Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, It has been over three months now with my back all messed up and no improvement at all! I am really starting to wonder if they will ever fix me or just put me out to pasture like some old Bull!
So I have been toying with the idea of possibly starting my own small animal pet shop here in my county. I don’t want just strictly Reptile, because I think the market is too small still for a local shop to do just that. I was thinking Reptiles, Small cage Birds (Finches, Parakeets, Cockatiels etc), small exotic Mammals and fresh water fish.
I am thinking of a full service store with all the Dry Goods to go with all the different animals that I would sell.
Anyone out there currently have their own store and can give some advice?
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

from my experience of country living...old bulls put to pasture are the happiest bulls around...pastures are much better than the alternative...plus all the udderly mooistic perks...a harem of females....

How big is your town? If people always have to go into the nearest city to purchase something for their pets or to get a pet, then a local shop might just be the answer. But, if your twon is in a country setting, they may not want any more pets than they already have (dogs/cats/cow/horse/etc.). Do you have some building in mind with low overhead?

If you felt like going back to/to college, male teachers are always in need, whether you can coach or not...it can be a desk job for the most part, and some are even wheel chairs (not that your back will ever get that bad), but with your experience, you will have no problem being an authority figure kids can look up to.

Really, I meant to stop at the pasture part...
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StarlightSpecialties.com

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Signature file edited; [phw 9/26/04]

if i remember correctly, you are florida. if you are gonna have a pet shop and carry fresh water fish, KOI are a big item, especially in a warm market like florida.

just like boas, all they really need is a clean environment. they are also easy to breed if you have the space.

Out there in Florida, many small animal shops do fairly well, unless, as previously stated, you are too close to 'farm land' where an extra 'pet' is unwarranted..

Another thing is that i've seen Pet Shops open and close, and i've seen Reptile Specialty shops add Fish, and then remove them, because they require much too much room and maintenance, and don't bring in enough.

If I were you, I would acquire great variety of small, hardy pets.
Instead of having the normal turtles, iguanas, boas and balls, I would suggest having, let's say, insects, and having many, many different varieties, in their own tiny little 'eco'sphere' display cages..
It would look like it's their own lil world, and it would seem very appealing, especially of how rare they are...
You very well know many of us herpers starting out because we wanted something the other kids didn't have.

So I would have, let's just say, walking sticks, different roaches, different types/sizes of millipedes, 10-20 different tarantula types, 5-10 different scorpion types, and many others i've seen but can't remember at this time.

I would have the wonderful dart frogs, other frogs, atleast 20 different kinds, then lots of Salamanders...
you know how many beautiful Salamanders i've seen in books and always wanted to get but could never find available?

That's the kind of stuff people prize and take care of... ie. spend money on. Not the normal, common stuff that they can get away with neglecting. You get a much more serious hobbyist this way as well.

Scott Feltzer has some outrageous Garter Snakes... colors and patterns I didn't think i'd ever see on a snake...
You can basically 're-invent' the new 'beginner/designer pet'.

Rats have been kept as pets for a long time... They have some breeds and colors that would amaze even those that don't like rats. I had looked for a blue dumbo and a hairless rat before.. never found one. Stock different types of pet quality rats... The typical hamsters and gerbils are dull, boring, 'common', etc... (all you hamster/gerbil lovers, I love them too! just talking about better/newer business strategy here... )

I think the birds are also too common, not too desireable anymore, and take up space, require maintenance, and make noise and soil their surroundings.

...maybe you can add some other small mammals or marsupials. Sugar Gliders, Mini Foxes, HedgeHogs, Skunks and more.

I also suggest working with different varieties of the Turoises that are becoming popular as of late.

Another point is to specialize in live food. Get as many different types of live food as humanly possible. Not only is this a benefit to you and your customers for the sake of the animals you own and sell, but others will catch on and come from miles away just for the 'best and most natural food' around, and they would have too see your stock, and this can lead to more sales.

So much more....
Most of these things require Marketing, Advertising, Promotions, News Letters, and so on.. these vehicles would only increase your business by a great deal.

I would think you would need this done early, ahead of time. Begin with emailing and creating mailing lists. Perhaps move on to News Letters and advertisements on local classifieds. Then maybe mail out some flyers or something else prior to opening, announcing the grand opening.

