Tired
2500 Club Member
Maybe you could start with some home stuff. Try to grow out some frags to sell, maybe breed something. Try and get an idea of local demand. Consider working at a LFS that you don't own.
Owning a LFS
- Thread starter Noah Hemingway
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boostat4500
New Member
I started one in a spare bedroom of my house a number of years ago. Got the wholesale accounts and everything. It was fun for a while, but eventually got old having people come over every night after work. I would start that way if you can. Good way to judge demand And build a customer base without shelling out much money.
stanlalee
Active Member
My first actual experience with a LFS was as a child/teen in the 80s. The owners wife was friends with my mom and I went to school with his daughters. I saw that store go into business from r ground up. I hung out there every single day after school and all summer. Unfortunately there is no useful business data as he was a drug dealer and the store was a front to launder the money (I swear I'm not making this up. Drug dealers love aquariums). He's long passed (from old age not consequences of the drug trade) so I feel okay sharing.
I did some close observation on two local reef shops that went from basically home based operations to real stores and in both cases the owners basically LIVED in the store (not metaphorically, a back room where they could sleep) with mostly family members operating the store. All their progress was publicly documented on social media and reef club websites before they even opened publicly. There is ALWAYS somebody in there doing some sort of maintenance on the aquariums and equipment. Neither did anything else but reef/marine (do you really want to learn/deal with the freshwater market with a zillion categories, people trying to return feeder fish, reptiles, cat/dog supplies etc or hire/partner with somebody who does. We have a lot of LFS and NONE are good at saltwater but only a few reef stores which are superb). They were both aquaculturers as much as they were retailers (but vput the grow out somewhere besides the showroom. One of these guys in question really got on my nerves when I'd pick out a coral I wanted to buy only to hear "it's not for sale, I'm growing it out a little more first". EVERYTHING in the showroom should be for sale!
I did some close observation on two local reef shops that went from basically home based operations to real stores and in both cases the owners basically LIVED in the store (not metaphorically, a back room where they could sleep) with mostly family members operating the store. All their progress was publicly documented on social media and reef club websites before they even opened publicly. There is ALWAYS somebody in there doing some sort of maintenance on the aquariums and equipment. Neither did anything else but reef/marine (do you really want to learn/deal with the freshwater market with a zillion categories, people trying to return feeder fish, reptiles, cat/dog supplies etc or hire/partner with somebody who does. We have a lot of LFS and NONE are good at saltwater but only a few reef stores which are superb). They were both aquaculturers as much as they were retailers (but vput the grow out somewhere besides the showroom. One of these guys in question really got on my nerves when I'd pick out a coral I wanted to buy only to hear "it's not for sale, I'm growing it out a little more first". EVERYTHING in the showroom should be for sale!
DaddyFish
“5 percenter”
It's been my experience in life that probably the best way to ruin your love of a hobby is to attempt to make it profitable. It can be done, but doing something as your livelyhood is WAY different than doing it as a hobby. My advice, be careful about what you undertake.
Dkmoo
Valuable Member
My line of work deal a lot of businesses. The best advise I can give you is a series of "80/20" rules as a small business owner
80% of your time will be spent unrelated to this hobby, they include legal, financial, marketing, customer and general administration. 20% will be the actual reef keeping. Your love for the hobby need to sustain you thru the 80% of dull/frustrating "business work", especially if you do not have a background in accounting, finance, or general business administration
20 % of your customers will make up 80% of your revenue. This will make you want to spend most of your effort on those 20% bc your time and resource is limited. Do this long enough and your mantra of "i will help every new hobbyist that walks into my door bc I love this hobby and want everyone to succeed" will be tested. Would you be willing to spend 1 hour educating a newbie who's only gonna buy 2 nemos for a 10 dollar profit? Or be honest and tell him to not buy it bc his tank is not cycled yet? Or do you just spend a few minutes, get his fish, and be done with it, and spend the 1 hour doing the weekly maintenance service for a local business or wealthy client for 100 dollars of profit? I'm sure we all agree there is 1 correct answer here but when you are faced with the pressure of making next month's water and electricity bill, that answer becomes mirkier.
80% of your volume/foot traffic will make up 20% if your profit. - retail is a low margin business, especially for inventory with a fixed shelf live/ongoing cost. Most of your money will come from low volume/high margin activities like catering to local businesses for complete system setups, scheduled maintenance etc, or those 20% of your foot traffic thats made of of serious/return/wealthy customers whos dropping the big bux on that rare 500$ colony of aussie gold tip torches.
80% of the LFS model is changing. Traditional retail is no longer sustainable in today's market, often times the store is just the "front" that make up 20% of your business - the other being your website, youtube channel, social media, store brand merchandise, consulting, etc.. in that regard, the LFS serves more as the marketing function instead of a revenue generator.
Not trying to be negative, just trying to give you a picture of challenges many entrepreneurs faced. The truly passionate ones power thru these and ultimately become successful business owners. The ones who do not often give up due to one of these challenges and return to being a casual hobbyist.
