Any retailer up for mentoring?

[Spare time]

I worked at 2 lfs' and one from the start of their business. I can't really help with finances but I can share lots of other tips and things I discovered.

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome back to R2R John.

 

[jsker]

 

[Cthulukelele]

Needs work but I think it could be awesome.

Welcome! Can't help with retail mentoring, but boy howdy would I enjoy driving out to an old cheese shack to buy coral from a hobbyist turned retailer

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Having worked in an LFS and helping with finances there, the biggest thing I can tell you is that it is really hard to make your money as an LFS doing frags alone.

Dry goods are the bread and butter income, so see what products your locals are wanting better access to and see if you can compete with online prices (dry goods usually only have about a 30% mark up, depending on the vendor and item). After that you can worry about corals/fish, but if you're wanting to stay in business then you've got to carry/move dry goods at enough of a rate to cover the overhead and let coral/fish sales be bonuses on top of that.

Being able to buy bulk and break items like Carbon/GFO/Resin down in to smaller more normal sale sizes will help reduce the price you can sell the item for and increase profits (again as long as it's competitive with online vendors).

 

[John K]

Wealthy customers who pay you to do the work for them (aquarium installations and service) can be a big part of it.

 

[Johnd651]

Wealthy customers who pay you to do the work for them (aquarium installations and service) can be a big part of it.

See in our area it's rednecks and farmers. We lack those.

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!