An interesting idea for a pet store. It could work however there are a number of things that need to be addressed in order to get it all to fit together.
First, the animals themselves. As I'm sure you're aware of, over half of the listed animals are considered exotic to quite rare at best (for pet purchase). While there isn't a problem with that in itself, it does create a few problems. The market for these creatures is quite small and specialized especially considering the difficulty in training (there is no taming; master animal husbandry an exception) of such creatures. This is why they aren't listed on the Price List. Crocodilians and venomous snakes would require those wishing to own such creatures as pets to possess at least an L1 Animal Husbandry focused on either Crocodilians or venomous snakes.
This brings us to the list price for said animals. A young adult to adult crocodile, due to the danger in capturing, breeding and/or raising, would run 150 gm. A young one would be significantly less expensive at 10 gm. This creates a bit of a situation in that the market for a young (we are talking a couple feet long or so) crocodile would not be much of a hot seller because of time it takes for one to mature (10-15 years). That leaves young-adults (age of maturity) being the ones with the most market value with the most potential use. We then return to the difficulty of keeping one in captivity with the intent to sell as a pet. The cost to keep ONE healthy and alive along with the skill and labor to prepare it for life as a pet, the latter part of that being the most difficult, is extensive.
A caiman, obviously smaller than the crocodile, would still involve similar issues such as limited market appeal and potential however cost and labor would a little less though so would list price. We are looking at 100 gm for a young-adult to adult with young (a foot long or so; give or take a few inches) being 1 gm.
Alligators, again, fall under the same ideas of labor and difficulty selling with a young-adult to adult costing 50 gm and a young (1.5 foot or so average) going for around 5 gm.
Moving on to the snakes, I will try and get a more detailed listing of some sample snake breeds in for greater depth in the price list in a few moments following this posting but they too will fall into similar pricing structures with young snakes being around 10 gm or so (give or take a few mizas depending on breed). Young-adult to adult are going to be rather expensive in a way similar to the crocodilians with venom type and effects modifying the costs in a potentially significant way. It will also be noted in the price list that venomous snakes are quite rare to find for purchase thus their high cost.
What does this mean for you and your shop you may ask. First, it means that you will indeed have to have a groom to tend to all these creatures since, even if you were to have your character spend their entire time tending to this business (no time for much of anything else), you would still end up needing help unless you are only going to be keeping one of each type of crocodilian for sale at any one time. The issues here are that you can't simply go out and buy a pound of insects or a pound of mice and the 100 lbs of raw meat also needs to come from somewhere. That said, I realize that you only have to pay the upfront costs of these at the creation of the business, but the logistics of it all are still built-in. So, your groom may help tend to the feeding, cleaning, and general care of the animals but you will also have to figure out how to catch all the bugs and mice. This could be done by simply including somewhere in the write-up that you are paying someone to go out and catch all these things. That would be part of the initial asset cost (though it's not technically an asset on hand, it does clarify how you come about gaining the insect/rodent asset. You could of course breed your own insects/mice for food but this would add a much larger cost to the business in the form of more employees.
The rest of your list; pricing and assets look pretty good. Note that with only a single simple stables structure component, you will only be able to have up to 8 individual crocodilians for sale at one time (type and how many of each up to you). Multiple purchases of the stables component would add 8 more but would also require another groom for each additional stables component.
Now for income. While you may be a shopkeeper, the Leadership skill is primarily for businesses without a specialized skill requirement. Operating a place like what you have however will use your Animal Husbandry skill as the primary skill for determining income. The type of occupation used is the new Animal Handler listing I just put into the Income section of the Price List. Base Income for this is 5 gm. You get a Skill Bonus for Competent Animal Husbandry which is 1.5 rounded down of your base. So with the Skill Bonus, you are at 7 gm per day. While the limited market of the shop could be considered a flaw, I am going to say that because of the location and the uniqueness of the animals offered, you will get the 20% ownership/sales bonus. This leaves us at an 8 gm per day income. Because you will need a groom to help tend to the animals (-1 gm for a groom with L1 animal husbandry) this gives a final income of 7 gm per day.
Note that the single groom employee is sufficient since being the shopkeeper of such a business will require you to use your animal husbandry skill more than your leadership. The groom primarily feeds and cleans habitations where as your character will do most to all of the actual handling. If you were to want an employee to do most of that, you would have to pay an animal handler which would cost 5 gm for an L1 Animal Handler.
So the income should look like this:
Base Income: 5 gm
Skill Bonus: 2 gm
Sales Bonus: 1 gm
Employee Cost: 1 gm
Final Income: 7 gm / day or 630 gm per Season |
by Adrienna Lynint on May 23rd, 2013, 2:05 am 
