Fish Store Owners, I need advice.

[Andrew]

some keys things I've learned:

-Sell online! This will extend your market and help make up for those slow weeks. Invest in a good web designer to build you a clean and easy to use site.

-Have everything clearly marked with prices! People used to ask me none stop what the price of things of. Now I clearly mark and list the prices the day before the fish arrive so there is no question on the costs.

-Have a FRAG tank! Buy in larger pieces and cut them down yourself. Much cheaper and than it looks cleaner to mount them to plugs and display them. Organize the tank by price range and have $8,$,10,$15,$20,ect clearly marked. You will make a lot of your coral sales off the frag tank and which can help pay the bills the most.

-Keep the tanks clean as can be. Never let the glass get dirty inclucding the outside. You have to present the product well for it to attract. Upgrade the lighting even in the fish only tanks to make it brighter and have the fish stand out.

-Order weekly! Rather you go with a USA wholeseller or buy direct, make sure you have fish and coral arriving each week. If a customer comes in for a month and you have the same thing they wont come back as often. Change it up and make it interesting to keep people coming back weekly.

-Start an email list where you will send out arrival dates of new products and livestock. If business is slow, send out an email with samples of what you expect to arrive the next day alone with sales and this will attract customers if they see something that catches their eye.

-Don't give deals to people! If you give deals and never charge the sticker price everyone will always want a deal and look at your sticker price as the highest offer. I've gone through this many times with giving people price cuts for buying more than 1 and ect and every time it ends up bad. They come back and ask for "their price."

-Stock a wide range of equpiment. Some people will want a cheap skimmer and others will want the very best so stock the full range. Keep parts on hand and the fish food stocked up! Frozen foods will sell very quick so always keep extra on hand so you're not ordering more for 2 day shipping and paying an arm and a leg.

 

[vitz]

make sure you know about your subject. bs'ing customers and carrying unhealthy livestock are the 2 main reasons stores end up dying.

never worry about your competition. worry about yourself.

never try to push or force a sale-if you plant a seed correctly, it will come back and grow. word of mouth is THE best form of advertising-and negative word of mouth spreads quickly.

presentation is nearly everything

fwiw-an lfs is one of the worst/hardest ways to recoup any investment. i honestly don't think a quality lfs can be built/operated for it's 1st year for less than 500k, and you should expect at least 5yrs before getting your investment back.this industry is one of the most, if not the, difficult retail venues to succeed in, and has a sky high dropout/failure rate w/in the 1st 5 yrs.

(and make sure your staff aren't mostly incompetent on the subject matter at hand, like 99% of most lfs's )

 

[vitz]

make sure you know about your subject. bs'ing customers and carrying unhealthy livestock are the 2 main reasons stores end up dying.

never worry about your competition. worry about yourself.

never try to push or force a sale-if you plant a seed correctly, it will come back and grow. word of mouth is THE best form of advertising-and negative word of mouth spreads quickly.

presentation is nearly everything

fwiw-an lfs is one of the worst/hardest ways to recoup any investment. i honestly don't think a quality lfs can be built/operated for it's 1st year for less than 500k, and you should expect at least 5yrs before getting your investment back.this industry is one of the most, if not the, difficult retail venues to succeed in, and has a sky high dropout/failure rate w/in the 1st 5 yrs.

(and make sure your staff aren't mostly incompetent on the subject matter at hand, like 99% of most lfs's )

 

[blue ridge reef]

Not an owner but I have seen a few stores come and go. My thinking is location is not a huge deal.

I am an owner, and my experience is location is EVERYTHING! This may vary in an area where there is a higher hobbyist to store ratio than here, but in my area -the stores that are hard to find tend to struggle, no matter how well run.

I am not an owner

Advice
1) put a price tag on everything. I get sick and tired of going into a store and asking how much for the acro, how about the monti, how much for that rock with mushrooms, if you want to sell it out a price on it

2) two water systems one for coral and one for fish. Fish should have copper and maybe slightly lower salinity. You can cascade the water changes if you want, new salt water goes into coral system, coral water goes into fish water, fish water goes down the drain.

3) talk to the customer ask about their water quality, give advice, offer to test their water quality for a small fee, make the fee small, they will come back with a small bottle of their water and they will also buy something from you a second time, the personal relationship will go far. Rent par meters, customer rents par meter goes home tests lighting and comes back to drop it off and buys something again. have your filtration system visible but also tidy. Talk to the customer about how your filtration system is set up. Have smaller equipment like you have that they can buy.

Agreed on prices. Label them, and mean them.

I would suggest keeping tanks on individual power filters for fish. I would strongly recommend against running copper. Hypo-salinity does not seem to make a difference one way or the other. If you get fish in with parasites, they have to be treated or destroyed. If you have any fish racks, run a powerful UV. Plan on doing frequent H2O changes.

