Coral Business

[DD Corals]

Hello everyone, I was thinking about starting my own coral growing/importing corals. As a side thing, I have been in the hobby for approximately three years, and I have a friend who can help guide/support me along if I do decide to try it out. The supposed budget would be around 3k-5k for equipment I would start off with a 125-gallon or a frag tank that is no more than $1000, which would be used to grow out coral. Plus, a Rubbermaid tub as a sump will also act as a grow-out for other corals (lower-end corals) and macroalgae. With a 40 or 75-gallon (not sure which one is best) used for quarantining coral or imported coral. So it would be three tanks/bins in total. The plan was to create a website to sell corals, and I would sell more lower-end coral at the start while I collected and grew more expensive coral. I would get the higher-end coral by trading some expensive corals I currently own or get some from an LFS with the money I made from selling to those stores. While also importing some corals every so often to help supply coral where I could not grow on my own. Thanks in advance to whoever reads and gives advice.

 

[TX_REEF]

The growing is the "easy" part, the tough part will be establishing a customer base and shipping. Make sure you give a lot of thought to these 2 items. If anything, do it in a way thats enjoyable and sustainable for you, and let the "business" be a secondary benefit to your joy if and when it takes off.

 

[Troylee]

Make sure you can afford the losses in a import.. just watched a good friend of mine bring in a ton of acros and 10 were doa and a ton more died within a couple days.. all part of the game unfortunately.. he couldn’t break even on what survived the shipping stress…

 

[JTP424]

It'll be a slow process! You'll be fighting the LFS that you'd potentially be purchasing from. If you're planning more local, I'd definitely flush out a business plan, check the market saturation. I think you're out in Cook County, and there are a few small shops in the area. If you're looking for more shipping, it's good since you're near a major hub. Bad because it gets impacted by our wonderful winters/heatstroke summers.

 

[DIYreefer]

Since you are using a website, I'm assuming you will primarily be selling online and shipping, right?

If so, then you have it backwards. Trust me. You will have a really hard time selling corals online that people can get at their LFS, even if your prices are cheaper.

What I would do if I were you (and I've been there and done that, exactly as you've described here) is start with higher end corals and build from there. Start with a smaller system (think lowboy frag tank) and put more of your budget toward more popular named corals that you know you can grow successfully. I guarantee you will be much better off in the long run if you do this.

If you have any questions shoot me a pm. I'm pretty well versed on this particular subject and can definitely give you guidance on what not to do. That stated, I can all but guarantee that your current plan more than likely won't work and if it does happen to work, the amount of time and energy you will put into it to get to the point of being "profitable" is probably not worth the effort.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm all for you (or anyone else) going for it. I just have the knowledge and experience of what happens with a plan that is very similar to what you've stated here, unfortunately.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It seems like a heavy entrance cost, and your plan is to sell lower end corals while you grow the expensive corals..... Thats not solid enough, I mean, how long will it take to get your investment back, and then overhead, and then profit?

Check the local online classifieds, every second reefer and their uncle is selling the lower end corals, how to compete?

Sorry, not meaning to sound like a d.bag, but I see a huge red flags

 

[DD Corals]

Since you are using a website, I'm assuming you will primarily be selling online and shipping, right?

If so, then you have it backwards. Trust me. You will have a really hard time selling corals online that people can get at their LFS, even if your prices are cheaper.

What I would do if I were you (and I've been there and done that, exactly as you've described here) is start with higher end corals and build from there. Start with a smaller system (think lowboy frag tank) and put more of your budget toward more popular named corals that you know you can grow successfully. I guarantee you will be much better off in the long run if you do this.

If you have any questions shoot me a pm. I'm pretty well versed on this particular subject and can definitely give you guidance on what not to do. That stated, I can all but guarantee that your current plan more than likely won't work and if it does happen to work, the amount of time and energy you will put into it to get to the point of being "profitable" is probably not worth the effort.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm all for you (or anyone else) going for it. I just have the knowledge and experience of what happens with a plan that is very similar to what you've stated here, unfortunately.