Give incentives, like everytime you acrue $100 in purchases with your store, you get 15% off your next purchase, or $15 in store cash. Things like this can attract attention, or help keep clients coming back.

Or you can just hire me to be your store/sales manager... lol

Planned right, I don't see why you wouldn't succeed. If you sit there and wait for them to come to you, you are setting yourself up for disaster... and it may be slow and painful.

Hope that helps!

Take care Jim, Joe Rollo

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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

>>Out there in Florida, many small animal shops do fairly well, unless, as previously stated, you are too close to 'farm land' where an extra 'pet' is unwarranted..
>>
>>Another thing is that i've seen Pet Shops open and close, and i've seen Reptile Specialty shops add Fish, and then remove them, because they require much too much room and maintenance, and don't bring in enough.
>>
>>If I were you, I would acquire great variety of small, hardy pets.
>>Instead of having the normal turtles, iguanas, boas and balls, I would suggest having, let's say, insects, and having many, many different varieties, in their own tiny little 'eco'sphere' display cages..
>>It would look like it's their own lil world, and it would seem very appealing, especially of how rare they are...
>>You very well know many of us herpers starting out because we wanted something the other kids didn't have.
>>
>>So I would have, let's just say, walking sticks, different roaches, different types/sizes of millipedes, 10-20 different tarantula types, 5-10 different scorpion types, and many others i've seen but can't remember at this time.
>>
>>I would have the wonderful dart frogs, other frogs, atleast 20 different kinds, then lots of Salamanders...
>>you know how many beautiful Salamanders i've seen in books and always wanted to get but could never find available?
>>
>>That's the kind of stuff people prize and take care of... ie. spend money on. Not the normal, common stuff that they can get away with neglecting. You get a much more serious hobbyist this way as well.
>>
>>Scott Feltzer has some outrageous Garter Snakes... colors and patterns I didn't think i'd ever see on a snake...
>>You can basically 're-invent' the new 'beginner/designer pet'.
>>
>>Rats have been kept as pets for a long time... They have some breeds and colors that would amaze even those that don't like rats. I had looked for a blue dumbo and a hairless rat before.. never found one. Stock different types of pet quality rats... The typical hamsters and gerbils are dull, boring, 'common', etc... (all you hamster/gerbil lovers, I love them too! just talking about better/newer business strategy here... )
>>
>>I think the birds are also too common, not too desireable anymore, and take up space, require maintenance, and make noise and soil their surroundings.
>>
>>...maybe you can add some other small mammals or marsupials. Sugar Gliders, Mini Foxes, HedgeHogs, Skunks and more.
>>
>>I also suggest working with different varieties of the Turoises that are becoming popular as of late.
>>
>>Another point is to specialize in live food. Get as many different types of live food as humanly possible. Not only is this a benefit to you and your customers for the sake of the animals you own and sell, but others will catch on and come from miles away just for the 'best and most natural food' around, and they would have too see your stock, and this can lead to more sales.
>>
>>So much more....
>>Most of these things require Marketing, Advertising, Promotions, News Letters, and so on.. these vehicles would only increase your business by a great deal.
>>
>>
>>I would think you would need this done early, ahead of time. Begin with emailing and creating mailing lists. Perhaps move on to News Letters and advertisements on local classifieds. Then maybe mail out some flyers or something else prior to opening, announcing the grand opening.
>>
>>Give incentives, like everytime you acrue $100 in purchases with your store, you get 15% off your next purchase, or $15 in store cash. Things like this can attract attention, or help keep clients coming back.
>>
>>
>>Or you can just hire me to be your store/sales manager... lol
>>
>>
>>Planned right, I don't see why you wouldn't succeed. If you sit there and wait for them to come to you, you are setting yourself up for disaster... and it may be slow and painful.
>>
>>Hope that helps!
>>
>>Take care Jim, Joe Rollo
>>
>>
>>-----
>>Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
>>'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

Hey,How you doing?Are you serius, you can't find hairless or blue dumbo's?I have been raising my own food for the past few years an,I have fed off all of my blue dumbos's except for one that my neighbor has as a pet,but I have hairless in the works!My male breeder died of old age an it has taken some time but I have found the trait to be a recessive one an just produced my first hairless on my own,so their will definatley be more!Let me know if you are really wanting one,maybe we can work somthing out!Oh hoppy,I hope your back starts feeling better!Thanks[Hypo]
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E&C's Exotic House of Reptiles

I've thought about this as I'm sure that many of us have. I've worked with many small business owners and seen some of the trials they face. In my own experience while working in the retail pet trade, I found so many people out there were starving for information about how to properly care for their pet. I found if I spent the time to give them good, useful and interesting information about the pets they owned they were happy and enjoyed coming back with questions. As always quality products and quality customer service are a must. I love the list of exotics stated in the previous post. I would shop there just so I could go check everything out.

