now now now...

I kind of agree with the "cannot compete with the big boys" and the death of the mom and pop store...and kind of don't...

The key here, I think, is to offer something that the big boys do not...

Look at the pet industry. We have petco, petsmart, pet supplies plus, and Capitol pets all withing driving distance of my house...but there are as well a myriad of small pet boutique style stores that do very well. They sell things that the big boys do not, carry specialty items the big stores do not, and offer services that the big boys do not.

How to do that with fishing???

I have no freakin idea

It will be hard if you have a BPS near you, because they have so many different types of stuff and every angler isn't going to pick the same things.  But if you do choose to open a store I would add certain things that would make someone want to come in like

-keep up with local lake fishing reports (what's being caught and with what) that way certain anglers might want to come by for that info and buy something while they are there

-keep up with the weather forecast (you might want to have a computer hooked to the internet)

-Keep things stock that are being used on the local lakes.  So if your not near saltwater then I wouldn't even stock that until you grow enough.  

-easy to locate things, maybe even make it beginner friendly, like have all bass lures together, catfish, etc...  BPS has a lot of lures but for the beginner they don't know what each lure is for, how to use it, and what type of fish it is used for.  And we all know that we would rather look and not be bother by a salesperson and then when you need them you can't find one.  

-remember to use some of the department store things.  Like having the bathroom (if you are going to have one) in the back so people have to walk by all the products.  

-another thing you could try, is to offer a try it and if you don't like it then you can bring it back.  But you would have to have a catch, as in you will give them half their money back and only on new items without a discount.  Then with the returns have them in a bin and sell half off, so you are still making the same amount money off the lure.  

-I would also try to go to as many tackle shops as you can, when you leave right down what you liked about it.  Then have a friend do the same, because what you like might not be the same as someone else.  Then with the things that you both like try to put that in your store or something like it.  

-I would try to get the shop as close to a boat ramp (marina to be best) and sell live baits like crickets and worms.  You would have to work weekends and your weekend would be during the week, that way you can try and get anglers to stop by as they are going to the lake.  

Those are just my suggestions.

WOW thanks everyone there was a TON of great things brought up and it looks like i have some serious thinking ahead of me for my furture plans ...Thanks Alot all Of you I still wanna hear from somebody that owns a tackle shop and is sucessful if there is one on this board...Thanks Big B

Not to burst your bubble, it 's not my intention, you are young but not experienced, life is really a b*h when you live the dream and don 't have a foot stepped on reality.

I 've owned several businesses and not so good "businesses", for years I 've been a fish hobbyst, fish fascinate me, animals fascinate me reason why I studied Veterinary Medicine, had my first fish tank when I was 5 back then duiring the age of the dinousaurs of fish keeping I gre with the rechnology as it developed and I understand how the technology works and it 's application, one of my dreams when young was owning an aquarium store and I did, reason why it went down the sewer had nothing to do with me, in four years starting with a few fish tanks I became the largest tropical fish whole and retail seller of the city, my purchases and sales were in the thousands weekly, what did I do wrong or where was I wrong that took my business down the drain ?

1.- I was in a very suceptible business, risky if you want to see it, animals die, when you sell them by the hundreds a few deaths don 't mean much and when you are really good your death toll is minimal, the risk is there but you can overcome it so that wasn 't it.

2.- Well, since my business was in Mexico but 95% of the fish are imported they have prices in DOLLARS, not pesos and everything is fine if the peso/dollar rate exchange is stable, but hell, this is Mexico and in Mexico s*t happens and it happens in cycles, every X years the mexican government does something stoopid and all hell breaks loose, finantial hell breaks loose, so that helped.

3.- Finantial trubble means that people are not going to be able to pay their bills and their obligations, CC, mortgages, loans, who needs tropical fish when you don 't make enough money to pay your bills ? tropical fish are not a necessity, they are a luxury, something you have when you 've got spare money to burn. During the 1994 mexican finantial debacle and the subsequent years people lost their homes, their vehicles, me ? I lost my business, I didn 't loose money I had the fore sight to save half of my profit and invested it in other finantial mechanisms, but all I worked for so hard went down the drain and that 's what hurt me the most, not the money, the effort.  :'(

After loosing that business I had some spare money burning a hole in my pocket, money I could invest in another enterprise, yeah I 'm greedy and as long as I have my finances in safe keeping any spare is good for another enterprise. Well, Leon is called by it 's people as the capital city of show manufacturing, the city lives, breathes, dies and smells everything related to shoes. So what could I do to bite a chunk out the wealth ?

Tanning ? nope don 't have the money for that, yeah I can purchase the raw material outsource it and turn it into leather or sole, but there 's a problem, the big tanneries give credit to the shoe makers but I simply can 't do that, it 's cash or cash, tanning is out of the question.

Shoe making ? with thousands of factories competing with each other I ain 't got the time nor the will to compete with everybody, out of the question.

