Snakebytes Blog

Black friday

My sales rep Bill, came up with a really cool idea and now we have to think of how we’re going to pull it off. For those that don’t know Friday after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday” and is the biggest shopping day of the year. Bill thought that it would be great to come up with a big sale for just that day off our website only. I think it’s a great idea, the only thing we have to figure out is what we need to put on sale and how much off do we mark it? It has to be enough that it seems like a great deal and people want to buy on that day, but we also can not make it so cheap that it hurts the market on those animals on sale. It’s a bit tricky, but I think we’ll figure something out. We also need to figure out a cool way of marketing that sale?? Thanksgiving is coming quick and we need to figure out what we’re going to do really and get it started. I need to also sell gift certificates as well because most people buy on that day for Christmas presents. A lot to think about, but all in all I think the idea is awesome. Watch now that I blogged about it ten other companies will beat us to it and we’ll look like we’re copy cats.lol We’re also getting close to launching our online supply store. We’ll have full line reptile supplies all the way to live crickets and meal worms. Hoping to make the new site a one stop shopping center for all your needs:) I’ll be so happy if we can get things running for the holidays! Wish me luck, I have a lot of work to do in the next 30 days.lol

Welcome to America

Here we are in a country that even when the majority of people feel that a bill like health care reform will do nothing but hurt our economy and still only provide health care for about 10% of the country, yet the house still pushed it through with almost no votes from the republican side. Isn’t that what the checks and balances of the government were supposed to be there for?? As a small business if I could afford to give all my employees health care don’t you think that I would?? Now we will be taxed higher and penalized if we don’t provide it. That is of course if it makes it through the senate which it probably will. The biggest reason for the rant is to express how screwed we are right now with any wildlife legislation. If they can pass something that will cripple our country without a problem, do you think there will be any problem passing something that the vast majority of people have no problem with such as outlawing exotic reptiles?? People are uneducated about reptiles and all they see is all the negative that the news media puts out there. As we saw this weekend, it doesn’t matter if millions of people complain and protest, they will still pass the law. This congress and current administration is scaring the hell out of me with the decisions they are making. I was not against this administration at the start, but now I wonder what our country will look like over the next few years??

As far as what I can tell from watching the hr2811 hearing and talking with as many insiders as I could. I think it’s unlikely that either there will be an amendment that will include interstate commerce or that they will add anything to the bill. That sounds great, but there is bad news as I see it. When it goes to the Senate there will probably be some amendment to the bill, there really has to be because it does not match the mirror bill hr2811 and needs to in the end to be signed into law. It seems likely that there might be more animals added to the lacey act. With the fish&wildlife calling for all of the nine giants and the hsus pushing for the same, our small voice has a huge uphill battle to save the other animals from going on that list. This is just my opinion, but I can read the tea leafs. I think the animal that we have the best chance to save is the Boa Constrictor because they have never killed anyone and they really are not giants. With good scientific proof we should be able to persuade them to exclude that species, lets hope?? I think it might be a lot harder to convince them of the other if they decide to add them to the list. The biggest reason for adding them is they are going by the USGS survey of the nine large species. I have read it and it is total B.S. It’s written in bad science and co-written by the guy that believes that Burmese can survive and propagate all the way into the Ohio valley??? We better get on our horse soon and get ready for the fight of our lives. This one could change the face of our hobby forever. Not trying to scare everyone, but maybe that’s the only way we get through this. We need to do what we can and also try to follow USark and PIJAC in their efforts as well. I hope they will join forces and play well together, this is no time for a pissing match.

