Do you have what it takes to market your fish directly?

The following list of questions is adapted from the Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual, published by Washington Sea Grant, edited by Terry Johnson of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program.

• Am I good at bookkeeping and paperwork?
• How do I feel about being a salesman, either on the phone or in person?
• Do I enjoy meeting and talking to people?
• Am I good at taking care of details?
• Do I need to be paid immediately or can I wait to collect my money?
• How demanding or persuasive can I be at making people pay what they owe me, or otherwise do what they have agreed to do?
• Can I stick with one task, week after week, year after year, or do I quickly become bored and need frequent change?
• Am I willing and physically able to do the extra work and commit the additional time to run a direct marketing operation? Or do I prefer to put the boat away and forget about fish at the end of the day or the season?
• Is my family supportive of this change, and can they make any necessary adjustments so that I can spend the additional time and money on the business?
• Do you have the equipment and a boat big enough to properly handle the product?
• Do you have, or have access to, ice or chilling machinery?
• Is there regular, reliable, affordable transportation from your point of landing to the location of your potential customers?
• Is the timing and volume of your catch conducive to taking the time out to handle and transport fish and to meeting the volume and delivery frequency demands of your customers?
• Is the species mix and intrinsic quality of your catch appropriate to the market? (see intrinsic vs. extrinsic quality explanation in the Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual)
• Do you have a plan for the roe (if your product is salmon) and for fish that your customers don’t want because of species, size, condition or other factors?
• Do you have customers already lined up, or do you have a plan for selling your product?
• Do you have available cash for up-front operating expenses and to cover cash flow in case some customers don’t pay or if, for some other reason, the operation is not immediately profitable?
• Do you have a good credit score, in order to get credit terms with vendors?