Thanks for the advice. I will totally hit you up whenever I have any questions. I think I will start with a lowboy system and will probably be the more well-named corals rather than the cheap ones.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Be prepared for shipping delays and replacement for loss to your customers due to delay. One bad shipment and there is someone out there ready to bash you for poor service and also consider liability and liability insurance for unforseen circumstances

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Since you are using a website, I'm assuming you will primarily be selling online and shipping, right?

If so, then you have it backwards. Trust me. You will have a really hard time selling corals online that people can get at their LFS, even if your prices are cheaper.

What I would do if I were you (and I've been there and done that, exactly as you've described here) is start with higher end corals and build from there. Start with a smaller system (think lowboy frag tank) and put more of your budget toward more popular named corals that you know you can grow successfully. I guarantee you will be much better off in the long run if you do this.

If you have any questions shoot me a pm. I'm pretty well versed on this particular subject and can definitely give you guidance on what not to do. That stated, I can all but guarantee that your current plan more than likely won't work and if it does happen to work, the amount of time and energy you will put into it to get to the point of being "profitable" is probably not worth the effort.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm all for you (or anyone else) going for it. I just have the knowledge and experience of what happens with a plan that is very similar to what you've stated here, unfortunately.

This.

I'd also not suggesting breaking into the industry right now, too many home grown coral farmers trying to make a mark and less reefers day by day in the hobby. The COVID Wild West days are gone and aren't coming back.

 

[DD Corals]

I think I am going to avoid going too big. I will buy a lowboy tank and have a plan, so if I ever want to grow my setup, I can. Also, will not do wholesale but rather buy from local hobbyists to grow my sps collection. I think my main goal now is to get a bunch of colonies of SPS, mainly Acropora. Also, I want to have one or two corals that grow decently fast, like leather corals, that I could get credit for at my lfs to buy extra equipment.

 

[DD Corals]

I also take no offense to any of these comments because they helping me build a plan if I want to get into the coral-growing business.

 

[DD Corals]

Since you are using a website, I'm assuming you will primarily be selling online and shipping, right?

If so, then you have it backwards. Trust me. You will have a really hard time selling corals online that people can get at their LFS, even if your prices are cheaper.

What I would do if I were you (and I've been there and done that, exactly as you've described here) is start with higher end corals and build from there. Start with a smaller system (think lowboy frag tank) and put more of your budget toward more popular named corals that you know you can grow successfully. I guarantee you will be much better off in the long run if you do this.

If you have any questions shoot me a pm. I'm pretty well versed on this particular subject and can definitely give you guidance on what not to do. That stated, I can all but guarantee that your current plan more than likely won't work and if it does happen to work, the amount of time and energy you will put into it to get to the point of being "profitable" is probably not worth the effort.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm all for you (or anyone else) going for it. I just have the knowledge and experience of what happens with a plan that is very similar to what you've stated here, unfortunately.

Also on this note, I would probably sell locally until I get enough sps colonies to start fragging them and sell more than just locally. I will most likely promote on facebook, reef2reef, and ebay.

 

[DD Corals]

This would be the floor plan if I were to upgrade to maximum capacity. I will start off with a 100-gallon Rubbermaid tub (which will be used as a sump) and a lowboy tank. When I run out of room, I will just add another lowboy tank to my setup. It is a 9ft x 8.5ft space. I haven't made any plans for the stand, but I will probably make it out of wood.

 

[Reefer Matt]

If it will be a side job, another option is to trade or sell into the lfs. Basically you become a coral supplier for them. Much less risky, and you still get a lot of the rewards of being a business. Such as wholesale accounts. And selling to the public at swaps, etc. Just make sure you like to keep a lot of coral, because they don’t all sell.