hr2811

Today is the day when the committee hr2811 hearing on adding Pythons to the Lacey act is happening. The hearing is at 10:00am. From what I gather about this hearing is that it is going to give USark a chance to testify about amending the Lacey act to include interstate commerce for Burmese and African Rock Pythons. At this time there has been no such amendment and if passed as is there will be no way to sell or move these animals across state lines, rendering them pretty much worthless. I’ve also heard that HSUS has been trying to testify to try to add more animals to the list I.E. Retics, Anacondas, and even Boa Constrictors. I have no idea if they are on the schedule for today or not, but don’t be too surprised if that gets on the agenda. This is my honest feeling about this whole thing. I think USark has done a great job fighting this, although I was against their initial compromise for adding Burms and Rocks to the Lacey act. I do understand where they were coming from trying to save all the other species of Pythons. I wish we could have come up with some other solution such as a permit system, but I was not in the room, so I have to give them a pass and complement them on their effort. Since that original hearing I think USark has really gotten it together and I’ve been very impressed with their organization on this battle. They have hired an attorney that specializes in the lacey act to show the congress how Lacey can be ammended to include Burmese and Rocks, but still allow interstate commerce. Bravo for giving them the option so they have an understanding how this can be implemented. The bad news is I really don’t believe they will amend it and I personally think in the end we’ll lose this battle. I hope I’m wrong and I will say it is not from a lack of trying on the communities part or UAark’s part. We are facing a mighty opponent. Both HSUS which has huge money and would like nothing more then to shut the entire reptile trade down and the congress that only See’s this as an easy decision to ban these animals. The good news is this is just one step. If it comes out of committee (which it will) it then has to be voted on in the house, I think we all agree that it will pass with this insane congress that is in office at the moment. But then it has to go through the same process over in the senate with s373. The senate side has yet to agree to amend it to only the Burmese and Rocks, but it will be a lot harder to pass over on the senate side because it’s a more balanced group. Does this mean we should not be worried, NO! We should be very worried! We have to hope that USark and PIJAC keep doing the best job they can and we as a community need to follow their lead. As this gets closer to a reality we will have to step up our game a bit. I’m not sure that the call in days made an huge effect this time around. Most people I talked with didn’t really seem to understand what is happening, so why would they want to call in?? There needs to be a little better clarification on what the process we are going through is.  I’ll be sure to try to be as involved as I can to clarify what is going on and if either UAark or PIJAC want me to get involved in the promotion of a campaign I promise I will do whatever they want. We have a battle on our hands, I think we’ll probably lose the first part of it, but there’s a long way to go and I for one will fight until the very end.

Way of life

Funny how things that seem so hard when you first start doing them become part of your life after a while. I was thinking of my morning routine with launching the show yesterday, all the promoting I do on all kinds of different sites and hitting all the social networks that I do almost everyday, not to mention the tons of e-mails that I have to go through. The funny thing is that when I first started it seemed almost impossible to keep up with everything. Over time I did have to give some things up, like checking messages on youtube, or myspace. But for the most part it’s just become so much a part of my life I think if I stopped now I wouldn’t know what to do with my mornings. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a ton of work, but it also gives me the energy that I need to get through these long days. Waking up and checking to see how may people watched the show, how many people commented on it. How many people commented on my blog, reading all the inspiring e-mails. In a lot of ways even with the extra responsibilities it feels like I’m never alone with my decisions, it’s kind of like my cup of coffee in the morning. I guess that’s what community is all about and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it. I just hope I keep my end of the bargain up and never let you guys down! Thanks for the support!

SnakeBytesTV-Snake Soap Opera

We’ve done a show here and there about how things are working at BHB, but this is the first time that we kind of went ” reality” on the show. Just a matter of Ken our camera guy walking around and filming the things that he felt were interesting that day. Of course everyday is totally different and there is never a dull moment at the shop. As a matter of a fact we had to keep thing a bit calmer then a lot of the days. Lets say a controlled Koas:) After all this is a family show! All in all it’s a good look into what we deal with on a day to day basis. Hope you enjoy and maybe feel a bit sorry for after watching the show knowing I have to put up with this everyday.lol We always are thankful for the support you guys give us and there’s never a way that we can really express how much it means. Just know that we really appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts! Brian(Sbtv) and the crew

