Business plans/ideas for Aquarium Shop

I have really been dreading my job, as it's mindless and not something I see as a career.

I have been doing TONS of studying on all different types of freshwater fish, diets, environments, how to keep them etc... I do plan on one day working with salt water as well.

I live in Central Pennsylvania, and in my area, the only stores are Petco, Petsmart, and a Pet store that has a very bad reputation for puppy mill dogs, and animal abuse. None of them have decent fish, or fish out of the ordinary...

We have The Pet Place about 45 minutes away, but their prices are a bit outrageous..

So, I have been debating opening an aquarium store. Selling fish, taking in fish, cleaning tanks, repairing tanks, giving correct advice... and not selling fish to just anyone to make a quick buck.

There are a lot of retail shopping strip type places for rent, as well as a mall that would even let us have a store open.

I'm completely new to the business scene... so what I want to know is if you could have an aquarium shop/store, or if you were to visit one, what would you expect?

All advice is welcomed! Please no flaming.

build a garage at your house and put tanks in it and sell out of the garage. will save you the headache and your overhead will be a lot less. I wish you the best but its just gonna be way too hard to open up and stay afloat in this market

reid429 wrote:

build a garage at your house and put tanks in it and sell out of the garage. will save you the headache and your overhead will be a lot less. I wish you the best but its just gonna be way too hard to open up and stay afloat in this market

Thanks for the boost of confidence there.

Nothing is impossible-- if you don't follow your dreams because of negative thinking, how will you ever know if you can accomplish them?

And srsly, who wants to buy fish from some random strangers garage?

I say take out a small biz loan and go for it! You don't have much to lose. So what if it flops? At least you tried... never live life without taking risks. If it flops I think they forgive your loan anyway... research it and go for it! If i was closer to you I'd try to get something going with you.

If you have the funds to stay afloat for a year I've always heard it's the first year that's the hardest. PM cichlid lover as he's in the process of opening one here in Richmond Va.

mail order is the way to go, try that at first and then open a store. I buy fish allthe time from locals and hell keller farms is a converted house here in texas. Try it at first and then lease

you could also try it by word of mouth... work with friends to setup some racks in your house, and get your name out then set up a business. taking out a bank loan you have to pay it back, plus a shop you have to pay employee's, pay for rent, pay for electricty, etc etc.....

personally, I'd buy from a true fish freak out of his garage before I'd ever buy from a lfs. get onto your local fish forums and advertise...word of mouth is the best advertiser there is.

no one is trying to be negative or destroy your dream but I have to agree that in this market where folks are just trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head, extra money is just not available....i personally tend to do more trades than selling/buying

you should start small with what you already have and not jump into a loan or a lease....we've had 2 local family owned LFS close in the last 2 months...1 went to wholesale only out of their home and the other had been in business for I believe over 20 years

i wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide but i strongly urge you to start at home and build your reputation and when you're in the black, then expand

+1 garage sellers. maybe it's a Texas thing, but most of my fishes have all come from private sellers/breeders. And ALL of my discus come from people that have extravagant setups that sell out of their house.

mshill90 wrote:

reid429 wrote:

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And srsly, who wants to buy fish from some random strangers garage?

A bunch of people I know...Including me! I personaly will never buy from a LFS ever again.

TanyaQ2000 wrote:

personally, I'd buy from a true fish freak out of his garage before I'd ever buy from a lfs. get onto your local fish forums and advertise...word of mouth is the best advertiser there is.

no one is trying to be negative or destroy your dream but I have to agree that in this market where folks are just trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head, extra money is just not available....i personally tend to do more trades than selling/buying

you should start small with what you already have and not jump into a loan or a lease....we've had 2 local family owned LFS close in the last 2 months...1 went to wholesale only out of their home and the other had been in business for I believe over 20 years

i wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide but i strongly urge you to start at home and build your reputation and when you're in the black, then expand

What happen to funds for felix and having no money?? You need $$$ to start a business. I would take care of my family, pets ect ect before I opend up at pet store. Just my 2cents.

I personally like the idea of the garage/shed fish house .... to start. The most important thing is brand recognition. Start out with a small operation like this. Build a website and offer shipping. Once that is established, the brand recognition is there and then the physical shop should be able to fall in place.

Just an idear.

But hey...I'm all for it and definately say go for it if you have the means. I would love to contribute to something like that locally here.

I agree with tanya, and I've done business with her before.(hi tanya it's me joey). she is always willing to work out deals... my point of view from a garage vs business is the person can build up a business from selling out of there garage and sells on forums, and people can also post on forums and say " silly willy pilly is a good sell I bought "X" from him still living, and it was a good price, and people and also search for your business and reviews.....

plus seeing who knows how many tanks in some one garage/house is going to make the light bulb come on in my head, and hopefully others and say this person has got to cares about fish and more or likely knows about aquariums because he has "X" of aquariums, and can keep all these fish living in tanks in a house/garage awesome.also when going to a persons house you can just tell who's a hobbies and who just wants to make a quick dollars.... ask questions from the buyer and do the same if you are a seller...... vs. the big p's (petco/petsmart) or lfs... and you see the employees face and they are stress and you said " HI I would like 10 neon tetras" you would like what? " I would like some to buy some fish, I need 10 neon tetras please and you got to go point to them, and then you hear, or in my case oh the red and blue fish they are so pretty and cool. (FACE PALM).... or how about going to the same place for who years apond years, HI dude HI dude HI dude oh HI " pluto woot-o" how have you been. how do you know my name "FACE PALM) you have a name tag on your shirt and I've talked you "x" amount of times, and I've been coming in to this store for "x" amount of years. or I remember times going in to stores and talking to people and saying at the oh my name is Joey it was nice to meet you, and then I go back to a store and hear " hi dude, or HI sir" and I think to my self you don't know my name... I've only been coming to this store for "x" years.............


well that is just my view point... I don't know about you or others here. but I miss and I still wonder what happen to the knowledge or the questions of employees at the lfs.

