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Corn, are you going to keep a good amount of live rock? That seems to be one of those things that is such a pain to get shipped, etc.
Adventures with Corndog: Corndog's Fish Store
- Thread starter Corndog
- Start date
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I still get that now, and I've been profitable for years. At the end of the day, min/maxing your business holds much more allure than min/maxing your toon. When things are going right, you feel like a genius. I've promised myself to take more time for entertainment (but also to work harder) in 2013. How is that going to happen?
Some people live to work, others work to live. Personally, I feel a business is something you should enjoy and excel at, but does not define you. I try to leave my work at the office and when I come home I focus on my family and my enjoyment. Its better to have a balanced life. Work your ass off during the day, and as long as your business is doing fine you have nothing to feel guilty about when you come home.
I do not. My store is planned to be freshwater only. With the focus of high end fish and planted tanks. The saltwater in my area has been on the steady decline over the last 5 years with saltwater stores closing shop and stores ditching saltwater alltogether. With the unemployment rate in Washington etc, Saltwater has been hurting.
Frenzied Wombat
Potato del Grande
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As an active saltwater aquarist, this is one tough business to get into. On one hand, you have Petco cornering the spurious local "let's buy Sally a fishtank with disposable fish" market. You have places like Marine Depot and Dr. Fosters & Smith cornering the dry goods market and to a certain extent live fish as well.
Looking at the local stores in the Dallas area (which all suck), their dry goods are ridiculously overpriced, and their fish are almost guaranteed to be infected with flukes. Coral selection is usually poor and overpriced as well.
Despite their "suckiness", I can't really blame them. They need to price their dry goods so high to help cover the overhead of running the shop, and they need to keep a conservative selection of fish/corals to keep cash flow liquid and mitigate the cost a single infection can cause to their inventory.
The ONLY store in the city that is doing relatively well is a specialized coral only store run by a single guy out of a nondescript strip mall, and the place itself is a total dump with the exception of what he has in his tanks. Very little overhead and focused on one specialty that attracts a dedicated market segment willing to travel hours to see his inventory.
So inevitably, I buy all my dry goods from Marine Depot (Best Selection and Price), most of my stock from Diver's Den at F&S (pre-quarantined and pretty much guaranteed disease free), and most of my corals fromwww.extremecorals.com(best selection and great price). The only time I'll hit up the LFS is for something emergency related, like a big load of carbon when my anemone decided to get sushi'd by my powerhead..
I wish you the best and nothing is more fun for me than a well run, well stocked LFS, but unfortunately in the age of Marine Depot and overnight livestock shipping, it's really hard for them to remain competitive and profitable.
If I were you, unless I happened to be in a location where children were constantly passing by with parents, I would focus on finding some specific niche within the freshwater field and go after that. Chichlid tanks, or focus on designer type installs that fit into household d?cor. In home tank servicing is pure $$ and basically how some of the local stores around here survive. The standard LFS with some tanks, fish, and some dry goods collecting dust is really tough unless your location is absolutely perfect.
Looking at the local stores in the Dallas area (which all suck), their dry goods are ridiculously overpriced, and their fish are almost guaranteed to be infected with flukes. Coral selection is usually poor and overpriced as well.
Despite their "suckiness", I can't really blame them. They need to price their dry goods so high to help cover the overhead of running the shop, and they need to keep a conservative selection of fish/corals to keep cash flow liquid and mitigate the cost a single infection can cause to their inventory.
The ONLY store in the city that is doing relatively well is a specialized coral only store run by a single guy out of a nondescript strip mall, and the place itself is a total dump with the exception of what he has in his tanks. Very little overhead and focused on one specialty that attracts a dedicated market segment willing to travel hours to see his inventory.
So inevitably, I buy all my dry goods from Marine Depot (Best Selection and Price), most of my stock from Diver's Den at F&S (pre-quarantined and pretty much guaranteed disease free), and most of my corals fromwww.extremecorals.com(best selection and great price). The only time I'll hit up the LFS is for something emergency related, like a big load of carbon when my anemone decided to get sushi'd by my powerhead..
I wish you the best and nothing is more fun for me than a well run, well stocked LFS, but unfortunately in the age of Marine Depot and overnight livestock shipping, it's really hard for them to remain competitive and profitable.
If I were you, unless I happened to be in a location where children were constantly passing by with parents, I would focus on finding some specific niche within the freshwater field and go after that. Chichlid tanks, or focus on designer type installs that fit into household d?cor. In home tank servicing is pure $$ and basically how some of the local stores around here survive. The standard LFS with some tanks, fish, and some dry goods collecting dust is really tough unless your location is absolutely perfect.