Testing water is great, but learn to tell who is even a hobbyist. I am amazed at the number of people that don't even know (or care) what kind of fish they have. You are casting your pearls to go beyond a simple explanation and a care sheet for a percentage of the people who will come into your store -this is much higher with fw hobbyists. I hate to sound that way, but after 6 years of customers arguing with me that they "never change water, just add it for evaporation and my fish are fine!" I have learned just to smile and say good luck with that. These people will never have long term success and will blame the place they bought the livestock for it dying. I'd prefer these customers go to Petco. I would also weigh what percentage of folks like this make up your customer base before deciding to have a warranty of any kind on livestock. Sorry to sound like a downer, the good hobbyists more than make up for it.

 

[shirley386]

From my observations there are two types of LFSs. A wise businessman will probably realize the difference and decide to try something else.

1. The person who is a hobbyist and has a passion for the hobby. He/she thinks it would be a "fun" way to "work". Every day he/she would be dealing with people who have a like mind/hobby and would be selling to those people who will recognize his/her expertise. They don't think they will get rich but think they will make a good living while enjoying themselves. A year or two down the road they will fail.

2. Go big or go home! Carefully analyze the prices you will pay for items and prices you can sell them for. What will differentiate you from your competitors? What will be your monthly overhead? How much will I have to sell to break even? Can I supplement my walk-ins with web sales?

 

[jfarr]

i also was looking into opening a store but i could not get wholesalers to even talk to me untill i have a morter and brick building and would not allow sales to someone selling out of there basement.this was from several highend wholesalers but thats just my experience hope u have better luck

 

[vitz]

i also was looking into opening a store but i could not get wholesalers to even talk to me untill i have a morter and brick building and would not allow sales to someone selling out of there basement.this was from several highend wholesalers but thats just my experience hope u have better luck

from their p.o.v. there are very good reasons for that

for one, the b&m stores they do sell to won't be too happy w/the wholesaler for dealing w/someone who isn't on the level playing field-why should they have to risk what they do financially and have someone compete w/them at the source who isn't investing the same risk?

however, plenty of wholesalers/exporters will deal with you with just a business license. lots of exporters are also selling directly to small ops, and have been for quite some yrs now

and having said that, if you're doing this as a serious venture, it shouldn't be that difficult or expensive to rent some cheap warehouse space, put up a sign, and get a yellow pages listing. business licenses are pretty cheap, iirc.

the diff in what you'll pay for livestock from a 'high end' wholesaler might pay off the capital needed to cheaply set up a location.no one says you have to sell from there

 

[ReachTheSky]

I fully agree with pricing being clearly labeled. Lots of LFS' I visit don't do this and it's very annoying to me as a customer. I want to see something, know what the price is and contemplate whether I should buy it or not without having to ask for help. I've often left without buying something I wanted because it was not marked and there was a line for help.

Try not to lie or otherwise hide the truth from your clients. Keep in mind, most are recurring customers. I'm not saying be extremely honest because you can talk them out of buying just about everything that way. Extreme cases do need to be clarified though. Venomous fish are a MUST for example unless you enjoy leaving yourself open to lawsuits. Furthermore, let them know Panther Groupers are vicious predators of smaller fish, Butterfly Fish are NOT safe with corals, Blue Tangs grow to ridiculous sizes, Eels have a knack for climbing out of tanks and so on. You can build trust this way too.

 

[organism]

Avoid dry goods, they're too cheap online and will just sit around costing you real estate. Don't pick a location based on traffic and instead focus on size, concrete waterproof floors, rent, power bills being (much) cheaper in industrial areas, etc... Hobbyists are going to seek out your store anyway and it's not a random walk-ins based market.

Also, know your area's demographics and market. Just because your area doesn't have a fish store doesn't mean you should open one, maybe there's not one there for a reason, and just because your area is loaded with fish stores doesn't mean you should risk opening another one. Wanting to open up a fish store and successfully doing so take a ton of planning.

 

[Fish Biscuit]

Healthy livestock & give good advise to customers. No pushing tangs out the door to live in a biocube

Show prices for all fish & corals. I would keep dry goods to a minimum. Most people will buy online but will have to run to the LFS in an emergency for supplies so keep that in mind too.

In the long run you may or may not be better off to buy fish & corals from a high end wholesaler than importing them yourself into the country.

If you decide to import wildlife yourself, you will need a Customs broker like myself to handle the Customs & FWS clearances. You will need a bond for Customs which costs anywhere from $500 & up depending on how much you will import. You will need a FWS permit every year. FWS can tell you their charges. There will be a FWS user fee for every shipment. CITES permits will be involved as well. Unless you will be bringing in large shipments, the cost will kill you to import yourself. Airfreight will cost you about $10 per kg & then you also have DOA to worry about. Not worth the headache unless you are looking to be wholesale only.

 

[GreshamH]

FWIW a broker makes it easy, but is not required. I have done it both ways and I much prefer using a broker.

 

[JYoung]

Wow, thanks guys on all the helpful advice. I truly appreciate it. I believe I am just going to remove the vehicles from the garage and start in there.