I know it can get annoying to me at times but I miss the " hi what size tank(s) do you have, how long have they been set up, what all do you have in there" oh you need a heater you have a 20 gallon so you will need a 75-100w heater you need 3-5 watts per a gallon.. <--- that shows you they care and know there stuff ... vs they I have to do what corprite says or the boss says or I will get fired even those this is a sick fish.

you are going to eventually want to random walk in business. so a store front will be a most down the road. good luck.

If you can get the internet/garage sales going ...I would also recomend something like a greenhouse....ponds are big buisness here...if you can do aquariums and ponds same kinda work just opens a new customer base.

Also I would get some knowledge on other animals...dogs and cats are big buisness and I have yet to see a fish only petstore make it.

Selling used tanks is a great way to lower your overhead..also can increase your secondary item sales aka filters lights hoods ect.

Wish you the best of luck with your endevor

Bad idea

Fern wrote:

Bad idea

I didn't ask if it was a bad idea... There are tons of BAD ideas but people do them anyways...

Like bungee jumping, keeping tigers as pets...

[guote] What happen to funds for felix and having no money?? You need $$$ to start a business. I would take care of my family, pets ect ect before I opend up at pet store. Just my 2cents.

[/quote]

Funds for Felix didn't need to raise as much money as was originally planned, as we found out his issues through process of elimination, and he's on the road to recovering all his fur back. He had skin treatments, and extensive blood work done with the money that was raised.

I've gotten a higher paying job, and I've been working 15 hour days so that I can get money up and saved so I won't have to take out such a high loan- (now that I got my credit fixed from having my identity stolen)

Everyone is healthy, and taken care of in my household.

Congrats! Do what your heart tells you but I know for sure I would choose the breeder over a LFS anyday. Always good to get a name in the community 1st.

i agree with kmx

I personally will do A LOT of research around your area on how many people have home aquariums and such. After that I will see when will be your BREAK EVEN POINT because that is the MOST important thing other than customers in ANY business. Remember that if you can't support your family with this income, your fish will not live long as well.

I'd do some advertising in of course Aquatic places and sign a good deal with the local electric company which ever you choose. Remember that keep A LOT of healthy fish alive requires A LOT of electricity!

I's start this out cheap and work your way up but NEVER over price your live stock or anything over say Petsmart or Petco, in this business we want either RARE or CHEAP ! Speaking for my self here.

Oh and FREE is also good. Not FREE always but FREE to your most loyal customers. And also go around and telling people about Home Aquariums and offer like samples to attract customers like children WITH responsible parents are the way to to.


Good Luck mate

with HRT.., Good Luck! anything you do for your business, no matter which place or where is located.., is gonna be a plus for you and your family..

Petersmonkey wrote:

Remember that keep A LOT of healthy fish alive requires A LOT of electricity!




Good Luck mate

I had 40 tanks last month wih a $75 electric bill I guess Im just that good

KMX wrote:

What happen to funds for felix and having no money?? You need $$$ to start a business. I would take care of my family, pets ect ect before I opened up at pet store. Just my 2cents.

And again I will say opening a store front is a very very bad idea

I guess I could add a few things here since that's what I did. Well Working on almost 2 years ago now. I don't really know where to start.......

I guess here's what I did. I started selling things out of my house. You have to get your name out there and in a good way. There's also several problems with selling things out of your home or garage. One thing is is with suppliers. Mainly on the dry goods area of it but they won't really deal with you as they feel you'd be a back-yard breeder and too small time. Another is having folks wanting to stop over at countless hours of the night. It's not impossible as I did it that way for years while holding a full time job, going to school full time, we have 3 kids and a dog and I still managed to handle it all.

There's plenty of other things that go into the above but I don't have the next week or so to type it all out. Your welcome to call me and I'll share a bit more with you on it.

I had been thinking on opening a LFS in my area here as there is nothing really to show here as far as cichlids go. (That's basically all I carry in the store now). So I talked things over with my wife and we dicided to give it a go.

I looked around and found a space to lease that I thought would suit my needs. Worked on the lease, signed up and Starting building it out. I quit my job and opened it up full time and haven't looked back. I'm very glad I did it but it took alot of planning, hard work and a laundry list of other things.

I just recently moved the store into a larger place. The first few months in the 1st store were a little rough but since then I'd say it's working. Could it be better? Yes but it's working for us and it's getting better all the time.

If you'd like to call my number is 402-934-8588

Good luck with whatever you do, just make sure to look at the whole picture before doing anything

Thanks

Mike

Words of wisdom right there. Might call you sometime myself! ;0)