Let me tell you a tale about 3 small cute little turtles. They are named Gizzy, Gizmo and Gizzard. The picture to the left is Gizzard the last addition.

For Mother’s Day, Maude, my better half (and I would be dead if I said it any other way wanted a turtle. She had seen these cute little turtles at a local pet shop.

Being the softy and peace loving person I am we went to the store and came home with 2, Gizzy and Gizmo. You need a home so we bought them one of those cut little bowls (it even had a palm tree) and a jar of food.

This was going to be easy and watching them could be fun. After all how hard can it be to feed and care for two little turtles.

We had not done any research on turtles before we made the commitment. We quickly learned that it wasn’t really all that easy. Now that we had turtles we figured we should learn a bit more. Big surprise.

These weren’t just turtles but red ear slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) and you think some of the marketing language is tough These cute little turtles will grow to about 10 inches across eventually. First surprise.

First Lesson – Do a bit of research first before jumping into a business model. You will still have surprises but they hopefully won’t be as big.

Now we got a used aquarium, went out and bought a ramp for them to get out of the water and figured now we are set.

Then came surprise #2. Turtles are extremely dirty creatures. They can cloud a clean aquarium with a standard pump in about a day and a half so you can’t see the other side. Hmmm. Back to researching in more depth.

Second Lesson -Even research won’t stop all the surprises. Be prepared to add more investment into your business that you were not expecting.

Out to the pet store and get a second filter made for turtles and a 10 gallon tank. Problem solved. Until 4 days later when the water was cloudy again.

Now with 3 filters running, a cleaning maintenance schedule set and a separate feeding tank we are hoping to have a clean tank to watch the cute turtles do their thing.

Will it work? Don’t know for sure but each step has improved the process and we now have a much better idea of not only what we are doing but what we will need in the future.

After finding other turtle owners and seeing the set up they have we know that we have to prepare for. (Don’t be surprised if I run a new Turtle Home Sale in the future.)

Eventually this small $30 initial investment to get Maude her Mother’s Day gift will end up in over $500 and probably closer to $1000 of expense for the new home in the future. Not exactly what I signed on for when I paid the initial $30 (That does not count feeding or God forbid a vet trip. Just the gas to get to the closest turtle vet hurts forget the vet fee.)

How does all this apply?

You need to do research before you start something new.

Take action. Yes I probably would not have bought the turtles if I had researched them properly. I have adapted and learned what was needed.

Be prepared for the unexpected. It will happen no matter how well you research. That is why action is the most important.

You won’t get it right the first time. Learn from it and continue to improve.

Are you taking action? Have you goofed it up the first time and adapted? (I do it all the time)

Leave a comment and let me know.

Mike Paetzold

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