Rich

Hi!

How many of us have thought about doing this? I know I have!
We keep thinking about doing the reptile/fish thing... it is
hard tho. I have seen quite a few fish stores here and in the
Bay Area open and close, open and close. They are hard. You
have to hope to build up a good name for youself as having
something people want. In our case we are into the fresh water
cichlids (tankbusters) and would specialize in those. Other
stores specialize in salt water and are known in the community
to be the place to go for salt water even if the other stores
that specialize in fresh water also carry salt. I will mention
that the fish stores we go to that have stayed open the longest
and have the biggest following are the ones that have illegal
fish. (you know, depending on the area, fresh water stingrays,
snakeheads, alligator gars, gold arrowanas, etc) and they usually
also seem to always see 2-4" baby turtles.. But what I mean
is those stores seem to have the biggest draw becuase they
always have "something hidden in the back room". Then they
get busted by fish and game and either shut down or in the
case of a local store here, take out all the illegal stuff and
now they are hardly ever busy anymore. *shrug*

One of the big points I was going to make when I started this
thread... is how about also offering other pet foods? How
about typical cat and dog food, like science diet, or other
higher brand name foods. That way you can get the usual buyers
that have more 'typical' pets coming in regularly which may help
suppliment the income (I know I would LOVE to buy my dog's food
at a mom&pop stores instead of from petSHMo). I used to talk
regularly with the owners of the sunnyvale reptiles store in
CA and they made a bulk of their income from selling the
reptile feeders, again, repeat customers buying food formed
the base of their steady income.

Also big displays are real eye catchers and bring people back.
Ever been to Prehistoric Pets in SoCal (orange co?) They have
a huge water dragon/basilisk display as well as a huge koi
pond where for a few dollars the kids can feed the fish. It's
a huge draw. now, I am not a big fan of the store itself
per-say or the dealings I had with the employees there, but I
haven't been there in 5 years and maybe they have improved or
at least got some better employees by now.

Maybe do a deal with a cage builder (barrs? boaphile?) and stock
the *good* cages instead of just glass reptariums, critter
keeps and cham. condos.

Having the common stuff is good, esp colubrids, kings, corns,
maybe pine and gophers, I would see people buy these more often
than boas or the bigger pythons. Also as BCIJOE stated, the
insects are good too, sunnyvale pets also had a big spider
section which was pretty popular.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do, I hope I didn't ramble too much! lol
-April

You should see if Pete from incredible pets will talk to you. He seems to have the right recipe. Really a cool store no matter what you’re into. It is located in Melbourne, and you can get a good idea what its like from the web site. There is allot of cool stuff that you can't buy on display, sloth, HUGE alligator snapping turtle, loose iguana, etc.

Making things work financially behind the scenes seems to be the problem though...

It's funny you mention Prehistoric Pets. I used to work there when I was a kid, actually it was Pet Country back then and they offered dog grooming and other pet supplies including dog food until one day the owner cleared all that stuff out and went reptiles only. He was obviously successful moving to a larger store. Not a big fan of the store myself but I think if you took some advice like Mickey's and other succesful owner's, keeping prices lower than area competition and selling a high volume of feeder's of all sorts and hiring good knowledgable staff that are trustworthy, I would think you could be successful. I also think maintaining some breeding stock of popular herps would be a good idea as well. That definitely increases your profit margin a bit not having to purchase from outside sources.

I also think education is key to. Hit up local schools doing presentations. That's a great way to advertise as well as teach youngsters about herps. I know first hand that it got me thinking.....Good luck in whatever you choose to do. Life is short.....follow your dreams and if your passion is there than things will work out.

Pet stores come and go.....

