Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been way too busy for my liking and have not been able to check out my favorite place for what seems like many months. Hope everything is going to everyone's liking.

Maybe within the next few weeks things will be more routine and I can get back to my more regular status. I sure hope so. Not much more upheavel will be well tolerated in my life......and those that know me will say it's NOT tolerated anywhere near well at this point for quite a while.

I am hoping for lots of opinions and comments on this idea of mine: good, bad and indifferent.
.....company I work for is broke and I lost a significant portion of my income at my 2 supplemental jobs. These folks are struggling and just so happen to employ 2 skilled guys who have experience in creating items from ideas. They specifically work with the same materials that the leading manufacturers of snake cages are equipted to produce. Most importantly IMO, they own the correct equiptment to router, weld, and produce cages and racks. With a dozen PVC enclosure manufacturers already established, do you folks have any ideas on the outcome of me trying to produce and sell enough to make enough money so I can continue with my basic, poor, from check to check, type life?

...toying seriously with a small business idea that is more like a hobby that can provide a minimum of what I must make up to continue with my current endeavors. Do any of you think I might be able to claim a niche in the market starting with almost no investment money?

Sounds alot like a struggle to me, but I'm grabbing at straws and with begging and persuasion I feel this may be a chance at something new and possibly a risk I should put lots of effort into.

If you made it this far.....thanks for entertaining me. Pretty much off topic for the BRB forum, but there is a reason I posted this here. One of my current options is selling 15 snakes although it is not very high on the list today. Brb's have been one of my greatest joys and I don't much like that selling them is an option.....if my Mother ever found out that her groceries might be less important than my freezer full of rats.....well, I'll never be able to post again....anywhere.

Please offer ideas on what you think the market is and why.
Email me if you'd rather.

lmmisch@yahoo.com
Sunshine.@cox.net

Thanks

Linda Misch
-----
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

Linda,
I certainly know how you feel about the busy thing. I always check these sites but don't participate as I'd like. In my case my BRB's don't currently live with me and I feel badly about that. They've been staying at the ancestral home (mommies house) while my wife and I find a home. I get to see them about twice a week and it bothers me. The good news is that we closed on a home yesterday and get to move in on Friday! We are REALLY excited. Unfortunatly, we've got to strip wallpaper, paint the walls, scrap off the acoustic ceiling crap (asbestos here I come), rip out the carpet, exc, exc. My BRB's are still at least a month away from moving in but I can't wait.
I think there is always a niche for really quality merchandise. The standard PVC box thing is pretty much locked up. I recently purchased an enclosure from Showcase Cages for my Woma python and I really like it. But what I found in the process of looking for one was that there are ALOT out there. I think the area that is under represented is for the real custom enclosures (big, realistic looking vivariums); but is there big enough demand here in the States (the land of rack systems)? I don't think enough to turn a profit.
Having said that, it is the people that try that succeed. Naysayers pretty much sit on their butts.
Good luck,
Paul
P.S. When my kids are back under my own roof I'll post some recent picks. My big girl is going to throw a load of something this year but after last years slug fest I'm not hopeful.

I have been way too busy for my liking and have not been able to check out my favorite place for what seems like many months. Hope everything is going to everyone's liking.

Maybe within the next few weeks things will be more routine and I can get back to my more regular status. I sure hope so. Not much more upheavel will be well tolerated in my life......and those that know me will say it's NOT tolerated anywhere near well at this point for quite a while.

I am hoping for lots of opinions and comments on this idea of mine: good, bad and indifferent.
.....company I work for is broke and I lost a significant portion of my income at my 2 supplemental jobs. These folks are struggling and just so happen to employ 2 skilled guys who have experience in creating items from ideas. They specifically work with the same materials that the leading manufacturers of snake cages are equipted to produce. Most importantly IMO, they own the correct equiptment to router, weld, and produce cages and racks. With a dozen PVC enclosure manufacturers already established, do you folks have any ideas on the outcome of me trying to produce and sell enough to make enough money so I can continue with my basic, poor, from check to check, type life?