80% of your time will be spent unrelated to this hobby, they include legal, financial, marketing, customer and general administration. 20% will be the actual reef keeping. Your love for the hobby need to sustain you thru the 80% of dull/frustrating "business work", especially if you do not have a background in accounting, finance, or general business administration
20 % of your customers will make up 80% of your revenue. This will make you want to spend most of your effort on those 20% bc your time and resource is limited. Do this long enough and your mantra of "i will help every new hobbyist that walks into my door bc I love this hobby and want everyone to succeed" will be tested. Would you be willing to spend 1 hour educating a newbie who's only gonna buy 2 nemos for a 10 dollar profit? Or be honest and tell him to not buy it bc his tank is not cycled yet? Or do you just spend a few minutes, get his fish, and be done with it, and spend the 1 hour doing the weekly maintenance service for a local business or wealthy client for 100 dollars of profit? I'm sure we all agree there is 1 correct answer here but when you are faced with the pressure of making next month's water and electricity bill, that answer becomes mirkier.
80% of your volume/foot traffic will make up 20% if your profit. - retail is a low margin business, especially for inventory with a fixed shelf live/ongoing cost. Most of your money will come from low volume/high margin activities like catering to local businesses for complete system setups, scheduled maintenance etc, or those 20% of your foot traffic thats made of of serious/return/wealthy customers whos dropping the big bux on that rare 500$ colony of aussie gold tip torches.
80% of the LFS model is changing. Traditional retail is no longer sustainable in today's market, often times the store is just the "front" that make up 20% of your business - the other being your website, youtube channel, social media, store brand merchandise, consulting, etc.. in that regard, the LFS serves more as the marketing function instead of a revenue generator.
Not trying to be negative, just trying to give you a picture of challenges many entrepreneurs faced. The truly passionate ones power thru these and ultimately become successful business owners. The ones who do not often give up due to one of these challenges and return to being a casual hobbyist.
X-37B
Fight The Good Fight
Here is my 2 cents.
Its like real estate.
You need at least a years income in the bank to get properly started.
More would be better and disposable so it does not affect your life.
That includes your personel debt and 1 year minimum startup bills/debt.
Its not as simple as it sounds.
It would easily be $100,000+ to do it right from the start.
Localy 1 fish store sold for $120,000.
3 years later gone.
Another opened up and was "thee" spot for 3 years. Store was purchased else where and moved.
A couple other small ones with low overhead do ok but most sales are freshwater.
If you do not have disposable income or buy an established store it will not be an easy road to travel.
Maybe that was 3 cents worth.
With all regards I wish you the best.
Its like real estate.
You need at least a years income in the bank to get properly started.
More would be better and disposable so it does not affect your life.
That includes your personel debt and 1 year minimum startup bills/debt.
Its not as simple as it sounds.
It would easily be $100,000+ to do it right from the start.
Localy 1 fish store sold for $120,000.
3 years later gone.
Another opened up and was "thee" spot for 3 years. Store was purchased else where and moved.
A couple other small ones with low overhead do ok but most sales are freshwater.
If you do not have disposable income or buy an established store it will not be an easy road to travel.
Maybe that was 3 cents worth.
With all regards I wish you the best.
The best LFS I've ever been to started out in a small garden shed, moved to his garage and then built a huge shed in his back garden. It's extremely successful and as his business grew so did the footprint of his store which is a few steps away from his house.
X-37B
Fight The Good Fight
Now that makes sense!
Start small and slowly expand. Gotta like that one.
vetteguy53081
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Another thing I forgot to mention:
Competition and online retailers will have an impact on your business and Memorial Day through Labor Day will be quite slow as many people will go on vacation, fairs and festivals and won’t be home, hence the Last thing they’re buying is livestock.
I used it as an opportunity to get my tanks stocked for the fall as fish availability is high during summer
Competition and online retailers will have an impact on your business and Memorial Day through Labor Day will be quite slow as many people will go on vacation, fairs and festivals and won’t be home, hence the Last thing they’re buying is livestock.
I used it as an opportunity to get my tanks stocked for the fall as fish availability is high during summer
MONTANTK
Valuable Member
I worked at a well known store for a number of years and got to know many people in many different areas of the industry. I can tell you up front the money is in the coral. When it comes to fish, by the time you factor in the cost of the system, dead fish, food, etc. you’re lucky to break even, especially at today’s prices. It’s also very important to be in tune with the local prices of coral in your area. My area has a very strong reefing community so frags travel around fast. If you want to get started, you should definitely set up some frag systems in your house (if possible) and start buying up various corals and try to sell online and work from there
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Noah Hemingway
Active Member
I worked at my LFS for a few years and I already own a dog grooming business so I feel quite prepared
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Noah Hemingway
Active Member
Aquarium store. Salt, Freshwater & Cold! Obviously as well as selling equipment
I would also set up a big online store! And maybe branch into selling things for birds too as that’s lacking in my area and I love them to bits!I'm not sure what energy costs are in the US, but in the UK the thought of the electricity bill for a LFS makes me shiver.... It must be a mega expense all on its own. At least £1000 a month?
The other thing is customers who want a deal on everything. I've seen countless occasions where customers are telling a shop owner they are expensive, not taking into account the overheads, wages etc. I couldn't deal with it long term.
The other thing is customers who want a deal on everything. I've seen countless occasions where customers are telling a shop owner they are expensive, not taking into account the overheads, wages etc. I couldn't deal with it long term.
lelandmarine
Well-Known Member
I agree with fish sticks above, start at home if possible, much lower cost, lower risk
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Noah Hemingway
Active Member
I appreciate the advice. I only said no negativity because some people can be plain cruel rather than constructive. I live in an area with very high demand so I do think I could do it.
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Noah Hemingway
Active Member
Good advice
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Noah Hemingway
Active Member
I have 10 years experience with freshwater and cold water as well as Marine so I feel comfortable with it.
TheTangFuzz
Active Member
Sandy's?