How about a small reptile zoo(and exotics)? You can breed "behind the sceens" and have a very educational based business. Public zoo's are going to be a thing of the past....private zoos are the only hope. Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD is a prime example of that. Let me know if you have any more questions....I would love to work in a nice place like that....call me I want a job!!

Good luck!!!
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Chris
Contact
Captive Bred Herps

0.0.2 Gila Monsters
1.2 KSB "Normal"
1.2 KSB "Albino Het/snow"
1.1 KSB "Anery"
2.2 Rubber boas
3.3 Solomon Island G. Boa
3.3 BCL
1.2 BCC Born 5-30
1.0 Leopard Gecko
1.0 Pacman Frog

np
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Jim

Well I wish you the best of luck in healing. As for starting a shop, here are a few thoughts based on my experinces thus far.

Start up money is a MUST. Be ready to spend a good amount of money to get this going, 50-100 k would be a good place to be at if possible. Thats thinking small, and yes you could start for less but its tough.

Keep you overhead low, Im not sure what your markets like, but in mine to survive I had to think cheap on rent. The less you spend on rent the more you can spend on the shop itself, advertising, ect.

Keep the place clean, nothing spells a disaster more then a smelly shop. Im sure you wouldnt have to worry there, but its worth mentioning.

Supplies sales for us have been GREAT. We keep our prices at or below pet co's prices. In our market thats a cheap as it gets. My feeders are likely to low, but another way to get people in the door.

We purchase our supplies in large bulk when they offer specials. This allows us to make a great mark up, but does call for a bit of an investment. The down side is come tax time you want to have as low of an inventory as possible, so keep that in mind. We purchase mostly one line for our reptiles, exo terra. This allows us to buy in bulk, and to get benifits of a gold level vendor from them. This allows us to keep our prices low to help draw people in.

If I can be of any more help, let me know. Good luck if this is the route you go, be ready for alot of stress.
OUR SHOP

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Mickey Hinkle

"I am the lizard king, I can do anything"....Jim Morrison

Hey,

I hurt my back about 7 years ago. Herniated TWO discs, played the frustrating workmans comp game ("How do I survive on THIS?"
And faced the same dilemma, cant go back to what you were doing, dont want to be retrained in low wage jobs with no future( A workcomp specialty)

I am not sure if your injury was workmans comp related or not, but do know a few things about the pet industry. Hope it helps. I wrote alittle song about it...want to here it? Here it goes...

People tend to get invloved in opening pet shops up with the idea of not only makeing money but incorporating something they like into a MONEY MAKEING VENTURE.

Like any other business, starting out with a good BUSINESS MODEL is necessary, not optional. Developing a coherent and logical business plan NOW will help you greatly in the end. Takeing business classes NOW will benefit you greatly also.

Pet shops? Reptile shops? Fish shops? Bird shops?
I have at one time or another worked for ALL of the above.
I have also learned from their owners mistakes, and watched as several of them went the way of the TITANIC dureing their first year in business.

LOCATION is crucial. If it is too isolated or badly advertised, people wil not come to it.

SELECTION: If it is a specialty store than you must truly offer a varied selection of top quality animals. People that got to specialty stores generally have a higher expectaion of what they want than multi pet stores. This includes hard goods also, cages, books, heaters, lights, etc etc

Hours: Hours need to be geared to your customers schedules, I see a lot of Specialty fish shops here that sell hard to get andtaboo fish, and their "Written" hours are TINY(Of course people come by after hours for their good stuff, but still..)

STAFF: Man the store with people that have either one of two things:
a)GREAT personalites and good people skills
and/or
b)Excellent degree of knowledge of whatever animals you keep

NOTHING is more dismaying than going into a store to find a low paid employee that is burned out on makeing peanuts, while his/her boss lives well, and shows it in their attitude...or someone that doesnt know much at all.

Multi pet stores can catch more customers, but then you are dealing with the needs of a variety of diffrent animals. And hard line products.

Frankly....the PETCOS nd PETSMARTS will beat you on p[rice when it comes to hard line goods, esp food products. BUT...they usually have a lousy selection of animals, that are sometimes ill kept and they employ staff that is usually lacking knowledge or underpaid and they dont stay. Yours can be better than this.

Best of luck to you....I hope it works well

Sincerely,

Fred Albury