Reptile shop keepers help please please please please please

[BADGERS MUM]

hi there you gave me some advice on my topic only fair to return it,as a new owner as you know ive had loads of trouble locating a local reptile shop it seems they all cater for fish firstly then a little bit for reptiles so you should do well anywhere you obviously have the knowledge which my local shop lacks! i actually own a small retail business nothing to do with what youd be doing,obviously or i wouldnt be asking so many leo questions but ive found the key is knowing your stuff,people appreciate good advice you soon build up a rep for this and from what ive heard from you,you know your stuff,ive a small website too get the word round and 1 person will tell another,i know this aint much help business wise in what youre trying to achieve but a little insight from some1 who has a shop,i wish you all the best and this from my experience is a shop thats greatly needed,i was in there 15 mins max and at least 10 people came in for crix etc its a huge possible market! i sell wet fish by the way my husband catches it i sell it,no big deal but we do ok the key is knowledge,regards Sam aka badgers mum

[DeanThorpe]

Hi badgers mum.
Fish eh? sweet.
Thanks for your advice, ive been in retail [small independant, not big comp] for 9 years since i left school and know most aspects of er... people mentality and the sort of shit estate agents give you, I am now fully aware that in most cases the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing because the left hand is too busy fingering the right hands boss... anyway sorry bit of "Council" humour there.
Where in Suffolk are you?

Della g.
Sorry, read through your post after you posted it but meant to respond to you directly.
We are in Ipswich, we have One Rep shop which also does tropical fish and has a section for birds, rodents, etc also.
They are well established but the general feel of the place is one of "we r not bothered" and its fairly dank to say the least.
Any suppliers you can point us in the direction of would be great, we have already made a few GOOD contacts, and found plenty of mediocre suppliers, I can say with confidents that if we got the business loan tomorow we would be marching full steam ahead and not stopping for much.
However, untill we have looked at every supplier of everything we cannot consider ther business plan done and we are still hoping to find a couple more "really good ones"
So please yes, if you could pm us that would be superb, infact ill pm you this post to make sure you see it.


Oh and a couple ppl mentioned about CB,WC etc and we will most probably stick entirely with CB but if an "inteligent reason" comes about to stock something that is either CF or WC comes along it will be considered.

Thanks all.
Dean

[BADGERS MUM]

im in kessingland suffolk.our nearest shop for reptile supplies is lowestoft they are pretty good but you know how it is its nice to get specialist advice as you wouldnt be too far away from me.

[DeanThorpe]

Cool.
Yes we would/will be setting up in Ipswich.

[BADGERS MUM]

im hopeless at directions but getting a tomtom 4 xmas hooray! so fingers crossed you get up and running and ill find my way there!

[cornmorphs]

i just got one.. lol, i seemed to manage ok without it, but looking at it now i dont know how

[DeanThorpe]

lol. i just asked trese wtf a tom tom was... its a gps apparently...one you can carry with you...i dont know some stuff............thats all.

we wont be open by xmas im afraid,
would be nice lol

[BADGERS MUM]

tom tom... for people like me who turn around and get lost! also what ive been thinking is as for competition thats not a worry we are set up on a working harbour with 2 other shops selling the same as us,the difference being we sell our own fish from our own boat people like this as they know its fresh,but like you said working with the public as you have since leaving school youll never please all the people all the time,i deal with some real w***ers sometimes but mostly the people who come to us do so because they get good honest advice and service,not like the bigger shops where the staff talk to each other and throw your change at you,im always painfully aware these people are paying my mortgage so when ive had a crap day im still smiling like a fool lol

[DeanThorpe]

lol yeh... i am like that when im happy........ but often im swearing under my breath.
but i get the most annoyin customers of all time, dealin with the very lowest end of the market in many cases tobe honest, and it really takes it out of me at times.

DeanandTrese

Firstly and let me be honest with you here i found it extremely hard to open a reptile shop if possible you need to open up to a wider field which would also include aquatics and other pet foods etc.

When i opened my shop i put in 25k straight away to rent premises,buy insurance,equipment and stock.This turned out to be IMO no where near enough(i could have done with double the start up cash)

Suppliers of dry goods are fairly easy to sort out.The main supplier for southern England is Peregrine Livefoods.If you go to their website you can get a catalogue from them.They are cheaper than many of the suppliers such as ZooMed and Exo-Terra as you can get a trade discount depending on how much you spend with them also if your order is over £100 you get free TNT delivery and they also sell animals as well.Not the most competitive on animals but good for a fall back.Another good supplier is Monkfield Nutrition.

As for mark up you really need to be doubling the purchase price to stand a chance.I also spent 3 days a week travelling around the country to get livestock at the best prices from private breeders and this can be the best option for you to make a good profit(needed with all the bills to pay)

Beating website prices or local competitors is always going to be a hard thing to do unless you can shift a lot of stock.This way you can order more in getting larger discounts allowing you to undercut all the people you need to without losing your profit margin.


Remember that your biggest problems are going to be an accountant(get a bloody good one)The VAT man(turnovers of 50k need to be declared and you have to pay VAT)Fire extinguishers and then their upkeep and lastly public liability insurance(This can be a small fortune)Then with rent and rates you need to have a bloody good supplier base and an excellent client base.


This is the reason i say if possible do not limit yourselves to a reptile shop as you will only cater for a very small portion of the market go for the wider market where if reptile sale slacken of you have the other stock to fdall back on.

Hope this helps you out but if you need more info then shoot me a pm and i will see if i can help in any way.