Time flys by

I swear life just kind of flys by for me. I’m not sure if it’s just the life of a snake breeder or if it’s true when your parents told you that as you get older time speeds up?? I have a new measuring stick and that’s our show SnakeBytesTV. I swear we just shot the show about our colubrids going into hibernation, and here we are again just a couple weeks away from them going back into hibernation, one year later. In some ways I think this year was more packed with things then in the past, so maybe that’s why it flew by. Maybe it’s the fact that when you breed reptiles for a living you can’t wiat to breed your Pythons and Boas, you can’t wait to put your colubrids in hibernation, you can’t wait for Python eggs, you can’t wait to bring colubrids out of hibernation to bred them, you can’t wait to get colubrid eggs, you can’t wait to hatch Python eggs, you can’t wait to hatch colubrid eggs, you can’t wait to sell your babies, then you can’t wait to breed Boas and Pythons again and get your colubrids back into hibernation:) I’m not going to lie, this was one of those years I’m not sad to see go. Some of our production wasn’t as good as I’d liked and there has been a lot of personal ups and downs for me. More downs then up to be honest. I’m normally a pretty up and positive person, and some of the things that happened this year have taken all my energy just to not give up. With the loss of my Dad, the off production year with Ball Pythons, the economy sucking, the ups and downs of the TV deal,  the loss of my long time pet dog, friends in the business turning on me and back stabbing me like crazy and so on and so on. The thing is I’m still standing and for the most part smiling, I know that it’s the hard times that define a person. It’s always easy to be happy and care about people when things are going great. It’s when things seem hopeless that makes you what you are. I’m still as passionate about the hobby as I’ve ever been. I know my best times are still ahead, I have huge dreams and I won’t give up until I achieve as many of them as humanly possible.

To travel or not??

It’s nice to have a series of weeks that I’ve been home and working the business. I finally feel like I’m getting a handle on the collection again. It’s bizarre how traveling so much can get you so out of wack. It happens so slow that you don’t realize how things are getting so out of control. The first couple of weeks after the Tinley show I felt like I was cleaning up after a bomb went off. So many projects needed to get done that had been put off for a couple of months. The shop just looked run down and messy, our website didn’t even have animals on it that we produced this year. Just a whole lot of things to get back on top of. I’m caught up 100%, but we’ve made a lot of progress and I feel a lot better about the business now, then I did a few weeks ago. Makes me wonder how good it is to travel as much as I did this summer?? It’s awesome to do so many shows and meet so many cool people, but the collection and my own sanity really take a hit by doing it. I’m not saying I won’t do it again next year, but I’ll have to really think about my schedule a lot more. When it comes to sales I think I might be better off staying here and answering the phones, calling people back, working the web harder. I’d probably sell as much if not more and not put myself and the animals through so much stress. The only downside is we do have a great time getting a chance to meet so many like minded herpers and just get face time with as many people as possible. I’ll have to give this more thought next year for sure. What’s your take on it??

Random Thoughts

 I’m kind of excited about an e-mail I got this morning, a friend from the Columbus zoo that does promotions and travels with Jack Hannah has set up a day next month that we can go down and shoot a bunch of footage of some animals at the zoo and Jack has agreed to be in the show as well. I’m kind of surprised, but impressed that Jack would be willing to shoot with us. It tells me that he’s a pretty cool guy. A lot of guys in his position only shoot if they get paid or if there’s something in it for him. In a way it’s exposure to a web audience, but I’m guessing he doesn’t lose too much sleep at night if he’s not featured on youtube:) I’ll keep you posted and hopefully we’ll make a great show out of our trip there.

I have to mention something that is completely non-reptile oriented. Our editor and great friend Paul Bartunek as well as our original producer of SnakeBytesTV Dave Seger (now working on NBC’s “Commnuity”) have been putting out a series called “Ikea Heights” you guys need to check it out: http://www.ikeaheights.com They have shot six episodes where they go into an Ikea store and shoot a soap opera where nobody in the store knows. It’s too funny because they’re shooting this serious scene and there are people shopping in the background with this puzzled look on their face.lol  It’s probably one of the most classic ideas I have ever seen. This series is getting tons of press and now I believe they have been banned from Ikea and threatened with getting arrested for trespassing if they come back.lol I’m always proud of friends like Paul and Dave when they pull off something that gets so much buzz around the web video world. They are great guys and it’s a privilege to say I work with them.  I think you guys will really appreciate their creativity as well as the concept. So check it out!

Lastly, it’s kind of weird but the last four weeks our show has doubled our weekly viewers. I’m not complaining at all, just not sure why?? Dare I say it was ever since we had the girls on with the “boob” scene???? I know I took a little crap over it, but my whole goal was to get more viewers and eventually hopefully keep them and bring them over to the reptile community. Not sure if we’ll keep this growth or not, but I’m going to enjoy it while it last and hope that it will just keep climbing!