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Old 05-07-2016, 09:36 AM
 
Location: Everett, WA
173 posts, read 180,585 times
Reputation: 164

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Hey All,

So my husband and I are looking to move to a small town and start our own business. We are spending a month traveling some of our desired areas to find the perfect place. I believe I have found the place so that leads us to what business to start. I have worked in rescues, training, dog daycare, boarding, and pet treat manufacturing. I'm certain there is more for me to learn but with all this I feel like the best fit for me is pet store. We aren't looking to make it rich and I've been known to put in 60-80 hour consistently (but I would prefer less).

The area I'm looking at does not have a pet store (nearest is 8 mi). The community is artsy and is a entrepreneur focused town. Also the area has a slightly higher than average income (relative to the state). I need to find the % of animal owners in the local area but the town supports 2 vet clinics, but the area is rural so this could be for farm animals too. I am also thinking if I find a large enough space to have an area for local trainers to use and be a 'hub' for networking within the pet community to help match customers with other needs - dog sitters, walkers, trainers, etc. The products would be things I would feel comfortable giving my pets and hopefully some local products from the community as well.

Because its always a risk I'm am thinking of 'testing' the waters or atleast minimizing the initial investment by starting out of our house offering a order system to reduce inventory on hand and purchase & then deliver product once it arrives.

My questions are

Does this seem viable?
Does the 'testing" idea seem worthwhile or just jump into the retail storefront?
For storefront, what capital do you need aside from property?
What hours could you expect to work?
How many customers do you need to thrive?


Thanks All!
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Old 05-07-2016, 08:00 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,210 posts, read 80,369,332 times
Reputation: 57089
I had a business for 17 years (signs & Engraving) in a fairly big city with many competitors in the same city and did fine, but started with $80,000 in the bank. Competition 8 miles away is still going to hurt you if it's a big box store like Petsmart. We drive 6-8 miles for almost everything since we have very little retail in our small city of 50,000 people. Petsmart came in and the two pet shops we had both went out of business.

For any storefront business there is the lease, business insurance, licenses, and utilities. Then remodeling and fixtures, point of sale system, website, and inventory. If you have no employees, it seems like a small pet shop could be operated by a couple working and hour before opening to an hour after, since you should be able to get a lot of work like stocking, cleaning, and bookkeeping between customers.

The biggest problem is that when you add up all of the monthly expenses, you have to sell more than that to make any profit at all. For example, my rent the last year was $2,200/month, with the other expenses it ran about 5,000 total, so I had to sell $10,000/month minimum to make enough for my
household and family expenses. That's $500/day, which was not a problem for me, but might be for the items you are selling. Do some research on rent, and the other expenses, and calculate what you have to sell a day to make a profit. I my case it averaged 35-45% of my sales I don't know what your markup would be. Also, visit those vets, without disclosing the reason. You may find that they already offer some of the services you want to offer. The biggest problem is that there are many upfront startup costs, and the first 6-12 months not much business as it builds, so you need enough in the bank to live on and pay the business expenses for that long.
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Old 05-07-2016, 11:06 PM
 
Location: Redwood City, CA
15,243 posts, read 12,846,118 times
Reputation: 54013
A lot of people just order dog and cat food using Amazon Prime's free two-day delivery. I don't think you can compete with that taking orders with an at-home business. But a storefront? Sure.
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Old 05-08-2016, 09:31 AM
 
Location: North Idaho
32,523 posts, read 47,566,435 times
Reputation: 77900
To me, most pet stores are full of cheap Chinese junk that no one should want.

The one pet store that I know of that is doing well is a specialized pet food store. They only sell top of the line premium pet foods, including frozen raw diet, and American made toys. There is a grooming shop and a fresh bakery for dog biscuits. They spend a lot on advertising.

The store is spotlessly clean, odor-free, and very roomy. Dogs are invited to come in and visit. There are absolutely no live animals sold at all. The store is very politically correct concerning animals.

It is in a town that is both dog friendly and higher income than most places. I don't think that business model would work in most locations.
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Old 05-08-2016, 09:40 AM
 
Location: North Idaho
32,523 posts, read 47,566,435 times
Reputation: 77900
Oh yeah. I just remembered. There was a very tiny store, just about the size of a closet, in San Diego. They only sold imported gold fish. Most of the week, there were empty fish tanks and once a week the partner would fly into San Diego with a shipment of fish. There would be fish for about 24 hours and then all would be sold, some of them for thousands of dollars.