...toying seriously with a small business idea that is more like a hobby that can provide a minimum of what I must make up to continue with my current endeavors. Do any of you think I might be able to claim a niche in the market starting with almost no investment money?

Sounds alot like a struggle to me, but I'm grabbing at straws and with begging and persuasion I feel this may be a chance at something new and possibly a risk I should put lots of effort into.

If you made it this far.....thanks for entertaining me. Pretty much off topic for the BRB forum, but there is a reason I posted this here. One of my current options is selling 15 snakes although it is not very high on the list today. Brb's have been one of my greatest joys and I don't much like that selling them is an option.....if my Mother ever found out that her groceries might be less important than my freezer full of rats.....well, I'll never be able to post again....anywhere.

Please offer ideas on what you think the market is and why.
Email me if you'd rather.

Linda,
....I have very much missed your posts on this forum. Your veterinary experience and general good natured willingness to help people were a valuable asset on this forum. It does seem to me that there are a lot of good cage builders out there today. To do well in the market you need to either build a better cage or build a good cage for less money. The guys building and selling cages have come up with some pretty good ideas about cage design and building materials and techniques which have advanced herpetoculture a bunch in the last 15 years. Perhaps there are still some good ideas out there that can take things further and/or improve on proven designs and methods. You have to keep weight and the associated shipping costs in mind in any planning. A great product at a great price will not do well if it is so heavy that shipping becomes too expensive. It seems to me that the biggest market is with the newer breeders. As soon as they start producing baby snakes they think about expanding and buying or keeping more stock and getting racks or stacks of cages.
Jeff

>>I have been way too busy for my liking and have not been able to check out my favorite place for what seems like many months. Hope everything is going to everyone's liking.
>>
>>Maybe within the next few weeks things will be more routine and I can get back to my more regular status. I sure hope so. Not much more upheavel will be well tolerated in my life......and those that know me will say it's NOT tolerated anywhere near well at this point for quite a while.
>>
>>I am hoping for lots of opinions and comments on this idea of mine: good, bad and indifferent.
>>.....company I work for is broke and I lost a significant portion of my income at my 2 supplemental jobs. These folks are struggling and just so happen to employ 2 skilled guys who have experience in creating items from ideas. They specifically work with the same materials that the leading manufacturers of snake cages are equipted to produce. Most importantly IMO, they own the correct equiptment to router, weld, and produce cages and racks. With a dozen PVC enclosure manufacturers already established, do you folks have any ideas on the outcome of me trying to produce and sell enough to make enough money so I can continue with my basic, poor, from check to check, type life?
>>
>>...toying seriously with a small business idea that is more like a hobby that can provide a minimum of what I must make up to continue with my current endeavors. Do any of you think I might be able to claim a niche in the market starting with almost no investment money?
>>
>>Sounds alot like a struggle to me, but I'm grabbing at straws and with begging and persuasion I feel this may be a chance at something new and possibly a risk I should put lots of effort into.
>>
>>If you made it this far.....thanks for entertaining me. Pretty much off topic for the BRB forum, but there is a reason I posted this here. One of my current options is selling 15 snakes although it is not very high on the list today. Brb's have been one of my greatest joys and I don't much like that selling them is an option.....if my Mother ever found out that her groceries might be less important than my freezer full of rats.....well, I'll never be able to post again....anywhere.
>>
>>Please offer ideas on what you think the market is and why.
>>Email me if you'd rather.
>>
>>lmmisch@yahoo.com
>>Sunshine.@cox.net
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Linda Misch
>>-----
>> When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

Good to see you back on the forum, don't let it be so long next time. Really can't add to what has already been said. There are a lot of cage builders out there witha lot of options. IMO only way to turn the proverbial profit would be to come up with either something new or with the same but cheaper.

One thing I have been working on for myself is a rack to hold LARGE tubs, Iris 39's and 110's. Didn't find any out there, didn't search real hard though.

How's my/your baby doing?
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats