to pay or park where they have to walk to far so easy access will help trade. Think of the shops that are near you,it helps if you have something like a news agents post office where theres constant and new customers nearby to attract especially at the beginning. On a bus route? I think alot of people find theres a new shop when they pass it not so much specifically looking for it on the net or what ever. Your best form of advertisement is your shop, 1st impressions is everything and how you attract people in, once there in its down to you to keep them there so your knowledge and friendlieness is going to be everything, but remeber you cant please everyone, I think is was a very good idea to get some experience by working in a lfs for a while, you will gain so much info from who you work with hopefully loads of right and wrong things to do then this will help you once you have your own shop. I dont want to sound horrible but because your young certain people wont like being told to do by a younger person, I am a driving instructor and have been for 2 year so since I was 24 and am very good at what I do but sometimes when I get someone who is older than there like you cant be a driving instructor or as good as someone thats been doing it for years and dont like being told how to drive by someone younger so is important your knowledge is good to shut them up, lol. I know you have to get some sort of licence to sell or keep aminals as a pet shop as my lfs was telling me recently and had to go to some vet who had to approve him otherwise they wont give you the licence. Because he didnt have any degrees in fish keeping it seemed they were reluctant to give him licence but he got it through how many years experience he had and giving right answers to questions, something for you to look into. Sorry for long message, hope you find some of this interesting if I have not already repeated what someone else has already said.

 

[Tizer]

My eyes hurt.

 

[TropicalJuwel]

Sorry Tizer, I really need to learn how to shorten things.

 

[Tizer]

The "return" key is your friend

 

[the_lock_man]

Another two penn'orth from me.

If you are going to go online only to start off with, then you would need to concentrate on rarer species, otherwise the carriage charges will price you out of the market.

Even then, I prefer to buy face-to-face, rather than online. When I bought my last Fighter, I did so from a local breeder at a price higher than if I'd bought online from KG Bettas. I'd rather the fish have less stress than a night in a courier's warehouse, and am prepared to pay extra for that.

When I have bought online, it's been for rare livebearers that I haven't been able to source locally.

If you take Kesgrave, or I think the other big Ebay merchant is Ste12000 (or something similar), they have the reputation for top-notch quality fish, that you couldn't get close to locally.

I'd never buy a plain old platy or a cardinal online - too cheap locally.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

I believe Kesgrave aquatics is actually based in my area, I might go have a look around his fish room at some point as I believe it's open for business.

 

[mark2109111]

If i felt that your employees were knowledgeable and held a nice conversation about fish i would have no problem paying those prices. (US)