Glue ! every pair of shoes needs a dab of glue, multiply a dab of glue for the thousands and it adds up to cans of glue, hundreds of cans of glue. Had a little money, had a friend I could muscle to sell me the glue cheaper so I started to sell glue by the can, not to the big shoe factories but to the everyday guy that makes a few pairs of shoes on a daily basis. It doesn 't die, you can store it for long periods of time, clients pay you in cash, if the price goes up you win if you have stock.

Well, everything went fine and made some good money selling glue by the can until ...... the MF danged chinese shoe came into play  >, even with compensatory taxation chinese shoe is cheaper than mexican manufactured shoe, factories closed because they couldn 't compete with the price or factories became importers of chinese shoe, who needs 100 or 1000 employees to run a factory when you can run a warehouse with 10 employees ?  oh well, another business that goes sour.  :'(

But I 'm not going to stay that way, ok I 'm a vet, vet med is what I do so even though I had other businesses I still have my college degree and practice so I can live out of it if things go sour.

That 's when I came up with the idea of the tackle store, a friend of mine had a tackle store here and he closed it not because the sales weren 't good, he closed it for personal reasons that had nothing to do with how profitable the store was. I thought: there 's a vacum in the tackle store business, he made good money with the store, can 't I do the same ?

The market is here, more people fish than when he had the store, location ? who cares about the location  ? if the people know ( and you can advertise ) there 's a TS in town people are going to come no matter where you are. Competition ? I 've got more money to invest than the competition, I 've got more contacts than the competition, I speak English, the competition doesn 't, the competition is two teeny weeny tiny stores one from an accountant that has the store as a hobby and the other one belongs to a guy that sells automotive parts. Knowledge about tackle and feeshin ? I know more than they do. For every question I had an answer that convinced me I had a great opportunity, I could fill the gap easily ...... yeah right  :

I invested the money in tackle for the store and 3 years later I decided it was time to pack my bags and leave the tackle business for good.

Imagine what would be of me, my wife and my children if I didn 't have my college degree and if I hadn 't saved part of my profits and invested them in other things like properties, deposits and foreign currencies.

Which is going to be Raul 's next business opportunity ? the cash flow is not good right now but I have a little money to invest ........ food ! people gotta eat ya know.  

If you really want to quit fishing buy yourself a Tackle store or a marina.

"Consider working 50-70 hour weeks running your own shop." I know many very successful Mom and Pop operations, however the quoted hours means someone is thinking on a part-time basis. Hours minimum: 12 per day, 7 days a week, 364 days a year. That's not including any commute time, bookkeeping time, etc.

Hire someone to pick up some of those hours and you are now working for them to meet payroll.

Most business that fail do so because of lack of capital. Don't think of going into any business without substantial money.

It's a 50/50 shot - if you do your homework, be honest, and work hard you will probably be successful.

B-43,,

There is a lot of great info on this thread for you to consider...

as said before,,,

number 1... Location..

number 2 location

and even for # 3..

I am living proof that you have a 5-10 % chance of making it in the

small buisness world today..

I have owned & operated a small Mom & Pop Grocery store now for

24 years and counting.. the last 10 years have seen a decline in buisness

every year.. and it will continue..til I am gone too.

(I am still here so I know how to operate a profitable buisness )

my sales people have been telling me for over 10 years your one of the only ones left

in the state that is this size..if you are not Walmart or Gander Mt. you better have

gas & oil & food & fishing stuff & car parts & Pizza,, ect...there is a gas station on every corner selling food..

So to help me survive & feed the family I stared to make & try to sell fishing baits..

well let me tell ya.. Good luck,,, I have gave out tons of FREE samples,,, donated FREE baits

in various places,, and most of the people don't even let ya know if they even got the free

samples ( by mail) ,,let alone maybe buy some from ya..

I have caught over 300 bass this last year on my home made baits, so I know they

work,, but try to tell a fishernman that,,, its Ego.. got a have Yami... got a have LC..

Do not get me wrong,, these baits they make are awsome,, but the fish do not know what brand they are..

its just ego.. most bites are reaction any way...

I have invested apx. $ 4000.00 in

molds.. supplies  ,, ect.. in the last year.. and have sold apx. $ 300.00 --$ 400.00 worth of stuff

I have a small counter in my grocery store,, Tried Ebay,, other web sites,,ect..Gave away more than I have sold,,

A lot of guys brag about the Bait Monkey gettin um.. Hmm.. got to wonder about that..

I sell mostly to the kids in town.. they bring there Dads in,, but ya know.. we can go to walmart later

its cheaper !!..well most people are fooled by walmarts and others advertising gimmicks..I sell senko type baits

hand poued for $ 2.99 a 10 pack,, thats an awsome price.. but they still think that wall mart is cheaper..

they do not even think about $ 3.00 a gallon on gas,, Da..

I would really think twice about it..

as mentioned above,, fisherman are cheap.. I never thought that,, but I guess he is right,,

if you got cash to burn & not feel bad about it if you lose it,,,

go for it,, it will be fun,, at 1st,, and you will never know til ya try !!!!!!

good luck if you do it..

Jeff