What's it take to run a petshop?

3838 Views 51 Replies 21 Participants Last post by dufus, Sep 24, 2007

dufus

Discussion Starter · Sep 11, 2007

I did some researching tonight and found that the most interesting thing for me to do with my life that is feasable, is to run or own a pet store.

Does anyone have any experience in doing this, i mean, i geuss what college subjects would be good to study, what are some good things to know, etc.

I could actually see myself doing something like this, and that excites and scares me a bit, but i think it would be a cool thing to study.

1 - 20 of 52 Posts

Burks

· #2 · Sep 11, 2007

One really important thing, does your area have enough customers to sustain a shop?

In my area there used to be a 20 or so privately owned pet stores. Now there is about 5. The market just dried up.

dufus

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 11, 2007

With a city the size of san antonio, i think so, especially on the side of town i live on now, there's one store and much of the staff is impersonal and they no longer carry anything but aquatics.

I think it would be cool to have fish, inverts, plants, amphibians, reptiles, and carry products like ADA, Fruit flies and PDF supplies, REptile supplies, and vivarium plants and supplies, pond supplies, plants, and fish, basically anything i'm interested in, and or people are interested in.

One thing i would focus on is ordering things, if a customer wants it, i'd get it, unlike my LFS.

if_fishes_were_wishes

· #4 · Sep 11, 2007

dufus said:
One thing i would focus on is ordering things, if a customer wants it, i'd get it, unlike my LFS.

I agree with that, I am sick and tired of running from one pet store to another looking for certain things. I'm a big fan of one-stop shopping. One place has a huge fish and plant selection and hardly any nano supplies, one place has tons of nano things but the prices suck, the list goes on.

sandiegoryu

· #5 · Sep 11, 2007

What would be REALLY cool is a website that actuallly updates frequently (not monthly but weekly or so) of the stock, supplies, price etc. That would be awesome. I would love that store to death... unless I find out the prices aren't cheap :-D.

epicfish

· #6 · Sep 11, 2007

Cheap and custom-ordered items don't belong in the same sentence.

Like Burks said, you're going to have to survey your area and see if it's a good place that would sustain the type of business you want to run. You'll have a HUGE inventory if you want to stock items that hobbyists like us are interested in, ie: regulators, CO2 supplies, ADA, etc, etc, etc...not just for planted tanks, but also reef items, vivariums, etc, etc...

You're going to have to keep it a rather narrow scope of things. There's a few shops around here that DO sell specialty stuff, but they're usually pricier than shops like PetCo/PetSmart that buy run-of-the-mill items in bulk quantities.

As far as college courses, I'd probably head in the direction of an MBA. Running a petshop, at least in my opinion, requires more business sense than an actual understanding of every details of the animals. Don't get me wrong and think that I'm saying that you don't need to know about the animals at all, but I think that business knowledge would be a better asset, at least when you're starting out.

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Burks

· #7 · Sep 11, 2007

Whoops forgot to mention.

One thing that is severely lacking in this industry, personal people. Get to know your customers and their tanks. My buddy owns a store and the more he learns about a customer the more he can sell them and sell them the right stuff the first time. It also puts the customer at ease knowing that the person they are buying their $200 Sohol Tang or $600 tank off of knows what they are talking about. Nothing I hate more than asking a question about a fish and just having the owner give me a shrug. That little extra effort can mean the difference between a sale and a lost customer. Remember customers have friends, sometimes those friends carry deep wallets. You'd be amazed at some stories I hear about shops and how they treat their customers. It's embarrassing to listen to.

If you are looking for cheap advertisement, find a local club in your area and sponsor them. Word of mouth travels very quickly. Our club charges a small amount for sponsorship but we market the hell out of the stores. You scratch our back, we'll scratch your's twice as much. One of our sponsors made their money back within the first week or so, because the customer never knew they existed! Toledo compared to SA is a big difference. A small store can easily get lost in SA.

