how to grow minnow bait in farm pond

Question
What are the steps I need to take to start a business of growing minnows as bait in a small farm pond?

Answer
There are a lot of extra steps you may want to take to start a business.  These first steps fall more into the category of business law than fish husbandry.  If you're worried about becoming licensed, insured, or taxable; these will apply.  Also some of them are more geared towards the psychological pseudoscience of marketing.

1)  Contact your local state corporation commission.  Ask for a business startup guide or find a copy of one online.  (I would tell you how I started my aquatic business, but different states have a different process)

2)  Decide what type of business entity you would prefer to incorporate under.  I chose LLC because it seemed the safest to me.  The advantages of an LLC that I saw were:

a:  When it comes tax day, you only have to send the IRS three numbers; how much you grossed, how much $ in business expenses, & net profit.  That's it!
b:  If you get sued for property damage or something similar, the suit cannot pass through a "corporate veil," meaning that the judgment affects your LLC and does not pass through to your personal funds and property.  Same thing if your business goes bankrupt, you're personal financial future is not jeopardized.

3)  Choose a name and see if it's taken.  (With a LLC, the following ways of writing the "LLC" part all would be considered different business entities: LLC, L.L.C., LLC., L.LC.  Isn't that weird?

4)  I'd suggest opening up a separate business checking or savings account.  This will make keeping the books a lot easier.  Don't get lazy on those books.  Even if you end up burning them in the end, they will be a true birds-eye-view of how well your business is doing while you're getting the feel of things.

5)  Put up an ad on craigslist, make fliers to fit your budget, maybe cards, talk to local petstores, register as abusiness with google.  By the way, having a separate business entity helps you look official when you decide to advertise.

6)  WEBSITE!!!  I was reluctant to do this but, when I caved and finally did it, it was well worth it.  I listed my business phone number of the website and my call volume doubled within a month.  I just paid $10/year to start leasing a domain, downloaded a free trial of a HTML script program, and learned basic HTML overnight.  That 4-5 hours of work MAY have earned me an extra $5,000.

7)  I said "MAY" because it's hard to really pinpoint why things are happening the way they are, especially without a degree in business.  You just have to guess and check.  Experiment, have fun with it.  There are only a couple of "wrong ways" to do things.  Read an article on the pitfalls of startup businesses.


ALRIGHT, NOW FOR THE FISH STUFF

Let me begin by saying that there is a lot involved in bait fish breeding and there will be some specialized equipment you will need.  I am by no means an expert on large scale outdoor breeding projects but I do know that they're harder to control than smaller projects.  Personally I think you would be better off using several small containers rather than one large pond unless you have a solution to the collecting problem.  Either way, the first step is to decide what species you will be trying to breed.

I'm guessing by your question, that you're planning to use YOUR small farm pond to grow bait minnows.  The trickiest part of this is the fact that the fry will be eaten by turtles and other animals if they share the pond.  The next most difficult task would be collecting them once they were large enough to sell.  I would try to engulf yourself in research for a few weeks/months and learn every single facet there is to the process and to the industry.  Knowledge of the industry is a huge factor to success.

I'm sorry I couldn't provide you with a more comprehensive view of the bait fish breeding process but I hope the business information I provided is of value.  Good luck!