Starting a bait shop

My buddy and I would like to start a bait shop. Currently I am taking some short course business classes. Does anybody have any advise on this. This has been a dream of mine for a couple of years. I would like to be located out of the lacrosse area. I know their is already a couple of them their and a really good one on french island. My buddy would like to expand it into guns and bows also. Am I nuts or does anybody think it would actually work?

NUTS….No money in general sporting goods retail. Specialty items are about the only way to make real money, Thorne Bros comes to mind, and I know that store has even changed hands a few times. It’s all about the big box these days, at best hope to break even on bait, your inventory will have a bad habit of dying on you.

Didn’t want to burst your bubble, but keep your day job.

Please buy the old D&J location in Onalaska. Since they closed most of us in the Holmen,Onalaska, and parts of LaCrosse have to make long runs to get bait. On top of that, only 1 of those locations is open early enough to get bait before daylight
As far as “Will it work?” Do YOU think it will work? If so, then all you can do is give it an honest try

If you like to fish owning a bait shop will make that hard to do. Unless you are a cat guy and fish at night.

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Please buy the old D&J location in Onalaska. Since they closed most of us in the Holmen,Onalaska, and parts of LaCrosse have to make long runs to get bait. On top of that, only 1 of those locations is open early enough to get bait before daylight

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I agree with Wats…………

Go for it Targaman!! .. SOmebody has to make money doing this or we would all have coughs due to colds because we spent the previous night out in the rain picking our crawlers! And like you said, if it’s a dream of yours make it happen. Do your research and put together a business plan. There are people out there that will consult you on how to start your business. I’m all in for you bro.

before becoming self employed make sure your own “house” is order. This means having 4-6 months of cash reserves available for monthly expenses. Make sure you have support from family and friends as self employment can be lonely at times. Put that “I’m my own boss, and I’ll take off when I want” attitude back in your pocket cause if you want to be successful you have to put in your time. Keep good records, cause you don’t know where your going if you don’t know where you’ve been. Go for it and do something just a bit better than the next guy.

When I left a “regular paying job”, my vacation “left with it”.

Self employment: no benefits (medical/dental/life), no vacation, no securities, no retirement, no sick leave, work twice the hours of a normal job.

But:
Self employment: Means you are at full liberty to make as much money as you want.

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Why did D&J close up?

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Joy got a job in a different town so they sold the shop, there house, and other property and moved. Dave still delivers crawlers to the area Kwik Trips and other vendors though. There were ALOT of people that were not happy to see them leave, me included

Yep, I miss Dave and Joy

It will even be harder dealing without them when the ice gets here. They had every jig you could think of and then some

Talk to Bob Moore!

He did it and is a great guy!

I agree with Don Larsen. I cannot think of a tougher business then running a bait shop.

As an aside The Bait Shack in Winona is probably for sale, but remember the last owner failed.

One other note, your comment referred to “my buddy and I.”
I cannot imagine a bait shop supporting both of you.

Lots of luck, I tried it and it wasa bust for me.

Go for your dream…but keep your feet in reality!

…and Please don’t forget that hired help might cost you some extra money once in a while.

Shane,

The D&J location is a good one as it’s really the only location between Trempeleau and Lacrosse except for the shops on Lake Onalska. If I were to open a bait shop, I would make sure that I had some other product/services as well.

One that comes to mind for me is an indoor archery range. There are some around, but it would be awesome to have an all purpose outdoors shop in the area. I have a buddy in Winneconne who opened a bar/sports shop with a buddy. They put an archery range in and have done well.

Give me a call if you want me to get you in touch with my buddy. Another thing to consider is that you absolutely must put in a ton of hours. The LaCrosse area is big enough to do well in if you can get the loyalty of the hardcore outdoorspeople. Usually all this takes is honesty, try to keep stocked with the hot items and make sure that you keep a good relationship with your customers.

You don’t have to give away free stuff, or give out all the secret locations, but you will need to make your customers feel that they are getting value for the extra money they spend in your store.

Give me a call if you have any other questions. You should have my # in a PM from before.

Open up early at least 5 in the morning. The word will get around your place is open,A big plus, work long hours, less help. follow your dream .

You would never make it just selling bait and hooks but if you were in the right LOCATION with a lot of traffic and sold other things like gas and goods along with it you might do well.Take Meleens up by Mille Lacs by Onamia.He is in right location on the right side of the road heading north and sells a little bit of everything from bait,tackle,gas and goods etc.The place is a little gold mine compared to others but it takes some cash to have a place like that.Another one is Prince bait on the way to Mille Lacs.Right side of 169 heading noth and lots of traffic=$$$Did I mention LOCATION

Winters will be real slow and if its a bad ice year it will be double slow.

