welcome back to the Graham Stefan show
my name is Graham and welcome to my show
and today we're gonna be speaking with
buddy who's in his early 20s and
grossing over two million dollars a year
selling and breeding reptiles so we're
gonna be bringing him on finding out
about his business and everything else
that goes along with that and it seems
like really interesting stuff so anyway
here we go
so buddy welcome to the Graham Stefan
show what's going on not much man how
are you thank good thanks so what's uh
so what's up not much you know my name
is buddy of course and I sell reptiles
reptiles flies and feeder insects did
not expect that it's funny actually
growing up I had a ton of a ton of
lizards and reptiles
I had like oh my god I've had like two
leopard geckos and iguana bearded dragon
anoles chameleon I basically had a zoo
I had a zoo growing up awesome yeah a
lot of people say that actually yeah a
lot of people say that so we started
actually with bearded dragons it was my
first pet back in like third grade
and yeah it's kind of just evolved and
we got more bearded dragons and started
selling them so now we've been reptile
Expos almost every weekend where people
can go meet the breeder you know
everything like that
so we sell the reptiles there so we we
do that and we bring like a mobile store
so we've got all the supplies we've got
the tanks the feeder insects the heat
master lights all that fun stuff how
much do you make - thinkness hates it
everyone right now how much do you make
me yeah hey
right now we're projected to do like 2.3
million this year next time or next year
we're hoping to do 3.6 to 4 million so
yeah it's really blowing up for my first
pet what is the what is the profit
margin on that on like you know two
million dollars we try to keep it like
50 percent it's between like 30 and 50
percents of the year that's really good
margin so you're saying off like like
two million thirty to fifty percent
would be you
almost a million dollars a year 600
million you're in profit yeah but that's
before all the expenses and stuff like
that so this year we're probably gonna
net 150 or so 150 200 parceling okay
when did you realize that like all of a
sudden this could you could make money
doing it cuz good most kids you know
don't have a reptile like oh we can we
can make some money off this leopard
gecko got out of that started so we
started like I said in third grade I got
my first pet and we knew a guy that
owned the pet store and he gave us a
female and we started breeding him we
gave him half the babies we kept half we
just gave him why that in third grade it
was just my first pet so just really but
you just put two of them together just
cool them together I'm yelling a female
and they agree huh so so yes so we
started breeding them we ended up not
having any more people to just give them
to so we started vending reptile expose
in the area so we got into some of the
bigger Expos and just we just sold the
babies and then we brought in some light
form as well we figure you know if we're
gonna sell them we might as well sell
the light that we recommend for them as
well right so that got us into the the
product side of it and then if we're
going to sell the light we might as well
sell the dome and if we're going to sell
the dome we might as well sell the cage
and if we're gonna sell the cage we need
to thermostat the high so water bowls
all that fun stuff so they have a full
set up so then we kind of just built
that up at the expose and now we sell
everything for chameleons leopard geckos
beauties you know anything you can think
of snakes ball pythons Boas any reptile
you can think of we've got everything
you need for it that's incredible
then so where do you go from here so
right now we just opened up our own show
our own Expo in Maryland down in Havre
de Grace and we're doing that almost
once a month now and we're looking to
build up that it's a separate company
technically we're looking up looking to
build that side up as well so that we
can go to our own expose and Bend so
we're getting kind of all of that we can
charge less for the vendors to come in
hmm less for the people to come in and
it could be a better expo overall
because we're not only making the money
on the door what we're making money on
the supplies and the feeder insects and
our own reptiles as well so we don't
have to just charge an arm and a leg to
get through the door for the vendors to
come all that fun stuff that's awesome
man congratulations thank you thank you
yeah I'm trying to see what you're
thinking whether we should continue
diversifying the business or if I should
double down on the online stuff and kind
of focus more on that instead of the
in-person Expos or if I should work on
the X was more because we get that whole
interaction can't you do both what's the
what's the harm in doing both I think
you need to go online by definitely
online yeah that's that's where the
majority of our sales are we're on