 

[DD Corals]

If it will be a side job, another option is to trade or sell into the lfs. Basically you become a coral supplier for them. Much less risky, and you still get a lot of the rewards of being a business. Such as wholesale accounts. And selling to the public at swaps, etc. Just make sure you like to keep a lot of coral, because they don’t all sell.

I think at the start, I will sell to my lfs so I can get better equipment or other corals. I know they give you a fraction of what the coral is worth, but that money would be used to buy more equipment or coral.

 

[KandAReefs]

Hello everyone, I was thinking about starting my own coral growing/importing corals. As a side thing, I have been in the hobby for approximately three years, and I have a friend who can help guide/support me along if I do decide to try it out. The supposed budget would be around 3k-5k for equipment I would start off with a 125-gallon or a frag tank that is no more than $1000, which would be used to grow out coral. Plus, a Rubbermaid tub as a sump will also act as a grow-out for other corals (lower-end corals) and macroalgae. With a 40 or 75-gallon (not sure which one is best) used for quarantining coral or imported coral. So it would be three tanks/bins in total. The plan was to create a website to sell corals, and I would sell more lower-end coral at the start while I collected and grew more expensive coral. I would get the higher-end coral by trading some expensive corals I currently own or get some from an LFS with the money I made from selling to those stores. While also importing some corals every so often to help supply coral where I could not grow on my own. Thanks in advance to whoever reads and gives advice.

I'm not going to say it's not possible but I think you really need to sit down and do a formal business plan and look into what is really needed in the industry as well and what your local laws and tax structure is. Growing the coral really will likely be the easiest thing in doing this. Now if it's a side hassle to kind of build slowly at first I definitely think it's possible.

 

[DD Corals]

I'm not going to say it's not possible but I think you really need to sit down and do a formal business plan and look into what is really needed in the industry as well and what your local laws and tax structure is. Growing the coral really will likely be the easiest thing in doing this. Now if it's a side hassle to kind of build slowly at first I definitely think it's possible.

I will take it very slow. The plan at the moment is to build a collection over the course of the next few years and see where it takes me. I enjoy growing coral so I don’t see myself getting burnt out. Also for the long term I will need to do a lot of logistical stuff still as I don’t have a complete plan if I were to invest a lot of money into it. I plan on asking people who have done it to see what they would either do differently or not at all before investing a ton of money.

 

[KandAReefs]

Enjoy your reef. Learn what is needed to keep your reef healthy and thriving and as your corals start to out grow your tank you can frag and cut your teeth on what it will take to make selling them profitable. Frag shows and reef clubs would likely be the best way to start. In the time you are doing all this use the time to learn the business side of things. Learn to take photos, build websites and social media. All of this will be needed. A bit of personal advice here it's never to early to get your YouTube page up and going showing what you are doing and do a build on here. But I think you already made the best choice you could have and that's ask for advice.

 

[Boa1277]

3 years you are just scratching the surface, however if thats your goal then more power to you, hopefully it wont ruin your love a fantastic hobby and turn it into a job. I will say the most successful guys seem to be the tried and true reefers that eventually grow their extremely established tanks into fragging machines. Copps is probably one of best that I know of, he has really created a niche for himself and when he does frag he pretty much sells out every single time…….I really like this business model since you only sell when you choose to and if you can create the following by having a legit system with the right pieces you will and can be quite successful at it.

 

[DD Corals]

Enjoy your reef. Learn what is needed to keep your reef healthy and thriving and as your corals start to out grow your tank you can frag and cut your teeth on what it will take to make selling them profitable. Frag shows and reef clubs would likely be the best way to start. In the time you are doing all this use the time to learn the business side of things. Learn to take photos, build websites and social media. All of this will be needed. A bit of personal advice here it's never to early to get your YouTube page up and going showing what you are doing and do a build on here. But I think you already made the best choice you could have and that's ask for advice.

I was actually planning on starting a YouTube channel. I thought it would be a fun thing and a good thing to help promote myself.