Transcription
At a broad level, there are three fundamentals that are critical to any business, not just the reptile industry. And if you miss out on one of these fundamentals, it is going to set your entire endeavor up for failure. So, for this week, we're going to dive into those three business fundamentals that are critical for your success in the reptile industry. My name is Steven with Leviathan, and let's get to it.
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Fundamental number one is expertise.
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And when I'm talking about expertise, this is the knowledge and the skill set that is needed in order to actually do whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish. So when it comes to the reptile industry, for the most part, people are trying to breed their animals. So you need to have expertise in the husbandry of the animals. You need to understand the process of breeding and how exactly you create offspring. And you need to understand all of the different genetic aspects of your given species because all of this information is going to be absolutely critical to make sure that you are able to produce the animals that other people are going to want to buy. And in my opinion, most breeders get this part [music] down pat. They do a ton of research on the animals. They do a ton of research on breeding. And they do a ton of research on the morphs and genetics. But where I think it kind of falls apart for a lot of breeders in the reptile world is that they don't do very much research and they don't have very much knowledge when it comes to the business side. They don't really understand the market. They think that if they go out and they just simply breed the morphs that they like that that will mean that they will have an incredible business as long as they stick with it. But in my opinion, there is often a difference between the individual tastes of a breeder and what actually sells in the marketplace. So understanding where the market is right now and where you think it's going to go in 3 to 5 years from now is critical in order to take your tastes and direct it in a way [clears throat] that it is viable and there are going to be people who want to buy the animals that you produce later on.
In [music] addition, people don't really think about and don't do a ton of research in order to understand the laws and regulations that are required to operate in their area or in a different state specifically if you're going to be vending shows there. And I believe that this aspect has led to a lot of different problems where people end up not collecting sales tax or they realize that the place that they are operating their business out of it's completely illegal to even have a business there to begin with because it's not zoned correctly and lots of other aspects like this. So in my opinion before you can do anything else when you are starting a business you need to gain that expertise not just in your industry but in everything that your business is potentially going to touch and you need to have some level of familiarity with it. Now before we leave the expertise topic I personally think it is impossible to be an expert on every single aspect that is going to be required from your business. So, you don't necessarily need to set yourself up to be the best in every single area, but you need to be dangerous. You need to get to a level of competence where you can do it yourself. And then once you scale your business to the point that you can hire employees, if you're able to find employees who are way better at those aspects than you are, you are going to set your entire business up for success later on.
Fundamental number two is strategy. And again, breeders often are really, really good at the strategy piece when it comes to breeding and the animals. But when it comes to the business side, I think that most breeders in the entire hobby are 1,000% just winging it. So, when I'm talking about the strategy aspect, I think that it is critical to identify what are you trying to achieve. Are you trying to get to the point where you are creating a full-time living from breeding reptiles? And if you are, what exactly does that look like? How much money do you need to generate every single year to have that full-time living as well as cover all of the expenses that are going to come from operating your reptile business and probably have at least some amount of money to continue to reinvest in your business so that way you can continue growing in the future. So with that, once you know that dollar amount, you also can work backwards and figure out how many rough clutches do you need to get to that dollar amount per year. And then once you know how many clutches you need, how many breeder females do you need in order to have a good shot at reliably producing that many clutches. Once you know that number, then you need to know how many males do you need to go to all of those different breeder females. And from that point, you are able to understand really how much you are going to need in order to execute the goal that you are trying to accomplish. And it can get all the way down to the point of knowing that you need to buy 18 different ARS 5540s in order to produce roughly 300 clutches from 500 breeder females. And once you have this idea in your mind, then you can create stepbystep things that you need to do every single month in order to execute on this strategy. But again, I think that the vast majority of people in the reptile industry don't pay attention to this aspect at all. Instead, they simply breed their animals and then once they produce their animals, they're holding back some of the best animals. they're selling other ones and they are kind of haphazardly buying more infrastructure, buying a different animal for a different project because it caught their eye and they're not deliberately going about executing a strategy that they laid out beforehand. And I think that this results in a lot of people who end up turning their wheels for multiple years and are essentially not really making progress towards their end result.
One last thought on strategy that I think is really, really important rather than just simply the outline on how you're going to achieve your goals is the why is that goal important to begin with. Again, I think that a lot of people are really, really good at planning out a breeding strategy in order to know what they need to hold back and what pairings they need to do to hit a desired combo years in the future. but they don't do a super good job of understanding why that animal or why that approach is the best way to go about doing it. And I think that simply asking why you are doing something can often highlight opportunities that might allow you to do better. There is also a big problem with breeders executing things that they think are strategic, but they don't really understand why they are doing it. They might know that they need to market themselves. So therefore, they're posting on social media, but when they make that post, they don't really think about why that post itself might further their goals. Is it attracting the right attention? Is it drawing the ideal customers to their brand? And if it does, and it does grab their attention, how does that make those people more loyal to them in the future? So that way they will trust the breeder who is making that content and that they will ultimately be willing to buy an animal from [music] them if they have something that serves their purposes down the road.
Fundamental number three is perseverance. You can do all of the research in the world and you can understand the entire industry from top to bottom. You can create a strategy and this strategy might be the best strategy that has ever happened given your specific situation and the goals that you want to achieve. But you can't just start executing on it and then give up two weeks later. Instead, I think that the third fundamental of perseverance means that you have to be able to stick to that strategy and you have to be able to stick to doing [music] the work that might take years often without very much if any reward, especially in the early stages. So, when it comes to the perseverance aspect, it is going to get boring. And when it does get boring, you still have to keep executing. And there are going to be times that you don't know what the next step should be, but you got to figure it out anyway. And lastly, there are going to be massive setbacks. Whether that is a animal dying that was critical to your plans. Maybe it is a huge rodent shortage and now you are not really able to adequately feed your animals and therefore you have a bad season. And there are countless other obstacles that are going to stand in your way. But you have to be able to overcome them and you have to keep persevering. Again, this industry as well as any industry, it isn't something that you can do [music] overnight. Even if you have a million dollars, you are not going to be able to drop a million dollars and instantly be able to hit the exact same point that Justin, Bob, or Brock are already at who've been doing it for 20 years. Instead, it is going to take a significant amount of time to build up not just your animals, but your business, your customer base, your audience to the point that you can reach those top [music] tier breeders. And that might not even be your goal. But still, it is going to take time. And it is absolutely critical that you are still doing the work when you don't want to. It's those times, the point where you know you need to go out and you need to clean rodents. You know, you need to go pair snakes. You know you need to post on Morph Market. You know you need to record a video for YouTube. You know that you need to post on Instagram. And when you don't want to do it, those are the points that matter because if you keep choosing to not do those things because you're not feeling it, you are not really persevering. Instead, you are only doing it when the whim takes you.
So with all of these, I think that they are each critical to the success of any business, not just the reptile world. But again, it doesn't mean that you have to be the best at them at any given time. But as long as you do all of them and you continue to improve over the years, eventually you will get to the point where you are able to achieve your goals and you will make a huge impact on the entire reptile industry. My name is Steven with Leviathan. We hope you guys enjoyed the video and if you did, please don't forget to hit the like button, leave a comment, and subscribe. But we will see you next week.
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