What business involving fishing/ boating could I start for less than $10,000?

Question

I want to start a business involving fishing/ boating. Something that I can start whilst maintaining my current employment elsewhere with the view to going full time with the business in the future. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have ten thousand dollars to start the business.

Answer 1

I think Sandra nailed it, thats a great way to start, another route would be to buy a good sized nice used boat and equipment and do guided trips. This only applies if you are good at fishing the area, because your business will be mainly recommendations and return customers. I've been on a couple and its great and I know they make a good living.

Answer 2

This would be easier to answer if I knew the type of area you live in.  If you live near the coast you could get into crabbing.  In NC comercial fishing licenses are not issued anymore but you can buy one from a private person (they are transferable) and they run around $2000.00.  Crab pots run about $25.00 new, but you could probably buy some used ones a lot cheaper.  You should be able to pick up a good boat, Beaver or Privateer for around $4000.00 (about 16 feet).  The boat and license should cost around 6000.00-7000.00 and the rest you could spend on crab traps, floats, coolers, etc.  Be sure to leave enough to pay for a couple of weekends worth of fuel to start with.  Of course if you live inland, this will make no sense what so ever.

Answer 3

The smartest thing would be to look into the bait and tackle shop needs for your area.

Commercial fishing is very hard work and the licenses needed plus many hours needed also most of the best area's are keep by the ones doing it already.

Guiding well do you have the knowledge and experience to go for the captains license you will need to do this?

Renting out tackle is not real bad but take it from a person that has been there it is a lot of work cleaning repairing and keeping gear from being not returned.

For 10 grand u can start a bait shop I did my first one with 4000 bucks yes it was small at firstbut it grew fast.In the bait n tackle business you can keep your job and hire a person to run the shop on daysyou work your regular job.Start small and go from there.Whatever you do retain 6 months of expense monies for slow times and growth!

Answer 4

I assume you work Mon-Fri. so you need something on the weekends. How about fishing gear hire.  Set yourself up in a van/ tent near a busy estuary/creek/river and hire out fishing gear.  Rod and reel and a tackle pack and sell bait as well.  Search garage sales, op shops, the trading post, tender center and newspapers for good second hand gear.  Stock up on basic new tackle and buy bait in bulk then bag it into smaller portions.  Hire out for  1/2 (four hours) or full day (8hours) maybe. Take a $50 deposit up front and charge for every 1/2 hour back late etc.  With $10,000 you should be able to buy enough gear and a good cooling device for the bait and some sort of tent and singage a bit of advertising and business cards.  You could also have booklet with a little map up of the area of the best fishing spots, types of fish in the area, legal limits and lengths etc. (seasonal). Hire out the gear for a set price and sell the bait as an extra.  Maybe a couple of yabbie pumps, nets and small bait eskys for hire as well.  Make sure you check with your local council and get a permit etc before setting up and advertising on the site as well.    Also check out registering a business and insurances etc.  Lastly think of a 'catchy' (LOL) name.  I love fishing, let me know if you need a partner on the Gold Coast!

Answer 5

Harvest pearls.