I can speak from experience, but not really a plan. I started my career in retail management going in to manage a multimillion dollar furniture store. Making great money, but the owner didn’t hold up to an agreement and I left that very lucrative job to become a contractor. After 20 years of very physical labor, I found myself having to have some major reconstructive surgeries that required me to not lift for over a year. I started culturing my own phytoplankton and copepods because I couldn’t justify purchasing when I couldn’t provide for my family. I started selling on R2R as a hobbyist like many selling corals hoping to cover the cost of replacement starters and salt, maybe cover the expenses of my tanks etc.
I wasn’t doing it very long when I was encouraged to become a sponsor to be able to sell on the forum as I looked like a business. We gathered as a family and discussed whether it was wise to spend money we didn’t have on a venture that was anything but a guarantee. We agreed to give it a month to see if it would at least cover the sponsorship. I knew going in that a startup business is unlikely to make a profit in the first two years, let alone a living.
Starting any business whether in the aquarium trade or any field is always a risk, and as someone else said, can be devastating if you fail and you have a family that relies solely on your income. What I can say from our experience (and from running my own construction company) is it is long hours, and no guaranteed paycheck. Being a young company, we are still a long way from paying back the loans we have taken to turn this from a small hobby to a reasonable production facility and already have to look at a remodel to make more room. It literally takes 60+ hours per week to accomplish what we need to do to provide a quality product. I feel that if we ultimately prove successful it will be in large part to my family’s support, even my wife
@Ocean_Queenie jumping in and helping while I recovered to becoming a partner vs a helper. Yep we get tons of praise over our packaging (our little secret is Sherry does most of that while I am harvesting and bottling the products). Also with a business degree and emphasis in marketing, years and years of management experience and running our own business, gave us a boost because I didn’t have to learn everything about running a business from scratch.
Going out on your own requires long hours, determination, diligence to follow through, financial resources whether through loans or savings (and the willingness to risk losing it all), and some would say a lot of luck. As I don’t believe in luck, I say hard work, grit and by the grace of God.
I always loved God’s creatures, so much so that I brought them home from all over as a child. Snakes, lizards, amphibians, bugs, then guppies (yep bought those at the store). I am fascinated with everything that happens in our aquariums. I live learning and experiencing things daily. Constantly looking for new products to offer, better ways to grow them. For me it is fun. I have had to study and learn, putting in hours of reading talking to others in the industry. But for us it has so far been a positive experience. We absolutely love being a part of the REEF2REEF community, establishing and building relationships with other community members, not just customers, but being involved in conversations about fish, corals, or like this one.
If you want to build a career in reefing just be sure you have your ducks in a row, and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary.
Wishing you the best of luck, hope you discover a path that leads to fulfillment and joy.
Kent
