After keeping discus for many years, your are thinking of turning your Discus fish hobby into a full blown business. Chris Ingham takes us through all the up’s and downs of turning Discus Fish keeping into a business. Also exploring some of the pit falls that could trip you up on the way.

Lately the biggest trend seems to be everybody that was breeding and keeping discus fish now wants to get into retailing discus. With a steady rise in the numbers of new ‘traders’ now around is it that easy to go the full Monty so to speak? If you are to do this properly much will have to be done first to make sure it will be a ‘runner’. Many have tried and fell flat on their face. First of all it is always a good idea to contact your local council and find out some information on pet shop licences. It would be very unwise these days to trade without one. The penalties for selling discus through the trade are now very severe, with two years imprisonment and or a whopping big fine. It is about time this was controlled tighter because many hobbyists has been jumping on the get rich discus band wagon, selling them on auction sites and sending out discus packed totally wrong through over night carriers. When the customer receives them dead and complains, the answer usually is ‘I am only a hobbyist breeder and can’t afford to take a loss like this’. So proper control over the new stricter licensing laws has got to be a good thing for our discus and the customer. They are normally very happy to come out and inspect your potential business premises and offer advice on what to do to comply with all the technicalities to get you off to a good start.

FORWARD PLANNING.

You will also need to contact the planning department at your local council and submit an outline of what you propose to do in writing. This is normally accompanied with a drawing of where you intend to run the venture and how you propose to keep all discus livestock and layout of tanks, stands and equipment. If you are working from home as many are now doing, this will be even more paramount to complying with all the laws and staying on the right side of it. They will want to know how many customers will be visiting the premises and where they are to park their cars etc. A good tip here is to keep any replies or letters from the council in a file, as your bank manager will want to see all proof that a genuine business plan has been put together. You will also need to investigate business rates or they may assess you for a different council tax banding. Also the water board will need to be contacted to see if any changes are to be made to billing. It all sounds daunting, but it is well worth finding these things out first because if they find out later, they normally back date everything. And nine times out of ten you normally end up paying more than you actually owe. So good forward planning could save you a lot of strife later. Finally the good old favourite, the tax man. You will need to contact your local Inland Revenue office at least three months and no later when you start trading. Again if you don’t there is a fine and an back dated tax estimate that is always more than you owe. So that’s the legal bit out the way, it all sounds a bit of a pain but if you are found out later you could be closed down or worse. So a little bit of home work before you start will probably pay off in the long run and save a lot of hassle later.

PREMISES

With all the legal stuff out the way how are you going to run this discus business? Many buildings can be adapted for the use of selling discus and will work fine. Many including myself are finding the benefits of working from home will enable you stay competitive and keep you in a good strong financial position. I was very fortunate to have some spare land at the side of my house, so a purpose built unit was built and works very well for me. But be warned, working from home can bring some out of hours company. Customers will know you are available and could visit unannouced at any time. Only the other night at 9.50PM I had a bang on the door as I was stepping out of the shower from some one wanting a breeding cone. If it was a heater stat that had packed up and his fish were in mortal danger I would not have minded, but a breeding cone could have waited until a more appropriate time. Because discus need to be kept at a higher temperature than most tropicals the building used will have to be well insulated to save as much heat as possible. With this in mind and if you are supplying a full service with fish foods etc, these will have to be kept cool. So a second room or building will need to be used for the correct storage of that particular stock. I have seen many places over the years keep fish foods in hot fish rooms, this is asking for trouble. But the pet shop inspectors will or should pick this up. So hopefully discus outlets that are properly run should have better, healthier stock and correctly stored foods for sale and this has got to be a good thing for the fish. If you have a partner, they better prepare them self’s for a lot of lonely times ahead. Much time will need to be used for setting up, running, caring and water changing, plus a lot of time on the telephone helping customers.

WHO LET THE DOG OUT?

Very usually it is not uncommon to work a 16 – 18 hour day, especially when you have your business to run and a delivery coming into the airport to collect and bring back and unpack and settle in and treat the water. Make no mistake even just keeping discus will take up a lot of your time, but when you turn retailer be prepared for many hours away from your spouse. The other night I came back late from Heathrow with a new shipment of discus, just to be chased down the path by my own dog, and I was only gone for two days, do you see my point?

MORE PLANNING

Once you have decided where you are to conduct your discus fish business and the layout of your fish room will need to be addressed. Again good forward planning will save a lot of work in the long run. You will need to know how much money to put aside for the refitting out of your store. How many tanks you will need and how you are to use lighting for best effect. Also heating, filters and how are you going to deliver bulk air through air stones etc. All this will have to be planned and costed first to see if it can become reality. When you price everything up you will be in for a big shock and that’s before you stock your dry good shelves and fill your tanks with fish. But before you even think about this venture it would be a very good idea to see what is already happening in your area. Is their already a discus fish specialist around? How many gardens centres and shops sell discus? Basically is their a market for them in your area? If there is , then your new venture may well be a good success. If after reading this article you have ticked off all the boxes and want to give this a go, and you think you got what it takes and can hack it. I sincerely wish you the very best of luck.

DID YOU KNOWS

Running your discus tanks on a centralised filter system could save you a lot of time with water changes if you run a drip water change system with it.
Plan everything out well and make a good business plan, this will help you get a business bank account and will demonstrate you are serious about what you propose.
Make sure you quarantine any new discus stock for at least two weeks before offering discus fish for sale.
Offer a good customer back up service, this will pay back dividends for future success with customer confdence.
Make sure all health and safety precautions are in place, because you will never know when the pet shop inspectors will visit. This is normally once a year for main inspection and four other random checks at any time during the year.