It can work. My business partner and I met at our job (college years) at a pet store we both worked at. We decided to team up after college and start our own store. Both of us worked in specialty pet stores for at least 4 year before we graduated and took the plunge. We still have not opened it, but we have our reptile breeding business and we both have our careers. I am a financial broker and my partner is a biologist. We have been on the verge of opening the store several times, but something always seems to get in our way. We have analyzed this industry beyond your wildest dreams, and we have found that to be successful you must have everything right before you make your move. Everything from rent/mortgage, to location, vender's (product and animals), and $$$ must be in "sync", or you can go belly up quick. In college, I became a manager at a store I worked at, and within 12 months I took the store from a 1.3 million gross, to a 2.7 million gross. There is money to be made with "GOOD" stores in certain areas, but you need $$$, connections, and a diverse product/animal inventory to meet the needs of any and all customer base. In my opinion, 50% of sales are based on impulse, so when someone walks into your store, they should get the best service, product, education, and future advice they may need to care for their pet. At the stores we worked at, the owner benefit fell into the 6 figure bracket, which shows, "you get out what you put in". Email me if you want specs on stores we worked at to give you a better idea of what it takes, financially, to get one started, or any other question you might have. Hope this helped.

Raj
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