This year can be summed up in one word.... WORK. My morning, noon, and night.... and weekends were devoted to a major project at work. The project drained me to no end but this is what I live for, projects of this magnitude. Thank you all that supported me, and Supreme Gecko, through this ordeal. The only way I, and especially the animals, made it though 2011 was the dedication and commitment from Nanette, my wonderful wife.
Due to the work commitment, Below you will get the sense that this was a year we treaded water. We post this information to give other hobbyist/breeders an idea of what we do at Supreme Gecko and how we plan out each year. I try to hold little back and hope this helps you with your 'gecko ambitions'.
GOALS
Animals Our plan at the beginning of the year, as I mentioned in other posts, was to A) cut down a bit on leopard and crested geckos hatched and B) work with other types of geckos. We decreased the number of leo babies by half from '10. We just had SO MANY last year. Sales were there but we wanted to better 'control' the type of animals we produced. Success! We focused on reverse stripes, snows, and Raptors. Held many back and cannot wait for '12. Cresteds- the year of the morph. We held some very nice young ones back to build up our stock. However, if you saw us at NARBC - Tinley you saw that we had some outstanding adults to offer as well. Finally, during the year, we obtained about 20 new species of geckos to work with. Again, the intent was not to see immediate results from these unique animals but to learn about gecko behavior. The biggest negative of the year- we lost some animals due to their special needs and my inability to manage them as needed. This one hurts more than anything I've experienced in the hobby.
Facility Well, we finally did it! Nanette reduced her day care responsibilities and I doubled our modest facility size. Four new racks and PLENTY of room to expand.
Web Page Thank you sponsors for allowing us to keep improve the page and offering more information in 2011. The web site is not quite there yet but it is getting closer. Two quick notes- we added a new logo (let me know how you like it) and a 'message/chat' box on the page.
Financial (sharing details is not my intent, nor would it be professional.... and my accountant would yell at me!)
We've been consistently growing the business by about 30-40% since Supreme Gecko started and wanted to do the same this year. Didn't happen. It's expected that we will be right at last year's numbers by the end of this year. All sales seemed to be flat- animals, supplies, etc. Show sales decreased (I just could not get to many this late spring and summer) but on-line went up considerably (seems we were constantly shipping out animals and supplies).
Want to see what we have planned for 2012? Check out 2012 - Can't Wait To See What Happens