Amazon we do FBA we do go F p.m. we're
set we have a whole shipping department
ten people in there you know we have a
warehouse so we're definitely doing both
but the Expos you know it basically eats
up an entire weekend so I'm kind of
focusing on like the bigger expose we
kind of cut out some of the smaller
expose for my schedule and you know I'd
like to have weekends back so if it's
worth it what is the benefit of doing an
expo
it's the in-person sales so online we're
selling mostly the feeder insects you
know they've got a very short shelf life
so everyone is constantly ordering
feeder insects on a weekly basis but
they're not ordering the lights the
cages the decorations as much as they
are the bugs so that kind of the expo is
kind of helped us move all the other
product and then online we focus on me
insects why do you think people are not
buying the stationary items online
it's one is Amazon Amazon loves to sell
stuff the low-cost like below the cost
of the product and shipping it blows my
mind that they do it but it's almost
like every product that they for
reptiles is just below cost I can't go
on there and compete because they've got
a low cost so Wow they can go there and
get it cheaper or they can just go to an
expo or a pet store because they need it
right then and there most of the time
like if a light bulb goes out you're not
gonna want to wait two days for a new
light bulb to come in you don't want
them to be cold for that time it's
crying so they'll go to a store and get
it then or if they have an expo on the
weekend they can just go there and go
pick it up so yeah that's mainly why how
are you we don't know yeah
how are your margins on that compared to
selling insects the insects are
definitely where it's at to be honest we
can buy you know a thousand mealworms
and then sell it buy the 125 count and
you know quadruple our money if it's you
know if the people don't need a thousand
if they need a thousand then we can
double or double to triple but we can
you know if we buy a thousand mealworms
for let's say like four dollars we can
sell it for eight but we can sell 125
count for like three dollars on it so
you can make more on the insects cuz we
break to town yeah I mean here's my
thought it's like it's worth it to
double down on the insects and to really
push more insects on people or expand
that market and then see if by any
chance you could you could hire out the
weekends so you get your weekends back
yes yeah I've been working on that I've
been trying to get myself out of more
shows but it's tough you know asking
people to work seven days a week it's a
it's not the easiest life so the only
problem we have with the insects online
is that there's a lot of do away with it
so people don't always get exactly what
they order because the post office can
mess it up they can lose it and it just
takes too long for them to arrive alive
yeah so we have a big refund rate on
that so we we always constantly have to
watch that refund ray to make sure that
if there's a spike for any reason hotter
weather it's going too far then we
either cancel the order we raise the
price or we do something like that to
kind of offset that or we'll change how
we ship it right now we're drilling
holes in the box boxes because it's
summertime but then in winter time we
actually have to add a heat pack like a
hand warmer heat pack so that they stay
warm and they don't freeze to death or
they don't freeze rights right yeah I
mean that's a that's a tough one
personally I would double down on the
insects even with the DOA it seems like
there's such high profit margins that
it's worth it especially if you're known
as like the one company that will get
you exactly what you need like 24 hours
and you can really push that and expect
that seems like really where the
opportunity is at expose it sounds intro
I really just don't know enough about it
and how expose work to really give you
great advice on that make them if you
can hire it out I would if it's worth
your time I would continue doing it yeah
they're definitely worth it we do
roughly forty six a year and for those
46 Expos were doing 850 to 900 from the
2.5 million yeah that's yeah oh my god
it would definitely not cancel the Expo
Center definitely not to give I keep the
Expos yeah there's some that you know
are definitely smaller what we'll do
you know half of the bigger ones like in
one day in the one Expo we do we do do
you know 60 grand but then in some of
them we only do five to six makes sense
to them makes it I would yeah I I think
it's I think it's great I think it's
just I think it temporarily it's
probably worth the sacrifice you just
keep doing this yeah yeah I would place
more emphasis on line I personally
believe online is really where I would
put most of my focus well thank you so
much man and yeah definitely keep me
posted with everything well do thank you
got it sounds good
thanks bye so with that said you guys
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