Some type of business degree would surely help. Running a shop is far beyond just opening and closing it every day. It's a lot more work than most people realize. Hopefully with your business training you can learn some things to make the operation run smoothly. Nothing worse than having an owner be absolutely clueless on how to run a business, just hoping to break at least even at the end of the day.

These are just observations from the countless hours I've spent hanging out at various stores. By no means are they 100% true, it's just what I've seen and experienced first hand.

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fishscale

· #8 · Sep 11, 2007

Definitely B-school. Maybe IOE? Inventory control, ordering, accounting, pricing, maintaining margins, advertising, and customer service are all things to look into.

Rex Grigg

· #9 · Sep 11, 2007

What's it take to run a pet shop?

Best thing is to start with a LOT of money. And watch it turn into a little bit of money.

Oh, be prepared to work 18 hours a day 7 days a week.

eyebeatbadgers

· #10 · Sep 11, 2007

I gotta agree with Rex. Although the idea seems great, heck I'd like to do it too, the profit possibilities on pets are slim AFAIK. Fish breeders will tell you that. I sell my guppies to my LFS for .50 a piece. they sell them for 1.50 or 2.00 depending on size. They also run a staff of about 10 there and are open 7 days a week. That dollar of profit per fish doesen't go very far. Granted, I sell them endlers for 1.00 and they sell them for 4, so more desirable fish would bring larger profits. You have to remember that you are running a buisness and not a charity. The independent fish store back in my home town lasted about a year. Business owner went broke. Just something to think about.

Rex Grigg

· #11 · Sep 11, 2007

Running a B&M (brick and mortar) store is getting harder every year. The money makers....hardware and accessories are sold much cheaper by on-line stores and the big box stores.

Just an example. I have a Goffin Cockatoo. And as anyone who has owned a large bird can tell you they chew. And they chew a lot. He chews through those rope perches at the rate of 1-2 a month. Local pet store wants $25 for a perch. Big box stores want about $20 and on-line I can get them for $11.99.

Fish food. Local shops want $20 for the large New Life Spectrum. I can get it on-line for about $10.

Canoe2Can

· #12 · Sep 11, 2007

Personal, knowledgable, and friendly service is a must.

I would recommend you work at a store for a while if you can first. You might find it's not something that you would really want to do or are capable of doing.

And I'll tell you what I'm really looking for in a LFS: quality livestock. I hardly ever buy any dry goods from a LFS. For one thing, there aren't many in my area, so I have to order everything by mail. And even if I didn't have to, I would because it's so much cheaper. But I don't buy livestock by mail. It's expensive and I consider it risky. But it's really hard to find healthy fish in LFSs. If you're going to run a store, you have to have some basic dry goods in stock, but you shouldn't count on making a lot of money off of them.

eyebeatbadgers

· #13 · Sep 11, 2007

Canoe2Can said:
I would recommend you work at a store for a while if you can first. You might find it's not something that you would really want to do or are capable of doing.

Very good advice. Going through high school I decided I wanted to be a pharmacist. So once I turned 16 I started working retail pharmacy, and worked at a CVS and Waglreens over the next three years. Though I love chemistry and studying the effects of chemical compounds on the body, practical pharmacy does not contain any of those things. Retail pharmacy is denying crackheads their Sudafed, and explaining to poor old granny that her medicare won't cover that drug. Not satisfying. Can you imagine telling Joe Blow every day how the Nitrogen cycle works, or why he should buy liquid test kits instead of test strips ?! It'd probably get old.

fishscale

· #14 · Sep 11, 2007

It's not very different from any small business or restaurant. Lots and lots of seed money, and you need to be in business for ~15 years to see a profit. The problem with a petshop is that a lot of the equipment has a much reduced resale value.

Burks

· #15 · Sep 11, 2007

eyebeatbadgers said:
Retail pharmacy is denying crackheads their Sudafed, and explaining to poor old granny that her medicare won't cover that drug. Not satisfying.

