There are several ball python breeders producing excellent quality ball pythons these days. Some of the not so great breeders share common characteristics just like some of best ball python breeders in the world share some very common characteristics for example customer service and marketing ability. For this article we’ll be talking about what it takes to be in the small group of successful ball python breeders and possible even give you that added edge it takes to get there.
Ball python breeders for whatever reason have become known for lousy communications. I’ve personally witnessed this myself first hand so I know this to be a fact. With that, if you’re looking to become a successful ball python breeder you must remember how important communication is. I believe that ball python breeders become jaded overtime due to a high volume of inquires through phone calls and emails that don’t convert to sales. Although, this is understandable, it’s still a part of any business so before you even start down the road to becoming a breeder you need to have the mindset to operate your small ball python breeding business like an actual business and treat your customers like gold.
A short story about terrible communication, I was at large reptile show once and met up with a very popular ball python breeder that’s known worldwide, after hooking up we decided to head back to his facility to check out his collection. Upon arrival we went straight into the office area where this nameless ball python breeder does all of his computer work and on the computer monitor was his email inbox wide open for me to see. Just at a quick glance, I could see he had at least 30-40 new email inquiry’s regarding animals. If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes I probably would have never believed the story, but this ball python breeder clicked “select all” and deleted all of these new emails that were waiting from his reply. That breeder is still doing a lot of business today, but the number one complaint I hear about him is his poor communications which I completely agree because that’s just terrible.
Let’s talk a bit about marketing. If you’re going to be a successful as a ball python breeder you’re going to need to learn to market yourself as well as your animals. The ball python morph game starting to become pretty competitive so now more than ever marketing is extremely important. In order to market your business I suggest you use all of the social media outlets that are available to you like:
- YouTube
- Tweeter
- Any of the varies free blog networks
I also suggestion getting involved in an online community or reptile forum like the Bush-League Breeders Club. Getting involved in the online community allows people to get to know you as a person and have more trust in you if you happen to have something they’d like to buy down the road. Also, having a website is an absolute these days you simply can’t be competitive in this business just starting out if you don’t have some sort of webpage to post pictures of your ball pythons and contact information. Don’t be fooled by these fly by the night website businesses that charge an arm and a leg for a simple website because it shouldn’t cost you more than 25-30 bucks a year to run a nice website to showcase your ball python breeding business.
I saved the most important tip for last. That is, just be yourself! Don’t jump right in and claim to be someone you’re not or something you’re not, the ball python breeding community is still relatively small and experienced breeders are really turned off by newer breeders that claim or act like they’re something they’re really not. Just being open minded and honest and having the ability to accept criticism will take you far in this business. That’s it! It’s a very simple recipe that for some reason isn’t followed very often.
Hopefully, these few tips can assist you and put you on the right path to being in that small group of successful breeders. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email from the contact us page.