What Kind Of Shop Do You Run?

Just curious to see the size/scope of the people that frequent this board.

I wonder, are people kidding or are they really that good at business? What I am referring to is the WHOPPING 53.85% of people (as of 7/2402) who voted that they are hobbyists who sell just enough to support their hobby. Is there a glutt of business mavens among herpers - and if they are really doing that good they should consider going into real business as they are sure beating the odds by breaking even! Business is a hard way of life and most businesses fall flat on their faces without ever seeing break even budgets let alone a profit. All I can say is WOW - I am impressed, but I still wonder - is it that others are only fooling us and themselves by thinking they are truly breaking even after all expenses are considered?

I bet most of those are thinking:

"My food items (crickets in my case) are paid for and I can afford new animals periodically from my sales"

so they are supporting their habit.  

Your right when you become a "business" all those little things you don't think about before add up in a hurry (business license, insurance, business cards, electricity, etc)

There are people making money at this hobby? Man, I've been doing it all wrong, I just spend money.  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

We are in our 4 th year of open shop.  It is ruff sometimes.  But we pay the bills.  It is all what you are willing to put into it.  Many times I have been ready to go get a job and just let Arnie run the shop but we aren’t giving up yet.  Honesty and nice animals and much care are what make the difference.
What really makes it tough is when people ripe off the small business man.  I have bounced checks in the total of $400.00 to take to the State police right now.  And have been ripped off by  
Fred Tribbitt,
Mark Hart,
Michael McCaughrean of
K&M Exotic Reptiles
441 N. Lewis Rd Royersford PA 19468
(610) 948-1986  
[email protected]
And a few more.  That is the worst part of it.  Also had power outages and lost some reptiles. There is hardship as with most small business .  Like I said its what your willing to put into it.
Chris

HI i am 14 and i sell carpets and breed them (JUst started these) i used to do balls, burms, anacondas, rocks, i would make more then 400- dollars at one show. The only reason i don't have snakes over 15 ft any more is because my mom had a baby and wanted me to go out 4 a while (And the rock got hungry one night (and out) and ate the family dog. (Terrier)
No one can't tell me they don't make money from there hobby man either u suck at selling or just have crap ( Or aren't known yet)

Do what u love and love what u do. Don't take offense to what i say these r my opions and mine a lone.

But i also don't have any bills other then food and table costs tho......

Well, P120_Cartman,  maybe when you're more than 14, you'll realize that 400 dollars a show doesn't amount to much profit.....and that saying "don't take offense" after you've made an offensive statement doesn't make the statement less offensive... and that there are many hundreds of herps bred in captivity, and they are not all crap and not all profitable.

O, so you bred these 15+ foot snakes when you were 10 and 11?  Riiiiiight.

Cartman,
I guess it seems that you also keep and breed "Pythons and boas- none over 15 ft. esp chrondos, gtp's, etb's, true rtbs, and Indigos and mandarin ratsnakes."
You must have really made a killing off of your big snakes to be able to afford that collection at 14.  
O, by the way, do you have a name?  I mean besides "Cartman."

Brian,

$400 was probably a lot of profit when mom takes care of the electric bill, helps with the vet bill, probably helped with the original purchase, etc  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

To have the wisdom of a teenager without all the responsibilities to drag you down (have an 18 year old now that has the world figured out to a T, well except when she gets her first electric bill next month at her new apartment and finds out why the rest of the world stresses about money)  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Yes i do it is Patrick Malloy. NOw thank u. I have never killed any snakes and my mom and dad helped with vet bills they also helped me run my table. I also helped with the bills i had. (Only around $40)

I want to do chrondos, gtp's, etb's, true rtbs, and Indigos and mandarin ratsnakes. But i don't have that much money so i raise others to help me afford them.

I kept my burms and rocks on a small diet and never got bigger then 15 ft.
I also only did one pair at a time, to those of u with a job (I only have a summer job) u can afford to have a lot of snake running around i can only have 4 at a time (2 here and 2 there)  Taking what i said off my intrests is kind of a i don't know cruel. Most of u haven't dealt with me personally or even seen my snakes or anything.

Lucas my collection exsits only of (At the moment) Coastal carpet pythons and wc feeding jaya gtps.

Also i did yellow anacondas not green.

Brian i am 14 i will send u a birth certificate if u want. "Not all r profitable" most r u just have to know where your snakes sell the highest at.
"o so you bred these 15+ foot snakes when you were 10 and 11?  Riiiiiight."
no i would of had to buy them when i was at least 7 or 8 then. I bought the anas when i was about 10, and the rocks when i was 11 (Then i sold these after my male"Bitey" ate the family pet when i was 13), i have owned my green burm since i was about 8 but never breed until 13.

"Not all r profitable" most r u just have to know where your snakes sell the highest at


Well, snakes aren't the only reptile, are they?  Snakes have pretty low upkeep compared to a lot of other herps.  Myopia must be a real kick.

no i also do black rough throught monitors just as pets if they bred good if they don't even better.

Also not highest but where the market is for them.

sorry it probaly looks really bad

Maybe I can divert this thread back to where it started...

Personally, I answered "full time breeder", but that doesn't account for the fact that I also need to work part time to keep the bills paid. <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>  I have a few things leaning in my favor too, though, such as: a low cost of living because I don't mind living in a tin can, and a large savings account from legally hacking into the biggest banks in the world; two major contributors to my (theoretical) ability to support myself into the future by breeding. Note: I have yet to prove this theory, so it's mere conjecture right now.

