# Reptile shop owners question ?....Read details...?



## Cookaaaaay (Mar 8, 2009)

Hello,

I would love to own a reptile/mammal pet shop when I'm older.

So a question for reptile shop owners:

Do you do good ?

Do you enjoy your job ?

Do you keep busy ?

Thanks.


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

We don't own one, although we looked very seriously into buying one near us when it went up for sale (and in the long run I am glad we didn't).

If you want to run a successful shop, don't JUST concentrate on taking animal courses at college - take *business* courses. You need to know how to run a business if you're owning a shop, no matter what it sells; knowing how to care for the animals is only part of having a shop that will stay open.

When you own a shop, you'll probably find that you have some days where it feels like ALL you do is answer the same old questions and curse the poor care advice of "that other horrible shop." You'll have other days where you're stuck behind the counter doing nothing but selling boxes of crickets and frozen mice all day. And you'll have some days where knowledgeable keepers stop in to chat and you actually have time to talk with them. 

Having spent quite a few hours in our favourite shop (including open-to-close on a couple of occasions) I can tell you that you absolutely will be busy - especially if you find you can't afford to pay staff to help out with the feeding and cleaning.


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## crouchy (Jan 14, 2008)

Specialist reptile shops in general dont do amazingly well profit wise, especially if its a starter business. You can make a living but dont expect to get rich from it.

How well you do and how busy you are also depends on a huge number of factors like 
what city/town your in
whether you have parking. You will make more money from the setups and food than you do on the actual animals and no-one can be bothered to park 1/2 mile away or pay £1 to park if they only want a tub or 2 of live food.
what reputation you get
whether you get involved with the importation side of the trade
whether you manage to get direct accounts or have to go through wholesalers for your dry goods
what quality the animals are
what sort of range you carry in both livestock and dry goods.

also owning your own business isnt as easy as it may seem. You have to do all the stock control, stock selection, ordering yourself which again isnt as easy as it sounds. Selecting the right animals and dry goods is so easy to get wrong and you can easily be left with a whole bunch of stock you simply cant shift. plus youll probably be spending at least 5 hours a week after work doing the accounts If your planning on doing it by yourself all the animals will need to be fed, watered and cleaned out before the shop opens really, so you are going to be working a lot longer hours. 

Also for the first couple of years you probably wont make much of a profit if at all. A reptile shop relies mainly on repeat trade to make its money and as a new shop you wont have that. so you will need enough savings not only help set up the shop but also live for a couple of years while the business gets established.

Enjoyment wise its a lot like other things in life, what you get out of it depends on how much you put into it.


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## Cookaaaaay (Mar 8, 2009)

Thank you very much, very helpful.


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## Optikal (Feb 4, 2009)

I'm determined to own my own shop in the next five years. Not just a reptile shop, but a general pet shop dealing in all sorts. Partly because i'm an animal enthusiast, but mostly because I want to work for myself and be my own boss.


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## Cookaaaaay (Mar 8, 2009)

Optikal said:


> I'm determined to own my own shop in the next five years. Not just a reptile shop, but a general pet shop dealing in all sorts. Partly because i'm an animal enthusiast, but mostly because I want to work for myself and be my own boss.


Yeah same here.

Well hope you get your shop and good luck.


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## Cookaaaaay (Mar 8, 2009)

Anymore answers ?


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## Zoo-Man (Apr 12, 2008)

I love owning a pet shop! It is a diverse job & there is always something to do. We are keeping very busy & doing very well.


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## Mendipmonsters (Apr 23, 2009)

It can be very very rewarding and you will meet people who will stay friends for life, you will never stop learning and there will be a fresh challenges all the time. You wont get rich. You will probably work very long hours and holidays are mearly a dream. But you are your own boss and it is what you make it. Best advise I can give you is learn to keep as many species as possible. We frequently get people in the shop asking for jobs who think they know how to keep everything because they have a couple of corns and a beardie.In reality we probably have to deal with 100 or so different species each year in the shop and answer questions on tons more for customers. I have been breeding commercialy for 20 years and I still find a new species to learn to keep every year to keep me on my toes.This year its poison arrows and dragon agama's. So learn your animals,get some good qualifications and if you can offer to do work experiance in a good reptile shop. I say a good reptile shop, as if you learn in a bad one you will only learn bad habits. Buisness courses are OK,but you will learn more in your first 2 years of buisness than in 10 years at school. Hope that helps.:2thumb:


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## Reptacular Ltd (Nov 1, 2008)

We own a reptile shop in Hornsea.

