Adventures with Corndog: Corndog's Fish Store

It's basically a sign that has my Logo on it, with 2 big white arrows that point in a direction. I'm having a new sign made that is an A frame sign to be stand up while someone is there doing random tricks. The guy doing the sign waving is a performer of sorts.

When it's not in use with someone out on the main street, it'll be a second a frame sign at the end of my parking lot.

I do pay this sign waver actual wages. Hes my employee in the shop too. When sales are slow, out to work the corner you go! Before they ban sign waving, they'll have to ban the people pan handling on the same corners.. I shit you not I see this sign the last 3 weeks. Going back to college this fall. Need money for school clothes.

I do see where the sign waver could be too distracting. However if it gets banned, it'll serve as a second sign.

Right now I typically have the sign waver out there during lunch hours and rush hour traffic home. What's different about my business is on Sunday a customer came in because of the sign waver. Spent $300. Then they came back in yesterday and spent $17, to start setting up their daughters tank. So I profited roughly $160 on those sales, paying for roughly 16 hours of sign waving. The thing is, these customers will continue to buy on at least a monthly basis. In the food industry, you might only make $3 on a plate of food/pizza etc... At that rate it's not worth it.

Another great thing is, if the sign brings in customers right away, I just text him and tell him to head back and help get the customers in and out. I plan to just make this a requirement for my employees. When business is slow, you can either go home, or wave a sign. But we can't just have 2 people doing busy work waiting for people.

OneofOne_sl said:

More power to you, but fuck, I would never do that shit haha. Back when I started working for my dad he briefly brought it up. I told him the day he asks me to do that is the day I quit.

Glad to hear the business sounds like it's moving right along though!

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It's a real easy way to weed out who is serious. Not many other jobs offer 10% profit sharing with employees for what's basically an entry level job. The problem is your dad brought it up after you already worked for him. You bring it up before they work for you. You have nothing invested in them at that point.

Last month was 20k through the register. This month is slower so far, more on part with previous months. It's still ridiculously hot here. 90 degrees here today. Which for a state where no one has air conditioning, the world has come to an end.

Working on lots of advertising avenues and such. Had t-shirts made , sold out, having new ones done up this week again. Had 1k window stickers made up, had 1 customer directly as a result of that so far.

Signed up and put into play bellycard.com rewards program, people seem to like it so far.

Working on SEO optimization stuff as time allows.

The biggest change in my life is becoming one of those people who just pays more for stuff to get it done. I've always been frugal, it's hard to adjust. My fiance got promoted and is making good money now, but has an hour commute each way. So now we typically both get home at about 8:30pm. No one wants to cook, so we've started eating out, which we can totally afford but I'd still prefer to eat at home as I can work while eating etc.

Yeah, I'm still packing lunches and we still eat a home, With us both working so much lately, its easier to spend time together out eating. Once her schedule settles down in a week or two it'll be more eating in again.

Put just over 19k through the register last month. No new record, but I'm pleased.

I really want to improve my inventory/customer tracking etc. I use Square Register. It's now lack luster in terms of what I need. However Nov. 19 an update comes out that'll link Square with quickbooks. I'm hoping it'll allow the functionality I'm looking for.

Takes 8k in sales to sustain my business including my salary and employees wages currently. So at 19k, That's roughly 5.5k profit which is going back into the business currently. I've been buying more and more advertising lately.

Been investing $300 a month in adwords. Did $350 for a mailer to local homes. I'm also putting together some small 7 gallon tanks to put in businesses to advertise for myself. Starting with businesses close by first.

OneofOne_sl said:

Only 8k? I guess your markups are much higher than I thought haha

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I also have very low overhead. 950 sq ft store putting down 20k. Power bill for the last 2 months was $300 using LED lights everywhere etc so that's $150 per month for power. Rent is only $850 which is really low for retail spaces. The markup in my store is everything is at least 226% markup. Which after the discounts I give local club members and 2.75% to credit card sales means everything at least doubles.

Some things like an Amano Shrimp for instance, I pay 66 cents each, and sell them for $3.29. I sell roughly 125 of them a month currently. Neon tetras are 40 cents and sell for $1.59 and I sell roughly 200 a month.

The profit ratio can be pretty high, but it's all because of livestock management. If you let a tank die, lots of money can be lost. Also different suppliers and different times of year dictates what will be profitable and what wont.