Thanks for a business owners POV, Jim.....worth considering as a practical plan to improve the local Reefer scene
.
One thing I disagree with though is that a website must cost a lot of money....there is much simpler constructed sites than J&Ls (as an example of a full service site).
Such a site could contain eg: details (bio, staff names (handles),address (E-mail and street),phone and fax as well as some highlights of what they stock (major brands etc).
Also (something I would like) a schedule of shipments and general contents ie red sea fish, bali corals..... As a bonus idea, arrange small thumbnails of the top eg fish and corals (betcha 50 would cover most of the top selling corals and fish)...clicking on the thumb would sign you up to get a nice E-mail saying that fish (eg) you want has arrived. (Of course this would load the shops E-mail but a bigger E-box is way cheaper than 50K
)and most of the shops around here are small with a small client base.
This would also give the store an idea of the demand of each item or fish as well as build a client base (an E-mail "club")....eg someone from eg Campbell River might drive down to Victoria, if they knew what was there first (even if it is just the one fish,it gets customers in the store) and get an inviting "auto" E-mail saying that powderblue Tang you ask about is in. And negate the need to add direct E-commerce or a large data base to the site...phone respond to the E-mail.
Another easy and cool thing would be to webcam (<$100 now a days) a couple of the shops best tanks as an example of their quality and selection... (hint to stores; these are the tanks to scrape the algea from
)
Such a site is easy to cut and paste via Microsoft and I get 10megs personally (from Shaw) the above mentioned site would be well under that.
Or alternately pay a little to advertise on Canreef and list your best stuff there
with pics..... OK one or two other boards tooo
OK have atter rip away