Posted by:
chrish
at Wed Oct 12 11:42:11 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by chrish ]
Some very good points, Terry. As you say, you don't have to lose money just because the price goes down.
This happens with every hot item. People see they are expensive and visions of piles of money start going through their minds. They rush in, shelling out thousands for a pair of babies, but because dozens of other are also doing it, they find themselves trying to sell babies against dozens of others.
In some species, this has led to such a glut that the animals are hard to sell at all!
You left out another important factor on your list -
>>If you want to analyze your efforts in a business sense:
>>1. keep careful track of costs--things like gas driving to the pet store for rodents or the airport to ship animals; advertising; etc.
>>2. keep track of your sales. remember a trade is obtaining you something you otherwise would have had to pay for, so that new snake represents "income" too.
>>3. don't forget the animals originally purchased still have a value, either financially or as part of your ongoing breeding efforts.
>>4. and always, ask yourself if what you're doing is enjoyable. if it's not, consider alternatives. if it is, that's a return on your investment that doesn't show up in your pocketbook but has considerable value nontheless.
5. You have to pay yourself. How much time do you spend caring for the animals? How many hours per week? How many hours driving to the store, to expos, on the phone, emailing prospective customers, etc.
Now ask yourself how much your time is worth? Let's say, for example, you spend a total of 10 hours trying take care of, advertise, sell, and ship a pair of baby hondurans.
First you have to subtract what it physically cost you to produce them (feeding parents, etc). What you are left with is the "profit" for those babies. However, if you divide that by the 10 hours you spent on the sale, suddenly your $50 profit is starting to look like $5 an hour - you are working for less than minimum wage.
You can increase profits by producing larger numbers of babies, and the total hours spent per baby goes down, but the total time investment still goes up.
Its a good thing I do this as a HOBBY and don't expect to make money or break even. Actually the most money I have made selling snakes over the years hasn't been selling expensive snakes but rather it has been selling African Housesnake babies. I have sold many hundreds of babies for $25-45 each over the last 20 years and have probably made $10,000 selling snakes where I had less than $100 invested in the adults. I don't know why I got out of them again!
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas
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RE: about losing money... - chrish, Wed Oct 12 11:42:11 2005