best way too start coral buisness

F

franktankcorals

New member
I am trying to start making money off my coral tank. I have lots of sps mother colonys. And would like too start my own coral fragging business. Free on anyones input!!
 
I would start with using the correct to.

As far as I understand it though, for it to be worth most people's time, if you want to be a coral farmer your scale has to be huge. Otherwise you're just doing it for fun and it won't really even cover your electricity, water, salt, supplement cost.
 
There's an old saying...

'How do you make a small fortune (insert activity here)? Start with a large fortune!

Making enough money to support your habit/justify it to spouse shouldn't be that hard. If you can reduce costs there might even be some profit. Lighting, electricity and SW are probably the biggest. I think places like ORA use greenhouses. Cuts down on lighting needs. You might see if you can tour ORA for ideas.

How big an operation are you thinking about?
 
It depends on what you want to do.

Intuitively I would imagine that the people actually making money with a small-scale installation (aka "a couple of tanks in my basement" rather than ORA) are the ones that sell "limited editions" with crazy names (especially zoas). If you want to sell cheap coral frags, that might be harder to make a living out of it.

No matter which way you choose, best of luck in your endeavor!
 
Being your in FL, you'll need an Aquaculture permit from FWC to start. They watch the fish/coral trade pretty close, so you definitely want to do it with the proper permits...cost a lot more if you don't.
 
Ok so say I'm caption obvious now cause it's going to hurt later so here it is make money.anna
 
youll need a dba and a federal tax number and a wise idea to keep more than one tank i had a wholesale accounts and the weekend i was going to frag all my livestock my heater stuck on and boiled thousands and now out of biz best of luck
 
Geraud said:
It depends on what you want to do.

Intuitively I would imagine that the people actually making money with a small-scale installation (aka "a couple of tanks in my basement" rather than ORA) are the ones that sell "limited editions" with crazy names (especially zoas). If you want to sell cheap coral frags, that might be harder to make a living out of it.

No matter which way you choose, best of luck in your endeavor!
Click to expand...

There's 2 basic approaches to running a successful business. One is to be a cost leader. A cost leader sells an acceptable product at the lowest possible price.

The other approach is to differentiate your product. Here, you find a way to make your product stand out from the competition and charge a premium for it. There is a reefer near me who has spent many years developing his brand and now seems to be enjoying the fruits of his labor.

If I was going to choose an approach, I would begin with a hobby tank and learn how to manage the chemistry. Get your coral growing and start making trades and selling to LFS's (local fish stores). Only sell quality frags and begin gaining a reputation for selling high quality frags so that you can get a premium price tag for it.
 
I would pick out a few fast growing coral that are in demand and have similar needs. A few tanks that each have one kind of coral would be my plan. Get them growing fast and hope you can sell it.
 
Managing your overhead costs is key.... As a hobbyist, your time is free. As a business, your time is not. :) If you keep it simple and just sell off extras that naturally happen, then you'll probably be able to enjoy the hobby for cheaper costs like others have said... Just because you are good at keeping corals does not neccessarily equate to being able to successfully operate a business. However, the American Dream is not built on people not taking risks :) It depends on a well thought out plan and a little luck....

Ty
 
I'd start slow. sell your frags on ebay or in the for sale section on reefcentral and other frum sites. then see where it goes from there.

shipping will be your big issue. overnight is expensive and most online retailers do not charge the actual cost of shipping and often take a loss on shipping products.
 
Hmm - I think we lost "Franktankcorals". Perhaps he listened to the advice here and will avoid losing large amounts of money trying to make a hobby-scale business pay.

Funny thing about this - there are lots of lots of folks doing woodworking and "making money at it". Except that their definition of "making money" is covering the cost of their materials and perhaps a little bit extra, and ignoring the cost of their time and the cost of the investment in their equipment.

Growing coral isn't going to be any different, except that the energy, chemical, food and equipment cost is going to be a whole lot higher than a woodworking shop!
 
Agreed.. Very similar thing to having a vegetable garden. If you can break even, You're doing pretty good. Not trying to shoot dreams down but if you wanna talk business, a whole lot of energy(=money ) goes in to a very slow growing product. Superior products like others have mentioned would be the only way to go. Maybe even only to break even.. But that could be a win all in itself.
 
dkeller_nc said:
Hmm - I think we lost "Franktankcorals". Perhaps he listened to the advice here and will avoid losing large amounts of money trying to make a hobby-scale business pay.

Funny thing about this - there are lots of lots of folks doing woodworking and "making money at it". Except that their definition of "making money" is covering the cost of their materials and perhaps a little bit extra, and ignoring the cost of their time and the cost of the investment in their equipment.

Growing coral isn't going to be any different, except that the energy, chemical, food and equipment cost is going to be a whole lot higher than a woodworking shop!
Click to expand...

Atleast with a wood working shop, if you get frustrated with it you can walk away and forget about it for a week or so... A tank of corals on the other hand....
 
I would just try to look at it as a tax write off myself and try to defray some of the costs for the hobby. Just incorporate it and use it as a shell. Every vacation and most things you do would be run through the corporation. You can even put your kids on the board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T Diddy
SPS with softies??
Replies
12
Views
291
T Diddy
T Diddy
griss
Okay, another one Zoo Med Lowboy Frag Tank
Replies
13
Views
190
griss
griss
Corals.com
***SOFT CORALS GALORE!*** Corals.com
Replies
5
Views
239
Corals.com
Corals.com
S
New to the forms starting my second tank
Replies
8
Views
131
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
D
Bubble coral !
Replies
5
Views
211
Drews89
D
Back
Top