I wonder how much revenue FedEx generates annually from our sector? How many insurance claims are being paid out? Would be worthwhile to try to track that for a year or two during the process of writing a business plan.
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How about maybe starting off just doing deliveries to and from big shows? If you could offer the local breeders in your area a transport option to drive their animals and displays to the shows theyâre vending, especially if you can then stop off on the way and pick up from more people en route. This could be a way to compete with FedEx price wise because youâd be getting larger volumes of animals per breeder and also things like display cases which are possibly more expensive to ship. Youâd also win out on convenience because instead of having to drive animals back themselves, the breeders can now fly home or take an extra day at the show location without needing to worry about getting their animals home as quick as possible. You can also build your business at the shows by going to the different tables and seeing where all the different breeders are from, and if they are from your area or on your route thatâs an opportunity to strike up a conversation and find out if your service is of interest to them. You can also build the business by asking, for example, if your local client base that vends Tinley park for example, if they donât vend Arlington because of the hassle of transport, if they would consider it if you offered transport at x price, and you get enough people to commit that you cover your costs, you can then open it up and start advertising the service to people on your route to make your profit. You could also get in touch with show promoters and have them advertise your service, because the easier and more convenient you make it for your local breeders to vend out of state shows, the more vendors those promoters have to vend their shows so everybody makes more money.
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Wonât work unless your doing over night shipment itâs going to take say 2 days or so to get to say California and the drive u going to lose so much money in gas, what you going to do charge people like 400 bucks to ship bc u gotta drive and need to cover cost , just canât compete with fed ex right now only way this works is.if fed ex stops shipping reptiles all together ⌠im.sorry to say but save your time and invest In something else. As well as the time to make a deliver say u gotta go to California but the buyer is in Boston, think about how long thatâs going to take to drive plus gas , 3 days or so for a one away drive , Ball python may not be in the best shape by then just makes no sense unless you have planes.
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Why would you need to ship to California? I think the best way to start would to stay in the midwest area and possibly branch out to some other dense reptile community areas (eg. Texas).
Iâm sorry, I would never use a service in which my animals would be placed in an enclosure that had housed other animals, or one in which a delivery person of questionable experience would be handling and caring for my animal, or one in which delivery took more than 24 hours.
Iâve decided I likely wonât pursue this. Itâd be too much work for me to handle and it looks like most people would prefer to use FedEx.
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