I want to open a saltwater specialty store. Any advice?

[Skimmy]

"I want to open a saltwater specialty store. Any advice?"

the best advice i could give you is dont bother unless you can get your hands on at least $200,000 to $250,000

i hate walking into ghetto reef shops, totally unimpressive, and a dime a dozen...
make something that will "wow" people and draw them from 4 towns over.

there is a 2 year crash and burn cycle that alot of people who open pet related businesses fall into,
the 2 main things that take down your store??

undercapitalization,
mismanagement.

in plain english, it takes money to make money, ...how's your credit?? got a rich relative??

getting your feet wet with a cheap internet site, doing maintenance, and having multiple markets can definately help,
but having an actual "saltwater specialty store" really is quite expensive.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Brilliant writing Mark. Besides cash, the more connections the better. And not just to a few LA wholesalers, connections overseas at some point of source locations. A large part of my tank has come from picking over these failures. Many were well respected, very smart and very well connected. Success requires skill, knowledge, patience, Money, timing, location, connections, and a good market. Missing one or more ingredients and your venture will fail.

 

[Skimmy]

yes, besides having skills at designing peoples reefs
and offering them the ability to troubleshoot their systems and fix/upgrade them,
your supply relationships are paramount!! so take a trip to fiji or bali and make some new friends, lol
and then go get your importer's permit

 

[burning2nd]

permits where my fist thought....

$$$ to the square root