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Corndog alluded to this earlier, and I hate to derail, but I have quite a bit of worry about many retailers in all arenas. I don't need an insurance agent for 99% of the insurance I own, because I do almost all of it on the internet. I drive by those people with their insurance companies and I wonder who is using them, instead of just doing it themselves online. So many stores are just useless now because I can get anything I want online, usually cheaper, and usually really quick. I got a giftcard to BestBuy for x-mas and I regifted it, because I know there's nothing there I want that I can't get cheaper online, without paying sales tax, and without having to be hassled by a blue shirt. There's just so much "business" that is almost made irrelevant now with the internet, it does make me scared about the economic repercussions of it all.
Tmac
Adventurer
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I think this is a great problem to have. It shows that you have passion for what you're doing and a drive to be successful. That's what it takes. You're going to have to work your butt off to make it and might even have to stay at your store all day, every day some weeks. That's what people don't understand about small business. It takes serious guts and it takes serious drive.
The guilt part is the only thing that would bother me. If you're getting everything you need to get done and not actively neglecting anything, time to burn some steam is good. If you're always working in/on your business and never making time for your family or yourself, that's a problem. You should always schedule out free time for yourself.
Tmac
Adventurer
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Internet sales are growing, but it's still not the preferred method of shopping by the masses. Online shopping purists are still in the minority, but in the next 5-10 years I could see that drastically change. Especially now that kids spend more time communicating on their phones and less time face-to-face.
I'm making moves right now to be the first in my industry to transition to purely online marketing. No one else is doing it and they all rely on referrals. People shouldn't fear the change, because there's still competition to be had. Not every online business meets every need, so niches will always exist. The key is finding the niche you can fill, just like Corndog is has done.
Now, I consider myself very green in the saltwater arena. Show me any freshwater fish and I've bred it, but saltwater is an entirely different animal. I believe what it takes to make a retail store work and attract an advanced aquarist like yourself is things that aren't worth ordering or can't be ordered.
My store is freshwater only. But even I will have live brine shrimp every day of the week. Not baby brine, but like half inch grown brine. A saltwater store doing this helps people who want to keep things like mandrain gobies, seahorses etc. On top of that. If you were looking for a mandrain goby, I think you'd pay more for one that was pellet trained yeah? Things like this is what make the niche stores work.
I think the overall goal for any fish store right now, be it fresh or salt. Is keep enough high end cool stuff in stock. That when you want to go shopping you can. Instead of I need 6x turbo snails for my tank. I should order that. You could walk into the store and get them for $1.49 each and they lure you in with other stuff that looks good in person.
Even if you never buy a single coral, or fish from your local fish store. If they can get you hooked on a live food like live brine shrimp and they can even sell it below cost. You'll tell everyone you meet where you saw some nice xxxx fish or coral. Unfortunately saltwater tends to have a higher learning curve for stock compatibility. Which means people do research online, then order online. Freshwater is considered a point and shoot. Most things can go together really in some form or another and more impulse purchases are made for fresh than saltwater.
The only saltwater stores that are making it around here have to do events to get saltwater people together. Frag swaps etc. You'd think this would hurt the bottom line. But it gets people off the internet and craigslist and into your store. When they're in your store you have a chance to sell anything. If they never come by at all, you have no chance.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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One thing that will keep people coming back is to establish a relationship with them and try to get to know people who come in more than once. I am personally terrible at that sort of things which is why I will never be a good salesman or customer service person, but I did have one LFS that I went to where the old man that owned the shop was kind of a character and remembered me when I came in and would actually talk to me about what was going on in the shop. Because I knew the guy's name and sort of had a relationship with him, I would always try to get stuff from him first if I could and I didn't mind paying a little extra vs. the internet or petco. He also always had a slutty-looking teenage girl working for him which you could consider cool or creepy I guess.
I don't agree that the internet is winning over live fish sales either. I have bought fish from the internet, but it's a pain in the ass and expensive as hell. The last time I bought a box of African Cichlids I paid $55 for the fish and $45 for shipping. On top of that, since I live up north it's not an option in the winter time. I did it because I had no other choice, but if I had a LFS that was willing to order things for me, it would have been a no-brainer for me even if it was the same price or a bit higher. I don't find that too many LFSs are willing to order specific cichlids though, for the most part they just have the tank of generic "african cichlids" which are usually hybrids and not in very good shape even if you can positively identify them. Secondly, no beginner is going to order fish in the mail. Most people aren't even aware that it's an option and half the fun of it is going to the store and looking at them, especially if you have kids. I will often walk into a LFS if I'm just walking down the street just to see what they have even if I'm not interested in buying anything.
