brewmaster15
04-19-2005, 06:15 AM
HI all,
Many recent events have forced me to make some very hard decisions. I have decided that I am not going to continue pursuing a commercial wild Discus Business.. When I undertook it , I gave it a year, and that time is just about up. The Idea was never to make money but at least cover the costs of my hobby addiction.... After a serious amount of soul searching and personal as well as financial evaluation I have decided That I can not do what I had hoped with the resources and time I have. Time to move on.
From Time to Time I will bring in orders, for my own use and may offer the opportunity for others to go in on orders with me... They will have to QT the fish though and share in all the risks.
How did I come to this decision? It wasn't easy, but I thought I would share it with you all. I know others Dream of a discus business so maybe some will gain some insight.
1) financial... Theres not enough money or interest in wild discus to compensate for my cull rate to get good quality to market. I have set myself high standards here. Properly conditioning the fish takes too long. I was quaranteening wilds for 4-6 weeks.With limited space that meant I was limited in how much and how often I could bring fish in and QT them. Shipping from South America is unpredictable and prohibitively expensive. Prices of many of the higher end wilds exported have increased at least 30% in the past year largely due to fuel costs I assume which have been increasing, yet the small market here forces the prices of retail to stay the same, or decrease.
My suppliers have a mixed track record with quality and theres no margin of error here for me.... The only way I could make it work is to compromise on quality which I won't do . I could find new suppliers but I think unless I invest in significant resources at the point of export I would run into the same. I'm Broke in terms of finances for this business. I went in with X amount of dollars ear marked for it. The startup was too much and there were a few losses that just really drained the war chest early on. Utilities in the Northeast are too expensive, It was costing me between $500-700 dollars a month in electric to run a few thousand gallons.....
2) importing domestics would help but I don't have the room and The quality / lack of consistent quality , I see out there generally doesn't impress me. I know the risk there as well just from watching other sellers. I think I would run into the same as with the wilds... and Add to it a list of diseases I dont want to bring in accidentally. Importing other fish would help , but I lack the space and resources to do it right. Partnerships are out of the question.
3) I'm getting old... and just can't keep up with 3 hours sleep night and multiple Jobs. I need at least 4-5 hours these days :) My health is suffering and thats not fair to my family.
4) This wild discus venture has taken so much Time I have not pursued my Educational workshops ( Natures Teacher) as I should have and that was supposed to be the primary business. I need to re-focus my marketing time there. The Discus was to pay for the Hobby. I miscalculated the time it would take to do it the way I wanted. Who could resist the attraction of always getting new fish? :)
5) I knew when I got into this it would be tough to separate selling wilds and Running SimplyDiscus. I knew there would be some that would use it against the site saying I use The site to promote my business. I have tried to minimize that by not promoting myself here..Never even gave myself a banner....I think I succeeded fairly well there... but it cost me the business marketing I needed for a new Business. I also spent so much time on this site and taking care of the fish...That I neglected The wilddiscus website which is to this day still off line. I always placed Simply First and always will.
6)Years ago I made a committment to SimplyDiscus and its sister sites. I made a committment to our Members and to my friends here... I feel in many ways I have not stuck to that committment. It was my right to try to make that wild discus business work...I know that , but I can't do that at the expense of my committments here, and I can't make that business work without sacrificing the time I spend on my forums.
My heart is here , and this is where I want the majority of my free time spent.
I am not a commercial seller of fish... I am a Hobbyist that used his obsession for discus to indulge himself with a Pipe Dream that I knew would not be possible given my current resources and situations. I never want to go thru life and look back and say I should have tried that and in this case ... I won't have to . I don't regret trying to make it work....someday I may revisit it when I have more resources and Time and can do things differently. I have learned more this last year than I have in a long while in the hobby, which is a good thing as it keeps me from getting bored. :) :) :) :D
So what will I do? I am not getting out of Discus..LOL That would be crazy :) :) :) what I am doing is down sizing... a little.... I am taking my latest fish room down... That will take me from 4000 gals to about 2500 gals. That room was built mainly with retail fish in mind as a temporary thing and I don't need it. I will be turning that into my den/office. .. and yes there will be a few big tanks in there with some favorites and even a non discus tank. The last year I have been using the dining room table as an office , and Its getting hard to find a place to set the plates for dinner, Not to mention my 2 year old son likes filing my papers in his toy Box. :)
I am going to focus on my Family and health. I need more down time.. with a 4 year old and a 2 year old... They wear me out :) but I love em to death. You should see Ethan , my youngest Tool around the fish room ...I think he's got the Discus bug worse than me. :o :) and my daughter Becky, at 4 knows most of the discus strains by name. :)
I am going to focus on Breeding..not as a business.. as a hobby, because thats what I am... a hobbyist. I have not had time for this. I Currently have all the breeding stock I could use... so I don't forsee bringing anything in too often I always enjoyed the crossing and breeding experiences best. Need to work on my system here and try some novel things.
On the bright side... I have about 10 pairs that are confirmed and room for at least as many more. I also have Alotemphasis on alot of fish, domestics and wilds to have fun with.
I am going to Focus on The forums.... and on all of you. I feel like I haven't really "talked" with anyone in long time. I Know I haven't been easy to reach lately and I can't help anyone if I am not online or availible for a phone call.
I do still have a ton of wilds and will probably have some for a while. and as I said from time to time I will bring more in.. so call me if you need something.
Thanks for reading this "memoire of a wild discus Dreamer". I have always tried to be open with everyone here about what I do... and always will be. I am lucky to have a considerable group of friends here to share this with.
Thank you everyone that supported me in the past year. I appreciated the faith you placed in me.
