Pet Shop Business Ideas: How to Start a Pet Store Business

Owning a pet store is very challenging because of many regulations, licenses and government laws. Adding to the difficulty are many major stores especially in advanced countries.

Luckily owning a pet store in African has very few competitors guaranteeing lots of profit. Other general challenges are short lifespan of many creatures, medical and feeding costs.

If you love animals the job is very rewarding, lucrative and interesting. You need to have a good source for buying your pets. You also have to do lots of stock and inventory management.

There are four aspects to the business selling live animals, feed, equipment and animal medication. Pet store owners combine selling live animals with feed, accessories and over the counter medication.

To successfully run your enterprise you need adequate planning and implementation. Here are a few ideas to starting a pet store business.
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Funding

The size of your business dictates the size of your investment. You can start a small pet store with store with $8,000.

Secure funds from savings, cooperatives, or micro finance banks. Other sources are equity sales in your business or a partnership agreement.

Secure a Good Location

Choose your location carefully because it impacts on your profit or loss. A good location is close to a residential area, crowded street or shopping mall.

Locating your business close to your customers is very important. The target age groups that frequently buy pets are 5years -19years. However popular pets such as dog and cats are bought by any age group.

You can buy a property and build a pet store or lease a property. Leasing is less expensive than investing in property and you can start the enterprise rather quickly.

Other parameters to use in determining a good location is vehicular traffic and accessibility.

Register the Business

Register your business as a limited liability company. Also get liability insurance, public liability insurance, employer liability insurance and other legal requirement.  Find out through local authorities the licenses required to run the business.

You might need to get permit to trade certain animals and don’t forget to pay your taxes.

The Pet Animal Act

A pet owner needs to follow a few recommendations under the pet owner’s act of 1951. Animals are to be kept in accommodation suitable as respect to size, lighting ventilation and cleanliness.

Mammals are not to be sold too early an age. You need to take reasonable precautions to prevent infectious diseases.

The pet owner needs to put in place fire safety protocol as recommended. They are also mandated to supply adequate food and drink to the animals.

Equipment

The equipment depends on the type of animal you want to sell. Common equipments are cages, glass tanks, plastic containers and plastic ponds. You can sell dog kernels, aquariums and wooden containers.

The cages are mandated by law to leave adequate space for movement and growth.  Provide a store for your replacement equipment and animal feed.

Stocking

To stock your pet shop buy from breeders and major animal suppliers. Pet store generally deal with small animals as opposed to pets like dogs or cats.

A major income source for pet shop owners are the sale of animal toys and accessories. Accessories like chains, animal couture, ribbons and dog collars.

Common Small Animals in Pet Stores

A well organized pet store with properly managed kernels sells dogs and cats. However the majority focus on small animals such as reptiles, Birds, insects, fish, marsupials and mammals.

You find lots of harmless snakes, hamsters, rabbits and rodents. They also sell different types of fish like goldfish, angel fish even octopus.

List of Animals Found in Pet Stores

1.    Birds like canaries, budgerigars, red robins, parrots

2.    Reptiles like Red neck lizards, agama lizards, snakes

3.    Fish like goldfish, eels, angel

4.    Rodents like white mice, rats

5.    Mammals like dogs, cats

Staff

Pet stores don’t hire much staff to run the operation. Common staffs are receptionists, cashiers, sales clerks, cleaners, book keepers and security. The owner uses veterinary services and an accountant to balance his books.

Marketing

You can market your pet store through electronic and print media. Use online resources like social media a blog or website. You can hire sales representatives or network with vets, breeders and pet groomers.

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