I don't agree that the internet is winning over live fish sales either. I have bought fish from the internet, but it's a pain in the ass and expensive as hell. The last time I bought a box of African Cichlids I paid $55 for the fish and $45 for shipping. On top of that, since I live up north it's not an option in the winter time. I did it because I had no other choice, but if I had a LFS that was willing to order things for me, it would have been a no-brainer for me even if it was the same price or a bit higher. I don't find that too many LFSs are willing to order specific cichlids though, for the most part they just have the tank of generic "african cichlids" which are usually hybrids and not in very good shape even if you can positively identify them. Secondly, no beginner is going to order fish in the mail. Most people aren't even aware that it's an option and half the fun of it is going to the store and looking at them, especially if you have kids. I will often walk into a LFS if I'm just walking down the street just to see what they have even if I'm not interested in buying anything.
Tmac
Adventurer
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I go to a hole-in-the-wall seafood joint in my town simply because the guy behind the counter calls me by name and always says he's glad to see me. Sometime's we'll catch up, other times we won't, and if I'm with my parents he calls them by name too (they go more than I do).
There's not even service, because you have to go up to the window yourself to order your food/drinks, but the food's pretty good and the guy behind the counter (Heath) is always there and he's always friendly.
The problem is most LFS want to deal in everything if there is money to be made. But that makes them a master of none. I will be focusing on very specific nano tank to 55g range with plant friendly fish. Lots of rare apistos, tetras, danios etc. I myself am into a huge range of fish. But you can't expect your employees to have the same knowledge and care for that rare of fish.
Rare Cichlids you say? I grabbed these F1 Alcolapia Alcalicus tonight. If things go well I should have fry in a few months.
Rare Cichlids you say? I grabbed these F1 Alcolapia Alcalicus tonight. If things go well I should have fry in a few months.
My saying goes. "I won't remember your name, but I will remember your fish." Usually when you come in I ask you how your fish are doing and reference either the last fish you bought or what I found out you owned last time you were in. The problem is in the retail business, it's really hard to remember that many names. You only remember the ones that were memorable. I know a successful businessman in the Tire industry who just calls guys "Boss" he says people love it because they're put into power with that name. Who doesn't love being the boss?
Tmac
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Agreed. I think the important thing isn't so much what you remember, but that you show the customer they are remembered and therefore valuable.
People want to be valued. People want to be heard. Do these two things and you're well on your way to happy customers.
Putting together my business uniform tonight. I'm shooting for business casual.
I'm thinking these shoes:http://www.amazon.com/Dockers-Mens-P...posal+in+shoes
For shirts I'm thinking these polos with my logo on them left chest.http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/produc...20006&cid=6983
Grey khakis:http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/produc...&pid=633496092
Typical attire in my industry for a local pet store is anything goes. Tshirts, jeans, any casual shoe etc. For petco and Petsmart it looks like black or khaki colored slacks and a blue shirt. casual shoes.
I really want to appeal to higher end customers. I've been setting up my store decor to reflect this and I need my personal image to reflect this as well. I have to have short sleeves as I'll be in fish tanks all day. I can't think of anything else to really give the business appearance. Can't really wear a nice watch in the fish tanks all the time.
I'm thinking these shoes:http://www.amazon.com/Dockers-Mens-P...posal+in+shoes
For shirts I'm thinking these polos with my logo on them left chest.http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/produc...20006&cid=6983
Grey khakis:http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/produc...&pid=633496092
Typical attire in my industry for a local pet store is anything goes. Tshirts, jeans, any casual shoe etc. For petco and Petsmart it looks like black or khaki colored slacks and a blue shirt. casual shoes.
I really want to appeal to higher end customers. I've been setting up my store decor to reflect this and I need my personal image to reflect this as well. I have to have short sleeves as I'll be in fish tanks all day. I can't think of anything else to really give the business appearance. Can't really wear a nice watch in the fish tanks all the time.
was wondering what thoughts / ideas you were going to have for a grand opening? when my mom opened up her shoe store, she had the local classic rock radio station come out for a half day shindig. Prize wheel, win a pair of shoes each month for that year etc etc. It drew out a pretty large crowd and i'd say at least 40% of the people that came were repeat customers for the duration of the store being open. you seem like a guy who could come up with some pretty creative offers / prizes for those listening to come out and check you out.