Just know that it will be a lot of work, but it can be a success. My folks owned a sports shop in Eau Claire for years, they bought it from my Grandpa. We raised our own redworms and nightcrawlers in “bunkbeds” in our basement. We ordered in the waxies and grubs in bulk, and Dad seined the creeks for minnows . Us kids used to have to feed the worms every day after school, and every evening we had to pack worms, crawlers, waxies and grubs for the next days business. My folks store was mainly a fishing/bait shop, but a big draw was that my Dad did rod and reel repair. And he was really good at it. He carried all the fishing supplies, and would order guns if anyone wanted one, but didn’t carry a lot of guns in stock. He always sold licenses, and the day before and the morning of an opening, whether it was fishing or deer season, us kids were set up with a card table and we sold licenses until they quit coming in, usually after midnight, and we were up by 4 to start the next day. The hours could be brutal, but it was fun, at least for me.
My dad was a fireman for the city, and with 9 kids, it wasn’t going to support us, so he stayed on the force until he retired, with Mom working the shop when he was at the hosehouse. After he retired, they moved up north to Bruce, and he started up his rod and reel repair again, and did a tremendous business with it. Again…..he was good. My older sister and her husband bought the shop, but it was more than they bargained for, they sold it to a couple guys that went belly up within a year.

So, the moral to the story is, have a cash reserve, a backup work force, and have a specialty or two that draws in the crowd.

Good luck to you in the venture!

June

If you like to fish, don’t do it. Unless you want to be on the sidelines when the bite is on.

before buying that store find out the status of the campground/park. onalaska was looking at buying that area and turning it into a public landing etc. dave kept the bait part of it, because there was more money made in it because he was wholesaling.

I say go for it but be careful what you do. These are very hard businesses to run. Hard to compete with all of the other people but if its a dream then go for it. Just make sure to spend wisely and be good to customers. Do the little things that some places wont and you will do great. You never know what will happen. Good luck to you

I worked at a privatly owned sporting goods store for a few years, And yes you can make a little money, but starting out is probaly going to be tuff do with a partner if you are both trying to take a income out of there. expecialy if it is your only income. I honestly doubt that it would work for you like that. I do belive you could make one work under the right conditions,with another souce of income to where you dont need to take anything out of your business for a good while. the number one thing in my opinion that can make you or break you is LOCATION, LOCATION , LOCATION , GOOD LUCK.

If you end up doing it plan on starting off as mostly a one or two man operation to begin with. It took me almost 4 years of running a business before I was able to hire help. Spend tons of time on research and even more on coming up with a successful business plan before you even start. Good luck!

Don’t expect to have much time to fish. But if you buy the old D&J location I would be stopping. I do miss it a lot. Come up with a business plan on paper and assume the worst.

Good Luck,

FDR

Try Coffee, bait and jerky

+100 Damn skippy he’s great!

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Talk to Bob Moore!

He did it and is a great guy!

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I agree with post above, Diversify as much as possible. I think you are on the right track with the archery/gun angle. Start an archery league, sell pop, candy, other stuff to eat in the boat/field.

Think of something to keep people coming in all year round. Register deer, turkeys. Weigh fish, run an annual fish contest, etc. But most of all, go WAY above and beyond for your customer. If your goal is to have each customer leave your store and tell 5-10 other people about their experience in your store, then you’ll do fine. If you just open the doors and sell stuff, it will be a tough row to hoe.

Best of luck to you!

Eric

After being in retail sporting goods for for 15 years I agree with all the warnings already given and then some!Don,t expect to make a living wage for the first 3 years. Really! Keep in mind that banks don’t loan money on inventory and you need to apply to venders and show ability to pay to get 30 day accounts otherwise its cash and carry. A 70 to 80 hr work week is average. Sell your boat and guns.A new bait system is 6 to 8 grand. If I remember right the one in Onalaska was pretty rough. To compete with the Big Boxes and online shopping you need to offer something they can’t and then promote it like crazy.At one time I had an inventory of $279,000.00 and still couldn’t compete head to head with the big guys. Doing well is less about a love of fishing and more about a love of dealing with people. This is just the tip of the ice berg. Everyone thinks they can avoid all the pitfalls and dificulties but don’t bet your last dollar on it. If all this hasn’t scared you off then it may be the best job you’ll ever have!

By the way, guns generally have a gross margin of around 10% and ammo even less.Thats a big investment for little return.