Thoroughly enjoy owning it, love working with reps, but its long hours, and does have a boring side to it.

i spend at least two hours everyday cleaning, changing water, feeding, stocking shelves, pricing, answering emails, etc, etc. Then the rest of the time you are either stock taking, ordering, dealing with customers.

The most important lesson you can learn is to be honest, make sure you only stock top quality livestock, cheaper to buy is not always better. And you never stop learning. You do have to know the basics (if not a bit more) about most species. Obviously alot of people know the majority about your more commong species, but you will always get people who have something completely strange and fairly new to you. 

Not only is there the snakes, lizards, inverts, amphibs, theres also food, health, breeding,. housing, illnesses. The amount of questions that you get is unreal. 

You always get people in offering to do a days work cheap, but who can you trust. At the end of the day it is your reputation at stake as well.

We try to be honest as possible, only sell 100% healthy animals, quarantine things properly, and keep the shop as clean and tidy as possible. At the end of the day happy healthy animals, mean happy customers, which mean loyal customers.

Hope this is of some help, if you want to see behind the scenes a little, pop down to the shop for a brew


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

I agree 100% with Reptacular Ltd! You need to remember than it can take years to build up a good reputation and seconds to destroy it! 

Finding a good member of staff is one of the major issues we find (we both STILL work full time), we've only been open almost 4 years now and the amount of staff we have got through is ridiculous (apparently I have 'unobtainable cleaning standards' - lol). Be prepared for working 7 days, no holidays, lots of out of hours telephone calls, correcting other shops mistakes, and being completely exhausted! 

Ahem ... why on earth did we open a shop ?? :lol2:


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## Cookaaaaay (Mar 8, 2009)

Zoo-Man said:


> I love owning a pet shop! It is a diverse job & there is always something to do. We are keeping very busy & doing very well.


Ok thanks. 



Mendipmonsters said:


> It can be very very rewarding and you will meet people who will stay friends for life, you will never stop learning and there will be a fresh challenges all the time. You wont get rich. You will probably work very long hours and holidays are mearly a dream. But you are your own boss and it is what you make it. Best advise I can give you is learn to keep as many species as possible. We frequently get people in the shop asking for jobs who think they know how to keep everything because they have a couple of corns and a beardie.In reality we probably have to deal with 100 or so different species each year in the shop and answer questions on tons more for customers. I have been breeding commercialy for 20 years and I still find a new species to learn to keep every year to keep me on my toes.This year its poison arrows and dragon agama's. So learn your animals,get some good qualifications and if you can offer to do work experiance in a good reptile shop. I say a good reptile shop, as if you learn in a bad one you will only learn bad habits. Buisness courses are OK,but you will learn more in your first 2 years of buisness than in 10 years at school. Hope that helps.:2thumb:


Thanks. =)



Reptacular Ltd said:


> We own a reptile shop in Hornsea.
> 
> Thoroughly enjoy owning it, love working with reps, but its long hours, and does have a boring side to it.
> 
> ...


Thanks very much.



glidergirl said:


> I agree 100% with Reptacular Ltd! You need to remember than it can take years to build up a good reputation and seconds to destroy it!
> 
> Finding a good member of staff is one of the major issues we find (we both STILL work full time), we've only been open almost 4 years now and the amount of staff we have got through is ridiculous (apparently I have 'unobtainable cleaning standards' - lol). Be prepared for working 7 days, no holidays, lots of out of hours telephone calls, correcting other shops mistakes, and being completely exhausted!
> 
> Ahem ... why on earth did we open a shop ?? :lol2:


Haha


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## Paul B (Apr 16, 2008)

Oh my its all been said.
Its great and awful all at once.
because you are dealing with large numbers of reps you come across all sorts of issues that the majority of owners do not. 
Its one of the reasons I joined this forum.

Eg. How many beardie owners have seen their baby try to blow its eyes out.

It frit the sh%t outta me when it happened and i have been keeping beardies for years.

Apparently they have the ability to expand parts of their body to aid shedding. Well eyes like balloons are no fun.

Where was i. Oh yes read my signature...just had to do it... bought a pet shop and now do all sorts including 30 or 40 types of reptile / exotic. Not massive but hopefully getting a good rep (excuse the pun). 

You wont become a millionaire but its great fun and earns a few bob if you are careful.

P


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