I was there when a shipment arrived and took a fancy to a white pearl scale that was less than an inch long. $350. I decided against, got home, and changed my mind. What the heck, I had $350 and I really wanted that fish. I turned around, drove back to San Diego, and someone else had already bought it, and most of the shipment was already sold.

You'd have to be in an area with people interested in showing fish who had a lot of disposable income, and you'd have to have someone knowledgeable about the value of goldfish who could fly back and forth and select and purchase fish. In no way could you order online and have fish breeders in Japan ship you their best fish. You'd get their rejects. Someone has to go and individually select the fish.
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Old 05-09-2016, 09:12 PM
 
Location: Everett, WA
173 posts, read 180,585 times
Reputation: 164
Thanks Everyone!

My overhead should be a bit lower. We would likely buy a retail building on a small town main street with upstairs apartment to help subsidize the property cost for the store. Pet products range large items (food, crates, etc.) are about 30% and smaller items (toys, treats, etc.) are 45-50%. I am a bit concerned as the customer base in smaller towns will be more limited therefore requiring a larger percentage of the customer base to be 'successful'. I'm really not sure with this business structure what percent of demo is unrealistic.

Any input on cost ranges for business insurance and license would be awesome!
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Old 05-09-2016, 09:26 PM
ERH
 
Location: Raleigh-Durham, NC
1,696 posts, read 2,512,889 times
Reputation: 3983
If I were in your shoes, the first thing I would do is treat those 2 vets to a very nice lunch and get them on-board. At the very least, they could provide a wealth of information you need before laying out any cash.

Your post reminded me of this episode of The Profit on CNBC. Circumstances are very different, but you could probably glean some pearls. The Profit
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Old 05-10-2016, 01:33 AM
 
Location: Everett, WA
173 posts, read 180,585 times
Reputation: 164
Quote:
Originally Posted by ERH View Post
If I were in your shoes, the first thing I would do is treat those 2 vets to a very nice lunch and get them on-board. At the very least, they could provide a wealth of information you need before laying out any cash.

Your post reminded me of this episode of The Profit on CNBC. Circumstances are very different, but you could probably glean some pearls. The Profit
Thank-You for that reference! I watched it right away. Having been in pet treat manufacture sales I heard a lot of similar ideals from retailers. This show did a good job on going over several things, POS systems, wide variety, and merchandising, to name a few. Thanks so much!
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Old 05-10-2016, 07:42 AM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,210 posts, read 80,369,332 times
Reputation: 57089
Quote:
Originally Posted by laurabf View Post
Thanks Everyone!

My overhead should be a bit lower. We would likely buy a retail building on a small town main street with upstairs apartment to help subsidize the property cost for the store. Pet products range large items (food, crates, etc.) are about 30% and smaller items (toys, treats, etc.) are 45-50%. I am a bit concerned as the customer base in smaller towns will be more limited therefore requiring a larger percentage of the customer base to be 'successful'. I'm really not sure with this business structure what percent of demo is unrealistic.

Any input on cost ranges for business insurance and license would be awesome!
That should be easy enough to research for the area you will be in, it varies greatly. Where I was (Bellevue, WA) the license was $87/year, my insurance covering 1 million liability and my equipment/tools/inventory was about $1,500/year but that was back in 2007.
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Old 05-10-2016, 07:49 AM
 
Location: City Data Land
17,156 posts, read 12,881,116 times
Reputation: 33164
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke View Post
Oh yeah. I just remembered. There was a very tiny store, just about the size of a closet, in San Diego. They only sold imported gold fish. Most of the week, there were empty fish tanks and once a week the partner would fly into San Diego with a shipment of fish. There would be fish for about 24 hours and then all would be sold, some of them for thousands of dollars.

I was there when a shipment arrived and took a fancy to a white pearl scale that was less than an inch long. $350. I decided against, got home, and changed my mind. What the heck, I had $350 and I really wanted that fish. I turned around, drove back to San Diego, and someone else had already bought it, and most of the shipment was already sold.

You'd have to be in an area with people interested in showing fish who had a lot of disposable income, and you'd have to have someone knowledgeable about the value of goldfish who could fly back and forth and select and purchase fish. In no way could you order online and have fish breeders in Japan ship you their best fish. You'd get their rejects. Someone has to go and individually select the fish.
If you want a truly low overhead pet business that people will pay through the nose for week after week and has little competition, start a pooper scooping service. It's gross, but that's why dog owners don't want to do it. And they have a continuous need for the service. (BTW, businesses that offer services are more profitable overall than businesses selling goods). You have few supplies to buy and don't have to maintain a storefront at all. You don't have to worry about inventory or stock. And I won't even elaborate on the downsides of keeping live animals, well, alive
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