 

[NeilFox]

I never owned a fish shop but I used to tranship fish and coral and dealt with alot of fish shops and the general public occasionally. The most frustrating thing was people ignoring your advice or even lying to you. Often people will overload the system or add incompatible species etc. When things go wrong they will often blame you. Alot of people are impulse buyers but many don't have a clear understanding of what is involved. Many just lack patience. Alot of people are new to the hobby, they will shop around. There is a really good chance that your competition is feeding them a line of BS just to make a sale.

 

[Fish Biscuit]

FWIW a broker makes it easy, but is not required. I have done it both ways and I much prefer using a broker.

The broker makes it easy because we get to do all the fighting w/ the airlines, Customs, FWS, truckers.... saving you the headache & slowly killing my liver because I have to calm my nerves with craft beer

 

[FishNFun]

I have no experience in any sort of LFS but I am lucky to have two really great reef stores within 20 minutes of me. The one, Reef Systems, is located out in a very rural area. His storefront is a separate building on his property next to his house. The front part of the store is pretty typical with display tanks, a few key dry goods (great prices on salt - always a draw) and the back part is a large greenhouse where he has his coral farm. He also does some research for Ohio State University through a grant he received. He's open to the public Wednesday through Sunday. He's always got some great livestock and stellar clams (he's got one that has to be two feet wide). Being in Ohio he does have to use some supplemental lighting via light movers but otherwise the greenhouse seems to do its job. He's super knowledgeable and very passionate about the hobby. I believe they also do maintenance work but not sure. For me, if I was going to open a LFS, I'd start small and take an approach similar to this. It seems to work well and the place is very highly regarded locally.

 

[fyrfytr]

I don't own, operate or even work at a LFS...but since others who are in my boat are throwing an opinion in I will too. Where I am at there are a few fish stores. One is what I would condider a medium box store (Jacks Pets), one is a mom and pop type store, and the other is a former wharehouse/wholesaler who turned retail (Gerbers Saltwater Warehouse). All are different, all have different setups. The things that they have in common are that they sell fish and other dry goods. When I had my tank start to crash I went to Jacks, luckily got the manager and he was MORE then helpful and went above and beyond for me. When it crashed I went back in to tell him that I had lost all the fish and we sat (stood) and tried to brainstorm what it was that caused the tank crash. Since I have stopped in a few times to see what is in stock and to just say hello. Talking to him I now know their shipment schedule and the last 2 times I went in before the shipment arrived he got out the order list for me and showed me what all he had on order and what he was excited over. Key to the story...if you are not running it yourself PEOPLE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.

Before I even got the tank started I took my 3yr old (fish nut) to Gerbers to just see what it was all about. The people there were great, as the guy working there was talking to me about saltwater stuff he would stop talking to me to answer whatever my 3yr old interjected into the conversation. Really made me feel welcome there. Didn't get my fish there, 5 min drive to Jacks vs 25 min to Gerbers....but Gerbers has the cool stuff where Jacks has the normal sometimes cool stuff.

 

[davew0670]

Not an owner but I have seen a few stores come and go. My thinking is location is not a huge deal. Obliviously you don't wanna be in the middle of no where, but if your main clientele is goin to be reefers you don't need a high traffic store front. I would look for a place with good rent price and something that is gonna be cheap to set up as a fish store. I would only do the bare minimum upgrades to the place. I don't really care what the floors are like in the store, I'm looking at the tanks. Also i don't think you need loads of dry goods to start out with. i don't expect the smaller stores geared towards reefers to have every pump, overflow , replacement part I'm looking for. Hope I could help a bit, if not least a bump.

this!

I drive 25 miles and pass 3 other stores just to get to one store. They have good prices and good quailty fish all the time.

Do not force someone to buy something from you. If they buy something from you and it doesnt work out and can be put back on the shelf and sold as new, give them the choice of getting a refund, not just store credit.

Good luck!

 

[chrissreef]

Don't spend $$ on fancy flooring and cutting edge LED lighting on all the tanks. Don't expect to get rich. Don't be the highest priced place in town. Don't pay for prime real estate in a shopping center. be able to have some service tanks/capability. I know of two reasonably priced stores in business for years b/c 1 is in an old shopping center and the other in the back of a shopping center. I believe a dentist is in the front and the reef shop is in the back by the dumpster lol. No windows but the coolest store by far and probably reasonable overhead b/c of the location.

 

[marvelousone]

what permits do you have to file for other than business license.

 

[BlakDuc]

Like was already said, don't underapreciate the sales from the nickel and dime stuff. The store I go to most regularly, I get all of my water from there(AquaSD in San Diego) Their tanks are most always immaculate, their quality is great and they have the higher end rare stuff. Having had my own RODI when I had a bigger system, I know it doesnt cost $1 for a gallon of mixed water, probably closer to $.15- .20. That is a pretty good return to me. Every time I go to get water, there are always a couple other people dragging their buckets in as well. It may not pay the bills, but I'm sure it helps.