Just one of the many reasons I switched from Pharmacy to Nursing. The workload for Pharmacy was just ridiculous and even with a 4.0, I had a slim chance of getting in. Come on...middle class, white Christian male. I'm about as plain as can be. No diversity there! The work just didn't sound "fun" or anything I could do day in and day out. Now nursing on the other hand, that's a constantly changing environment. If my mom can do it for 20+ years and still like it, I can too.

eyebeatbadgers

· #16 · Sep 11, 2007

Burks said:
Just one of the many reasons I switched from Pharmacy to Nursing. The workload for Pharmacy was just ridiculous and even with a 4.0, I had a slim chance of getting in. Come on...middle class, white Christian male. I'm about as plain as can be. No diversity there! The work just didn't sound "fun" or anything I could do day in and day out. Now nursing on the other hand, that's a constantly changing environment. If my mom can do it for 20+ years and still like it, I can too.

My thoughts exactly. I looked into being a nurse, but decided to be a teacher instead. It's hard out there for a white boy. Affirmative wha???

davefan13

· #17 · Sep 11, 2007

right now, i have been thinking the same thing. i don't really know what i want to do when i get older, but i think it will have to do with biology. the trouble is, i can't think of lots of jobs that are calling for biologists. i know that "money doesn't make you happy", but i have so many things that i want to do in life, making some big bucks would be awesome

. Opening a pet shop would be amazing, but i don't know if there is enough in the market left. someday we won't even have shops, you just get online and order it. the next minute they beam it to your house

.

i can see it now .... *order 120 gallon, stand, etc. * next minute it's up and running.

if_fishes_were_wishes

· #18 · Sep 12, 2007

Ugh, I have a master's in biology. There is NOTHING in my area. I have looked for another job in the field for 2 years! I'm 33 and just now figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. I'm going to pursue my PhD and work for the CDC or NIH one day instead. Let me tell you, money can buy me happiness and lotsa fish tanks, but the MS ain't cutting it.

I used to work in the fish department for Petsmart. I enjoyed working with people, but some don't like brutal honesty. You want how many goldfish in that tiny bowl? That's why no more retail for me.

dufus

Discussion Starter · #19 · Sep 12, 2007

Well, Selling online is not a hard feat, and i've done it many times, so that could stay with me, so it would be ssort of like ADG, as in, B&M and online retail.

I work in a pond store, and the paper work/computer work looks like a big part of the day's work.

As for inventory, obviously i'd need to keep some basics in stock, but for special order equiptment, i need not keep so much instock, that's the "special" order part, although i can see where having it then and there is a huge benefit.

At my work, we'll SO stuff for our customers and call them when it comes in. The same principles would apply to a petstore as far as i can see, i'd love to know my customers well enough to have their phone # handy.

RE: livestock

Alot of the stock would/could be bred either at my house, or in the store, ex: endlers, guppies, cichlids, killies, Dart frogs on occasion, plants can obviously be grown.

Other unusual stock will come from both hobbyists fine with the fact i'm making money off their stuff, or companies willing to sell their items for retail purposes.
EX: shrimp and dwarf crayfish.
If i could find a breeder of tiger/crs/RCS that would let me sell their items at slightly raised prices, then there would be my source for those.

Although it may sound bad bussiness, or arrogant, By NO means would i have things i am not intereseted in or interested in selling.

VERY few mammals,if any at all, or birds would be found at a petstore i own.
Same with their supplies.

I would hope to not be thought of as "competition", but more of "allies" by other shops, although i see this is thier choice.

Ok, i'm tired of typing for now.....

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mistergreen

· #20 · Sep 12, 2007

You have to ask how you are going to compete with the petco & petsmart, heck, even walmart.

Are your customers going to be the general public or specialists like guys on this site?

Will you be like http://www.franksaquarium.com/ where you sell quality, expensive fish?

You basically need a game plan/business model on how you'll make money and not go out of business like a lot of little pet stores around the country who are losing out to the petsmart etc..

that's the first thing you need to do.. Then go to the bank and borrow some $$$. yikes.

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