- It's a pretty nice day today,
so I thought I would hang out today,
which is rare to see from me.
And I thought I would
spend this time to tell you
about some of my biggest
mistakes while selling reptiles.
For those of you that don't know,
I've been running Emerald Scales
for a couple of years now,
which is the company that takes in rehabs,
rehomes, sells, and breeds
reptiles and amphibians,
and we ship them to anywhere in the US.
And I've learned a ton while doing this
and I have made way more mistakes
than I'm going to mention in this video.
But I wanted to talk
about the very first ones
that come to mind,
'cause I assume that those are most likely
some of the biggest
if they just happen to pop
into my mind very quickly.
And we've got three big
ones we're gonna go over.
So if you're considering
selling animals, reptiles,
or just anything in general,
maybe this will help you out.
Number one, this one is
very specific to reptiles,
and that is the fact
that I did not specialize
in a select few species when starting out.
So our kind of plan when
starting an Emerald Scales
is we would simply take
any reptile we can find,
any health, any species,
any size, any age,
any location, we would
try and get anywhere,
get them from anyone,
and work with any type.
And for the most part, that
was fine, all those variables,
but the fact that we took an any species
was I think one of our shortcomings.
Because we started this just in a,
it was my friend and I,
we started it in both of our bedrooms
in our parents' houses,
so we had limited space.
And with limited space
it can be hard to care
for a lot of different species at once,
because they have a
lot of different needs.
First of all, size.
Some are gonna just need
super big enclosures
and we physically would not have the space
if we tried to keep
some really big species.
Second, animals that need
different temperatures
and humidity.
It turned out it was pretty
hard to get different animals,
all of their exact
necessities, in the same room,
which is kind of expected.
If you have both an axolotl
and a ball python, for example,
an axolotl is an aquatic amphibian
that needs 60 degree water.
When a ball python is
a terrestrial reptile
that needs at least at
about a 90 degree hot spot.
And so if these are close
to each other in the room,
it's gonna be pretty difficult
to get them both of their necessities.
On top of this, if you're
keeping some animals
that eat rodents, some that eat insects,
some that are herbivores,
and just all this stuff,
it basically added up to
a lot of different stuff
we had to buy and a lot
of stuff we had to store.
Stuff that we didn't necessarily
have the storage for,
because it was just so much,
not just the animals, but
everything they needed.
And also we needed money for this
and we weren't starting with much money,
because this was our first new business
and we didn't have much
capital to work with.
We weren't like raising money.
Again, we were just two young
people starting a project.
And so for that reason
the expenses added up pretty
quickly, because of that.
Because we would just have to buy
all these little things constantly.
But say, we just started
with say, leopard geckos,
just different geckos maybe.
Leopard, crested, and gargoyle, any other,
tokay, I don't know, whatever gecko.
If we just have those,
we'd only have like two foods needed,
insects and some sort of fruit
mix for the crested geckos.
And it would be way more simple
than having to get all these
different sizes of things.
For example, with snakes,
we would take in any snake species,
whether it's a ball python,
or almost any snake species,
like say something medium-size
like a ball python,
something smaller, like a milk snake,
or even bigger snakes like
Burmese pythons or whatever,
like not full-size stuff,
but larger things where
some of the animals
were eating adult mice, others
were eating hopper mice,
which are even smaller,
others were eating jumbo rats.
And so we just had to have
all these different sizes
ordered in and that also added up quickly.
So yeah, like I was
saying with the geckos,
if we just started with just geckos
and we just had a few minimal foods
that we were feeding them,
it would have been more
straightforward, less stressful,
and we'd know exactly what we have.
And that would have made
things a lot easier,
'cause not only would this
have saved money and space,
but it would have saved time
when it came to organizing all the stuff,
organizing the expenses,
and making sure we had what we needed.
And if we ran out of something
and we didn't realize it,
'cause we had trouble organizing,
we'd have to rush out and find that item,
just maybe from a local pet store.
Well, not local, but like Petco,
which is not exactly cheap,
'cause they mark up their prices a lot.
And if we had started small
and slowly increased the number of species
and types of animals that we kept,
I think we would have been better off.
So I don't regret taking in
all these different species,
because it was really fun and really cool,
but if we really want it
to maximize efficiency
and the growth financially
and just company-wise overall,
I think we should have started smaller
and then built up species
by species from there
as we were comfortable.
Because again, we did have to keep up
with all the husbandry,
all the right hot spots,
all the right types of
heating and types of lighting.
We had to have heat mats
and heat bulbs and UVB.
And then certain animals
had to have certain humidity levels.
And it was just all this
heating all over the room
and that tended to cause
some issues occasionally.
Nothing drastic,
but it would have been easier
had we started smaller.
The second one actually ties
into the first one in a way,
but the first part of the
second mistake that we made
is trying to have keeping,
like reptile keeping
standards for reptiles
that were not permanent.