^Curtis

Well what I am seeing so far, is that most people who answered my inquiry (not the poll but my question) probably do not make a real profit or even break even from their hobby. I am still in awe that over 50% say, in the poll, they make enough to support their hobby - that is stupendous.

Sure I make money selling snakes BUT I SURE DON"T BREAK EVEN OR MAKE A PROFIT. Unlike this fellow Cartman, I have bills to pay in relation to my herp keeping, mom don't pay squat for me I have been a grown up (sorry Peter Pan) for way too long. I pay for food, medicines (no vet bill in years - knock on wood), tanks, tops, light fixtures, bulbs, electricity, the mortgage on my house (I keep my snakes in part of my house so that counts too at least if you break it down to how much of the mortgage goes to pay that section of the house - no free parking as in Monopoly). Furthermore I pay for:  substrate, new animals, donations I make to my herp society, annual dues for my herp society, printer ink for articles I write for the society, table fees at our yearly show, table fees at other shows (sometimes these are free because I get space on our society table), gasoline I use getting to the shows and to exhibits that I volunteer for for my society, tolls I pay getting to the shows (the last show cost me $7.00 in tolls alone),  incubators, incubating medium, water (yes the town does send me a water bill, and part of the water goes to my animals - can you imagine that).

Guess what value of animals and goods I sold at the last show I was at: $233. Guess what I spent at that same show:

Gasoline:                  $  3.50
Tolls:                       $  3.00
Society Shirt:            $13.00 (I used their table  
                                         for free so you bet
                                         I bought a shirt,
                                         that is good business
                                         assuring I get free space
                                         again)
Mice:                       $20.00
Rosy Boa (adult):       $40.00

That alone is $79.50, off of the 233 I made selling. That leaves me $153.50. Now I have to pay sales tax to NY on the money I made selling - on the total, that is on the gross profit and not my net profit. That is 8.25 percent of $233 or $19.22. I am now down to $134 and change. Now how about the live mice I had to buy today, because I have some baby BPs for sale that absolutely do not eat thawed yet. I have fed them all 4 times now at $1.29 plus tax for each mouse. I had seven babies and sold 2 this past show. I still have 5 hungry ones. Then of course there are my Desert Kingsnakes (splendida breeder pair) with 6 eggs in the incubator. There are also 2 yearling BPs I am saving for future breeders. Their is a left over Black Thayeri from last year, a leftover gray rat snake, a Yellow Rat Snake, a Sinaloan Milk Snake, an Eastern Milk Snake, two Western hognose Snakes, the new Rosy Boa, two Sonoran Gopher Snakes, A Sonoran Toad, A musk turtle and so on........... They all have to eat, drink, be housed, kept warm and so on. It all cost moolah! This is my hobby, not a business. Sure I make some money to help it along - but I sure do not break even. Even if I wanted to breed high end stuff - I still have to pay all of those bills, and would be more likely to have a vet medicate my animals than me doing it. In fact I am slowly getting into more expensice animals, now that I have the basics down on keeping and breeding snakes. I have been doing it for about 35 years and finally gfeel ready to give it a go to possibly make some profit.

Cartman - as for high end stuff - if you sold $400 worth of snakes and it was only one snake you sold - you barely made it out of the top of the low end to mid level. If it was two snakes that totaled that much, then you are barely at the top of low end. If it was more than two snakes - then who is kidding who - you are selling low end stuff. You talk about selling high end animals, well that would be a piebald Ball Python for a few thousand apiece, or a new morph of a Womas also in the multi thousand dollar range. That my friend is high end, while on the other hand $400 worth of snakes at a show when it was more than one snake ain't much more than chicken scratch. Sure my snakes are less valuable than that - but I know my place and the value of the bills I pay; I also know when to call a profit a profit and when not to act as if I am the next Bill Gates of snake keeping.

By the way, Isee the percentage of people who believe they break even has dropped dramtically!

Man, this cartman kid has it all figured out.  He knows just where to sell his snakes to get top dollar.  He only does high end snakes ;-) ,  He starves his snakes to keep them small and his parents must be helping him out with all the money they are not spending on his education.  I'm sorry but as an ex-teacher I can't help but be bothered by posts like his.  I hope he is able to make a living at selling snakes, because if he has to rely on his education to get him a job, I feel sorry for the taxpayers of his state.

Steve Schindler

swinging back on topic, here we go...

I don't count electricity bills in my calculation as my bf's 4 computers (not to mention the a/c) that he runs WAY outdoes any usage I have...during the summer I have all heat turned off in my reptile room and it's a steady 83 degrees. Late last year and early this year I bumped up my future breeders considerably and with the exception of 2 more snakes to pair up what I've got, I'm done for a while. In a couple of years I might make a small profit being that everyone will be old enough to produce for mom  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>  The beauty of being a computer geek is being able to afford my hobby...and yes I answered hobbyist breeder.

now as to mr. I'm 14 and too cool for words:

get through HS, do some time in college...it's good for you and maybe you'll learn a few lessons on life. Granted I haven't finished my degree yet (hello extended plan&#33<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> but at least I can say I made it though a couple of years before I joined the wonderful world of working full time.

The rest of us can't fall back on mom and dad anymore...some of us send money to our parents instead of them sending money to us.