Starting up my fish store dreams... Any thoughts?

[waterlifepets]

I always wanted to open a pet store, but my love is fish so I'm beginning with a fish store. I'm prepping small, but will eventually need larger funds for opening a location in order to get wholesale accounts with suppliers. Any other feedback would be welcome. I'm starting in my garage keeping live bearer fish, and building my stock of plants in prep to sell, or even sell online. What are the first steps you would begin with?
Thx - Dan St. Louis MO

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! Here is one of several threads discussing this topic:

Thinking about opening up fish store on Long Island New York

What do y’all think?im seriously considering it as I have a store front already....do you think it’s a good living ? Anyone who owns a store on here!?

www.reef2reef.com

good luck with your adventure!

 

[Zach B]

Welcome

 

[Schraufabagel]

I think building communication and relationships with local groups and online forums is the best way to start gaining customers So this is the perfect place to start!

 

[dantimdad]

There are many perils and pitfalls. After having opened the shop of my dreams and lost it due to COVID and a couple other factors, I can give some advice.

DO NOT quit your day job.
DO plan on spending every waking moment not at said day job, working the store.

Now, that being said, it can be fun, frustrating, rewarding and nerve racking all at the same time.

I hope you get your dream. Just go slow, spend a lot more money than you initially plan and only have one business partner if you have any at all.

I miss mine but am glad the stress is gone. I am going the direction I should have gone in the first place by building a room on my house and just selling, food, frags, water and freshwater plants. I won't go bigger no matter what. I still want to love my hobby.

 

[Utubereefer]

My first step would be setting up coral flats. Aquaculture is the future of the saltwater industry. Good Luck!

 

[TnFishwater98]

I always wanted to open a pet store, but my love is fish so I'm beginning with a fish store. I'm prepping small, but will eventually need larger funds for opening a location in order to get wholesale accounts with suppliers. Any other feedback would be welcome. I'm starting in my garage keeping live bearer fish, and building my stock of plants in prep to sell, or even sell online. What are the first steps you would begin with?
Thx - Dan St. Louis MO

Welcome to Da Reef!

 

[TnFishwater98]

There are many perils and pitfalls. After having opened the shop of my dreams and lost it due to COVID and a couple other factors, I can give some advice.

DO NOT quit your day job.
DO plan on spending every waking moment not at said day job, working the store.

Now, that being said, it can be fun, frustrating, rewarding and nerve racking all at the same time.

I hope you get your dream. Just go slow, spend a lot more money than you initially plan and only have one business partner if you have any at all.

I miss mine but am glad the stress is gone.

Sorry to hear

 

[Billldg]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[dantimdad]

Sorry to hear

No worries. I am much better off and I fell in love with the hobby again.

 

[dantimdad]

My first step would be setting up coral flats. Aquaculture is the future of the saltwater industry. Good Luck!

This! So much this!

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

Good luck with your fish store!

 

[dantimdad]

I always wanted to open a pet store, but my love is fish so I'm beginning with a fish store. I'm prepping small, but will eventually need larger funds for opening a location in order to get wholesale accounts with suppliers. Any other feedback would be welcome. I'm starting in my garage keeping live bearer fish, and building my stock of plants in prep to sell, or even sell online. What are the first steps you would begin with?
Thx - Dan St. Louis MO

I forgot. The first thing you do is get a license and establish relationships with wholesalers. We waited too long and almost torpedoed grand opening. If I hadn't had a bunch of contacts from decades doing this, I would have been in trouble.

 

[BanjoBandito]

I run a retail business, it's family (non-fish related) and we've been in business for over 71 years. Retail is hard. I can only imagine a retail fish store would be even more difficult. If I was to start a aquatic store I'd start simple. A nice big display tank with a couple frag tanks going. Start by selling frags online, and go from there. You could literally write off ANY coral purchase as "store expense" too. Def. setup an LLC of some kind. I always recommend having a "holdings" company that will pay any physical rent, own locations, equipment, then another that runs the business. This is a must for liability. If you can wait a few months until rates start going up, I believe real estate is going to take a hit. Commercial real estate is pretty constant though, so don't expect a big drop. If you have business related questions you can message me. I do all the book work and accounting for our stores, so I'm pretty sharp with a pencil. Good luck!

 

[TnFishwater98]

No worries. I am much better off and I fell in love with the hobby again.

Nice & Nice. Found your post on your store start up. I’m going back to Da Old Normal to start my read and learn. All the way back to 2018! But seriously sorry to hear about your store.

 

[BanjoBandito]

There are many perils and pitfalls. After having opened the shop of my dreams and lost it due to COVID and a couple other factors, I can give some advice.

DO NOT quit your day job.
DO plan on spending every waking moment not at said day job, working the store.

Now, that being said, it can be fun, frustrating, rewarding and nerve racking all at the same time.

I hope you get your dream. Just go slow, spend a lot more money than you initially plan and only have one business partner if you have any at all.

I miss mine but am glad the stress is gone. I am going the direction I should have gone in the first place by building a room on my house and just selling, food, frags, water and freshwater plants. I won't go bigger no matter what. I still want to love my hobby.

I think I would forgo any type of physical location and opt for a basement or garage or small greenhouse setup with frag tanks to start. You'll have a mountain of startup costs in lighting and livestock, not to mention having to GROW out corals so you can start fragging. Another thing I would try to do is sell QT fish. My LFS QT's ahead of time so I know any fish I buy is going to already have been vetted. Breeding clowns is another good start. They readily breed, are hardy and everyone wants them.

In my experience salt water reef keepers are picky and you won't have many customers, but if you can earn loyalty we are big spenders!

Tank setup/service is a big part of being successful in this industry. Lots of people want a saltwater tank, not many want to take care of it.

Did you make a business plan? Did you run some numbers at all????

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R. Good luck with your dream. But be careful with financial side. It can be expensive on the hobby side if a tank crashes more expensive if it’s a business I guess.

 

[TnFishwater98]

I’ve recently read and talked with someone in the process & $150,000 -$300,000+ is about the cost of setting up a nice Brick & Mortar store. Mentioned earlier, it’s about to hit da fan. Housing is going to pop in a lot of the nation and goods are going to get more expensive. I kinda of disagree in the earlier statement, I feel commercial real estate is going to take a big hit also. So when that happens if you’re set up to go that would be the time to start making your move. Until then stay a home-based business and start getting your coral numbers up and live stock set up. Not as glamorous but a lot less risky.

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome! Best of luck

 

[G Santana]

Welcome aboard, living the dream