So for example, let's say
back to leopard geckos,
'cause they're an easy example,
personally, I like to keep my
own permanent leopard geckos
in at least 20 gallons for
themselves as individuals
and maybe even larger.
This is a 30 inch by 12
inch by 12 inch enclosure
and gives them space to explore
and you can just have a lot in here.
I also use a non-loose
substrate, like reptile carpet,
which I don't really use now.
Now I like using laminate stick-on tiles
and even just paper towel works and stuff.
But usually I like to keep it fancier
with cooler looking things
for my personal pets.
Along with this,
I have a big variety of
items in the enclosure,
like some decor, tons of different hides,
and all this stuff.
And it just looks really nice.
And then for heating,
I'll have, each animal
will have its own heat mat,
its own thermostat to
regulate the temperature,
and its own lighting even,
just so that it looks nice.
Even though I don't think leopard geckos
really need specific lighting,
although I think they should
have a day and night cycle,
so they know when it's day
time and when it's night time.
But what we also tried to do
is keep up these exact
standards with animals
that would be here temporarily.
Animals we had come in that
would eventually go out,
usually after a few months.
And keeping up the exact same standards
was both difficult, and in
my opinion, unnecessary.
If an animal is only gonna
be with us for a few months
I think it is perfectly okay
to decrease the quality of the enclosure.
Now purposely decreasing
husbandry sounds weird to say,
but it makes sense once you get into it
and once you start working on that.
So say you get a bunch
of leopard geckos in
and you want to adhere to your
normal husbandry standards,
that being a 20 gallon per gecko,
that's a lot of 20 gallons.
And we learned this quickly.
This is a lot of enclosures lining up.
And they literally were just all in a row,
lots of individual heat mats,
lots of, every single one
had its individual thermostat
and individual lighting.
And even just working with
all this was so complicated.
The reason this ties into the first thing,
wait, how is tying to the first thing?
This ties well into the first thing,
because not only was it
a bunch of leopard geckos
with these specific standards,
but it was all these different species
that we are taking in.
And every single one had
its own big fancy enclosure.
And it was really cool
and it looked really cool,
but it really took a hit on our revenue,
because we had to spend so much more
getting every animal
exactly what it needed.
On top of that,
let's go back to the
thermostats and heat mats.
Electricity is a part of this.
I started this on my parents' home,
so I didn't really notice
the electricity bill,
because I was not paying for it.
But quickly after I rented a home
where we did all of these projects
and I got to see the electric bill
and how quickly it rises when every animal
has its own thermostat and heating device
and all this stuff.
And so for that reason, I
definitely highly recommend
going more compact, more simplified,
easier to clean, and more
streamlined enclosures,
and just husbandry overall.
Still making sure the animal
gets everything it needs,
the right temperature, the
right temperature gradient,
obviously a water bowl,
the food and diet it needs,
and making sure there is some
sort of lighting in the room,
but doing things like getting heat tape,
which is a long strip of heating
that can go across a bunch of animals.
And we started using smaller plastic tubs,
big enough so they could still move around
and explore a bit,
but they were here temporarily,
and so enrichment was less vital,
since it wasn't gonna be their whole life
that they're gonna be in
a more boring enclosure
and instead it's just for a few months.
So for that reason I didn't feel sad
or bad for the animal for
having no decor or less decor
and maybe having a more boring substrate,
like using paper towel
is way more efficient.
You can just pull it out and throw more in
and paper towel decomposes pretty quickly,
so it's not too harsh on the environment
just because you're
throwing something out.
And in addition to that,
it's also cheaper and way
quicker and easier to clean.
On top of that,
it's way easier to work
with small plastic tubs
instead of a bunch of big
aquariums, for example.
Taking one out to clean is hard,
it's heavy, it's delicate.
And we cracked a lot of enclosures
just trying to work quickly.
But the plastic tubs,
you can take the animals
out and just stack them all
and go sanitize them all.
Especially when different
animals are coming in,
say we had a leopard gecko
in a 20 gallon itself
and we wanna put another one in there.
We only sell animals if we're sure
that they're healthy and happy,
but let's say there was something
that somehow slipped through the cracks,
we don't want anything spreading
from one animal to another.
So we completely sanitize every enclosure.
And that's hard to do with
an aquarium that's big,
'cause it'll take awhile
and be more difficult.
But if you just have small plastic tubs,
they're cheaper,
so it's not as big of a deal
if you just literally throw
it away if it's pretty dirty.
Obviously this is more wasteful,
so if it is cleanable, you
can clean it more easily,
can even stick them in the dishwasher
and that gets the majority of stuff,
and then you can just wipe it from there.
So I'd say you should not be afraid
decreasing your standard to a healthy,
understandable difference
from personal animals.
And you shouldn't feel
guilty, in my opinion,
for putting an animal
in something different
just temporarily,
because they're only going to be there
for a shorter amount of time.
Now, when it comes to
breeder animals, for example,
say it's an animal for your business,
but you're breeding it
to produce more animals,
I definitely think those
should have be peak standards
that you can reach,
because they are most
likely more permanent
or at least gonna be there longer.