-al
Many recent events have forced me to make some very hard decisions. I have decided that I am not going to continue pursuing a commercial wild Discus Business.. When I undertook it , I gave it a year, and that time is just about up. The Idea was never to make money but at least cover the costs of my hobby addiction.... After a serious amount of soul searching and personal as well as financial evaluation I have decided That I can not do what I had hoped with the resources and time I have. Time to move on.
From Time to Time I will bring in orders, for my own use and may offer the opportunity for others to go in on orders with me... They will have to QT the fish though and share in all the risks.
How did I come to this decision? It wasn't easy, but I thought I would share it with you all. I know others Dream of a discus business so maybe some will gain some insight.
1) financial... Theres not enough money or interest in wild discus to compensate for my cull rate to get good quality to market. I have set myself high standards here. Properly conditioning the fish takes too long. I was quaranteening wilds for 4-6 weeks.With limited space that meant I was limited in how much and how often I could bring fish in and QT them. Shipping from South America is unpredictable and prohibitively expensive. Prices of many of the higher end wilds exported have increased at least 30% in the past year largely due to fuel costs I assume which have been increasing, yet the small market here forces the prices of retail to stay the same, or decrease.
My suppliers have a mixed track record with quality and theres no margin of error here for me.... The only way I could make it work is to compromise on quality which I won't do . I could find new suppliers but I think unless I invest in significant resources at the point of export I would run into the same. I'm Broke in terms of finances for this business. I went in with X amount of dollars ear marked for it. The startup was too much and there were a few losses that just really drained the war chest early on. Utilities in the Northeast are too expensive, It was costing me between $500-700 dollars a month in electric to run a few thousand gallons.....
2) importing domestics would help but I don't have the room and The quality / lack of consistent quality , I see out there generally doesn't impress me. I know the risk there as well just from watching other sellers. I think I would run into the same as with the wilds... and Add to it a list of diseases I dont want to bring in accidentally. Importing other fish would help , but I lack the space and resources to do it right. Partnerships are out of the question.
3) I'm getting old... and just can't keep up with 3 hours sleep night and multiple Jobs. I need at least 4-5 hours these days :) My health is suffering and thats not fair to my family.
4) This wild discus venture has taken so much Time I have not pursued my Educational workshops ( Natures Teacher) as I should have and that was supposed to be the primary business. I need to re-focus my marketing time there. The Discus was to pay for the Hobby. I miscalculated the time it would take to do it the way I wanted. Who could resist the attraction of always getting new fish? :)
5) I knew when I got into this it would be tough to separate selling wilds and Running SimplyDiscus. I knew there would be some that would use it against the site saying I use The site to promote my business. I have tried to minimize that by not promoting myself here..Never even gave myself a banner....I think I succeeded fairly well there... but it cost me the business marketing I needed for a new Business. I also spent so much time on this site and taking care of the fish...That I neglected The wilddiscus website which is to this day still off line. I always placed Simply First and always will.
6)Years ago I made a committment to SimplyDiscus and its sister sites. I made a committment to our Members and to my friends here... I feel in many ways I have not stuck to that committment. It was my right to try to make that wild discus business work...I know that , but I can't do that at the expense of my committments here, and I can't make that business work without sacrificing the time I spend on my forums.
My heart is here , and this is where I want the majority of my free time spent.
I am not a commercial seller of fish... I am a Hobbyist that used his obsession for discus to indulge himself with a Pipe Dream that I knew would not be possible given my current resources and situations. I never want to go thru life and look back and say I should have tried that and in this case ... I won't have to . I don't regret trying to make it work....someday I may revisit it when I have more resources and Time and can do things differently. I have learned more this last year than I have in a long while in the hobby, which is a good thing as it keeps me from getting bored. :) :) :) :D
So what will I do? I am not getting out of Discus..LOL That would be crazy :) :) :) what I am doing is down sizing... a little.... I am taking my latest fish room down... That will take me from 4000 gals to about 2500 gals. That room was built mainly with retail fish in mind as a temporary thing and I don't need it. I will be turning that into my den/office. .. and yes there will be a few big tanks in there with some favorites and even a non discus tank. The last year I have been using the dining room table as an office , and Its getting hard to find a place to set the plates for dinner, Not to mention my 2 year old son likes filing my papers in his toy Box. :)
I am going to focus on my Family and health. I need more down time.. with a 4 year old and a 2 year old... They wear me out :) but I love em to death. You should see Ethan , my youngest Tool around the fish room ...I think he's got the Discus bug worse than me. :o :) and my daughter Becky, at 4 knows most of the discus strains by name. :)
I am going to focus on Breeding..not as a business.. as a hobby, because thats what I am... a hobbyist. I have not had time for this. I Currently have all the breeding stock I could use... so I don't forsee bringing anything in too often I always enjoyed the crossing and breeding experiences best. Need to work on my system here and try some novel things.
On the bright side... I have about 10 pairs that are confirmed and room for at least as many more. I also have Alotemphasis on alot of fish, domestics and wilds to have fun with.
I am going to Focus on The forums.... and on all of you. I feel like I haven't really "talked" with anyone in long time. I Know I haven't been easy to reach lately and I can't help anyone if I am not online or availible for a phone call.
I do still have a ton of wilds and will probably have some for a while. and as I said from time to time I will bring more in.. so call me if you need something.
Thanks for reading this "memoire of a wild discus Dreamer". I have always tried to be open with everyone here about what I do... and always will be. I am lucky to have a considerable group of friends here to share this with.
Thank you everyone that supported me in the past year. I appreciated the faith you placed in me.
-al