The expenses of running a leo business

[KelliH]

We recently completed our taxes for 2007 (yuck) and the total expenses for HISS last year were $48,067.94. This includes advertising, animal maintainance (feeders, paper towels, deli cups, vermiculite, sphagnum moss, cleaning supplies etc.), bank service charges (credit card fees), equipment rental (credit card machine), freight (shipping charges and supplies), inspection fees (US Fish and Wildlife), licenses and permits (import/export license, business license), office supplies, building repairs (electrical modifications and equipment), storage fees (we store some of our supplies offsite), entertainment and meals (this includes the $100 alcohol purchase for the NARBC party last year!), motel (when we do out of town shows), utilities (since our business is run out of our home, we have to factor in a percentage of our utilities as business expenses), and veterinary expenses.

I just thought it would be interesting to some of you to see how much money it really takes to run even a small business like ours. :main_thumbsup:

 

[Franks_Geckos]

Holy Blank Batgirl! That's alot of cash.

 

[Ccrashca069]

Well that should just go to show people its more about the love of reptiles then anything. Thanks for sharing that info Kelli

 

[Kimjorg]

Thats doesnt surpeise me at all...it all adds up so quickly!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I'm not the least bit suprised, Kelli... especially on the scale you are operating compared to my "little more than a hobby" business.

I don't want to hijack your thread, but these are my 2007 expenses:

Feeders: $2,415.39
Veterinary: $609.33
Supplies: $3,631.32
Advertising: $660.00
Service charges: $462.98
Trade Show costs: $977.50
Website: $120.00
Utilities: $665.00
Misc. expenses: $697.03
Geckos purchased: $2,850.00
CA sales tax: $1,220.00
CA income tax: $1,400.00
Fed tax: $4,160.00

GRAND TOTAL: $19,868.55

 

[Eriathiel]

Not to be nosey - and I'm not asking exact numbers - but did you at least break even?

I hope with all that money spent you at least broke even! I have to say that I always wondered how much could be made from breeding geckos, or snakes, or some similar type of animal.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

but did you at least break even?

I actually made a profit. Comes out to be around $6.00 - 7.00 per hour of work. It sure is better than slinging Happy Meals, and at least I love my job!

 

[Nigel4less]

I actually made a profit. Comes out to be around $6.00 - 7.00 per hour of work. It sure is better than slinging Happy Meals, and at least I love my job!

I thought my Marvelous $1341.49 , was terrible lol. I was sadly corrected

 

[godzillizard]

I'm curious, roughly how many breeding geckos are in your collection? I consider myself a small breeder with about 50 breeders How many geckos would i need to be considered a medium or large scale breeder? I ask, because I have no idea how many geckos most others keep and breed. Do you go by the numbers of offspring produced each year, or the number of breeders?

And Thanks Kelli! that really illustrates the costs of keeping so many critters--I really needed to see/hear that

 

[Mel&Keith]

I didn't even keep track last year...let's just say that it was a HUGE enough loss the tax man would never audit me! LOL I am going to keep track this year though. I'm pretty sure it'll still be a loss but it'll be interesting (or should I say, scary) to know exactly how much of one.

 

[david13]

wow, that is QUITE a bit of money

 

[dprince]

I think last year, we were close to $25 - 30 K in the hole. Woo hoooo!! :main_laugh:

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I won't have the expenses this year I had last year since I bought new racks and tubs... that's not a recurring expense. I also won't be producing the number of geckos this year as last, so it will probably come out in the wash.

 

[Kimjorg]

Mel- Word to the wise try not to count the expenses (unless you have to for taxes etc)...I kept all of my receipts for everything and then totaled up our frist 8 months of breeding...and well lets say I cryed VERY HARD looking at how much money was spent, it can get very scary when you keep track of it.

 

[nwheat]

...and well lets say I cryed VERY HARD looking at how much money was spent, it can get very scary when you keep track of it.

Lol, so did my husband!! I bought some new racks & cages, a few nice snakes, and then there were the visits to Arlington & Daytona. Needless to say, I was several thousand in the red.

 

[Perefalcon]

and this is why people think we're all nuts....those who just don't understand that it's the animals....not the money that drives us!

 

[paulnj]

only a mear 24-26k here last year if I factor everything.

on a side not, my company who enploys 12 people + 2 owners paid 284k in insurance and the cost of doing business was 921k total. They still reported 200k + in profit after all that.

 

[KelliH]

Not to be nosey - and I'm not asking exact numbers - but did you at least break even?

Nope, not this year. We took a loss of around $5,000. :main_yes:

We are getting back a decent tax return, and guess what I am spending it on? New racks! :main_evilgrin:

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

We are getting back a decent tax return, and guess what I am spending it on? New racks! :main_evilgrin:

At least you got a tax return... we owed the IRS an additional $3,000.00!

NEW RACKS ROCK!!!

 

[yellermelon]

Kelli Ive been looking at your add for your old racks in the classifieds. If I was in Texas I would buy the heck outta those lol....to bad it would be one heck of a drive to pick those up lol...