So say you have breeder crested geckos,
we still put these in full size,
nice, decorated enclosures,
because we think they deserve
the enrichment and the space,
because they'll be here for longer.
But if it's just an adult cresty
that'll only be here
for a number of months
while we make sure it's healthy
or get it up to health
and weight or whatever,
and then sell it,
I think it's okay to change the standards.
And we just had to get over that
and I wish we had done that sooner.
And the third one applies
to pretty much anything you're
selling, not just animals,
but it also certainly applies,
but it was one of the
big things that I regret
and that's we did not keep
detailed enough expenses documented.
I use FreshBooks for this.
You can also use QuickBooks,
more people use QuickBooks.
And honestly, if I could pick again,
I'd probably go with QuickBooks
instead of FreshBooks,
but what this is is an online
accounting software basically
where you can put in every bit of money
that goes in and comes out and changes
and you know where it's all gone.
And although we were
using this from the start,
we just got lazy sometimes
and we would slack.
And I still do this
sometimes where I just slack
on getting those numbers punched in.
Also it wasn't detailed enough
and we weren't putting and
considering every single expense.
For example, if you own your own vehicle
you can write every single mile off
and compare it to your revenue
and it decreases your revenue,
which means that you have a lower profit.
And this is a good thing,
because it means that you
can pay less in taxes,
but it doesn't actually take away
from the money you've earned.
For example, in North Carolina,
I believe it's 55 cents per mile
is your reimbursement that you
can calculate as an expense.
And we simply didn't do this
and we probably missed out
on saving a lot in taxes,
because we traveled a ton.
So we just should have
stayed more on top of this
and made it more of a priority.
It's super boring, super
just uninteresting overall,
'cause you're just punching numbers
and trying to figure out all the stuff.
But we made this easier by
getting separate debit cards
for the business and having
a separate bank account,
which is way better.
And so we could just go
in, we use Wells Fargo,
you could just go into Wells Fargo
and see exactly where the money was going
and then keeping track of it all
and keeping detailed expenses,
saying what it was, where you bought it,
and how much it was, and
then the date on that.
And that's why,
you could do this in just a
Google spreadsheet for free,
but I suggest using any
accounting software,
it's usually like 10 to 50 bucks a month,
depending on what you go with.
I think I pay like 20 bucks
for FreshBooks per month
and QuickBooks is like 30 or something.
And again, that's another
expense that you can write off
and it's really important
to keep track of this,
not only for the tax purposes
and because you legally have to make sure
you're paying the right amount in taxes,
at least if you're in the US I guess,
but also because it
really gives you an idea
of how you're doing and
where your money's going.
Being able to look back on these expenses
really makes a huge difference
when it comes to how you can save money.
Because every dollar you save
you can think of as a
dollar that you earned
towards the company,
because it's basically the same thing.
Spending a dollar takes away a dollar
that you could have earned.
And saving in these little part,
in these little areas really helps.
And doing this is one
of the ways we realized
where we need to change what we're doing
with the two previous
points that I mentioned,
so they all tie in together.
Keep track of your expenses really well
to figure out where you
are putting too much money,
and then you can change that.
For example, if you're realizing
you're spending way too much
on the electricity bill,
because you have fans
cooling off half the room
with heating heating up
the other half of the room,
that's a lot more electricity.
You can save that
and then apply that to doing
fewer species at a time,
if you don't space to spread out.
And then that in turn changes
your husbandry standards
potentially for certain species.
So those are probably the
three biggest mistakes
and at least the very first
ones that come to mind
when it comes to me selling
pet reptiles online.
I've done a couple
other videos about this,
you can check out my
making money playlist,
and I'll be honest,
this morning I was thinking
about maybe doing a paid course
on what I've done to build Emerald Scales.
Paid courses, a lot of
people make fun of them,
'cause you can find a
paid course for anything
and oftentimes you can find
the same info for free,
but I think a lot of courses
are great and worth the money.
And if you have interest in that
just let me know in the comments.
And if so, I will try and
make the most valuable
and most impactful, specific course
on how to actually build a,
at least the basics and the foundation
on how to start building
and how to start working
on selling pets,
because that's a pretty specific thing
and we had a lot of trouble
finding information on it.
So if you have interest in that
let me know in the comments
and maybe I'll start working on one.
And other than that,
I'll still definitely do
free content like this one,
which hopefully was interesting.
I know these get way fewer
views than normal videos,
but I love talking about
finances and money and businesses
and learning it as I do it,
and I like being able to
document the process as it goes.
So yeah, and you can
check out the other links
in the description that support me
and they have some, I
have cool stuff there.
Products I recommend,
some coupon codes that you might need
for feeding your animals, for example,
and a bunch of other stuff,
so you can check it out.
It's actually noon right now
and I didn't really sleep,
so hopefully this video was coherent,
but that'd be it for this video.
So I'm Alex, thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)