If I were doing retail, I would go big on my first grand opening and make my image and presence known from the start. I'd then make it a point to follow up with each and every person who attended (they'll need to give their information for eligibility for contests). you'll have little to do in the beginning once you're all setup, if you're slow, go in the back and start making cold calls (warm calls in this case since they already have shown interest. thank them for their time, remind them about the sales you are running then hang up and add them as a friend on facebook. after two weeks or so, i'd mail out some of my marketing material (fridge magnets with company name, pens etc), anything to establish top of mind awareness.
the radio will allure people who are actually interested in your products / service and from a sales perspective, these are your dream clients. don't half ass it, if you're going to do it, do it right. invest in your marketing material and make everything tie in with each other. your colors are pretty memorable, make sure you stick to that color theme to carry out throughout each piece of material; business cards, mailers, website, facebook and so on.
check out the ultimate sales machine by chet holmes. really, really awesome book and can change your game.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Sales.../dp/1591842158
If I were doing retail, I would go big on my first grand opening and make my image and presence known from the start. I'd then make it a point to follow up with each and every person who attended (they'll need to give their information for eligibility for contests). you'll have little to do in the beginning once you're all setup, if you're slow, go in the back and start making cold calls (warm calls in this case since they already have shown interest. thank them for their time, remind them about the sales you are running then hang up and add them as a friend on facebook. after two weeks or so, i'd mail out some of my marketing material (fridge magnets with company name, pens etc), anything to establish top of mind awareness.
the radio will allure people who are actually interested in your products / service and from a sales perspective, these are your dream clients. don't half ass it, if you're going to do it, do it right. invest in your marketing material and make everything tie in with each other. your colors are pretty memorable, make sure you stick to that color theme to carry out throughout each piece of material; business cards, mailers, website, facebook and so on.
check out the ultimate sales machine by chet holmes. really, really awesome book and can change your game.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Sales.../dp/1591842158
Tmac
Adventurer
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Ordered the book. Always looking for another read on business strats.
As for a grand opening I'm not sure yet. I know for a petco/petsmart they typically get 70-100k people through their door the first weekend.
I'm not sure how to structure the event for 1000 sq ft store. I've been thinking of lots of give aways etc. One store used a celebrity(not sure which one) but said it was a total flop, no one cared. Should I hire extra staff just for that weekend? Should I piggy back on another event? There is a play theater upstairs from me. 5 times a year they put on a new play. My grand opening could be that same weekend etc.
I'm a bit of a clothing whore. I pride myself on dressing quite well day to day and have put a lot of time and effort into researching / trying on etc. It's mildly off topic for the thread, but since you did bring it up.
If you want to appeal to a higher end business customer, please do not buy old navy polos / clothes. Dockers are ok shoes, i'm assuming that's about your price range for shoes, in which case you should really look into steve madden, bostonian, even the dressier rockports which are also known for being quite comfortable. I won't bore you with multiple links, buthttp://www.zappos.com/is a good place to research / look around.
Depending on your build depends on what brand clothes you want to look into. As a general rule, cheaper clothes are cut for fatter people. Short sleeves being a must, you are sort of limited to polos - however, don't ever underestimate the professional appearance of a well cut V neck t-shirt with nice jeans / shoes. Without getting into very expensive clothes, for khakis / chinos the best quality for the money is going to be at banana republic. For polos you want to go with calvin klein (Calvin klein runs *very* small on polos, you're probably going to be a size larger) you can mitigate a lot of the cost by just going on their email list, 30-40% off at least once a week or so. Lucky brand jeans are very classy looking jeans as well, that give you some other options besides khakis day in day out. Depending on your build will really dictate what brands will fit you well. No sense in clogging up the thread, but you can PM me if you'd like.
If you want to appeal to a higher end business customer, please do not buy old navy polos / clothes. Dockers are ok shoes, i'm assuming that's about your price range for shoes, in which case you should really look into steve madden, bostonian, even the dressier rockports which are also known for being quite comfortable. I won't bore you with multiple links, buthttp://www.zappos.com/is a good place to research / look around.
Depending on your build depends on what brand clothes you want to look into. As a general rule, cheaper clothes are cut for fatter people. Short sleeves being a must, you are sort of limited to polos - however, don't ever underestimate the professional appearance of a well cut V neck t-shirt with nice jeans / shoes. Without getting into very expensive clothes, for khakis / chinos the best quality for the money is going to be at banana republic. For polos you want to go with calvin klein (Calvin klein runs *very* small on polos, you're probably going to be a size larger) you can mitigate a lot of the cost by just going on their email list, 30-40% off at least once a week or so. Lucky brand jeans are very classy looking jeans as well, that give you some other options besides khakis day in day out. Depending on your build will really dictate what brands will fit you well. No sense in clogging up the thread, but you can PM me if you'd like.
Tmac
Adventurer
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His clothes are fine. No one's going to look at the tag of his pants/polo and gasp at the store he bought them from. The only part of the outfit I thought looked "cheap" were the shoes and the polo, but just barely. For shoes, since you're in a fish store, I'd suggest a knockoffboat shoe.