Operating a used book store is a lot like owning a recycling center-not
too glamourous until you take a look at the owner's bank account.
This is an ideal
"absentee-owner" type of business, or a small investment type
business for someone to start while holding down a regular, full time job. The
type of person "best-suited" to running a successful used book store,
is a man or woman who loves to read, has collected books over the years and
enjoys associating with people of similar interests.
Start-up risks average high, with the
average time period needed to become firmly established, about 3 years. After
that "becoming established" stage however, you should be able to
enjoy ownership of a business without extreme market fluctuations, plus an
income close to $50,000 per year or more.
Ideally, a used book store will need a
market population of at least 50,000 persons to support it. Try to locate your
store in a "high traffic" area, as near as possible to a college or university
campus. Something to bear in mind is the shopping habits of the average used
book buyer: First, he is a browser. He notices your shop, drops in and begins
looking around to see what kind of books you have available. If he spots something
that really interests him, he'll probably buy then and there. If not, and
provided you've made him feel comfortable this first time in your store, he'll
be back-dropping in to browse whenever he's in the area.
Shopping Malls are an excellent locations
for book stores. Locations near other, or "new" books stores are also
very good- if the buyer doesn't find what he wants in the "other"
book stores, he'll check your store. Grocery store shopping centers are
generally poor locations for book stores of any kind. It's important that there be a lot of casual
strollers in your location area, and that you encourage these people to drop
in, and browse around.
If you want the entire front of your store
to be a show window...take pains to arrange your window display in an uncluttered
manner, showing the kinds of books you have...However, a window display is not
really necessary...more important is a window for the passers-by to see into
your store...At any rate, if you do go with a window display, keep it low-never
more than 36 inches high leaving a lot of room for the people passing to see in
youe store, and notice the people browsing thru your books. We know of one
successful operator who had members of his family, relatives and friends,
purposely "browsing" thru his store, just to project that kind of
image for
the store.
Once you have your store location
selected, paint the entire interior in a dark, warm color, such as mahogany.
Install a lighter shade of indoor/outdoor carpet throughout. The lighting should
be indirect, and somewhat subdued to give the store a warm feeling.
Locate your checkout counter parallel to
one of the side walls...You don't want it blocking or guarding the easy entry
or exit from your store. You want your customers to feel comfortable just
visiting your store. in other words, do everything you can to encourage the
browser,because it's proven time and time gain that the browsers are the book
buyers. Allow the people to come and do generally as they please;to pick up
thumb thru the books that interest them; to read them and "fall in
love" with them.
These will be your real book buyers.
Your book shelves should run along each
side wall, and across the back of the store. Don't build them more than six
feet high. Partition these shelves into sections about four feet wide, and at
the top of each section, place a sign indicating the general subject
matter of the books to be found in that section.
Paper the walls of your store, from the
top of your book shelves to the ceiling with posters--colorful and descriptive
travel posters, broadway show billboards, concert posters and full color dust
jackets from books that are perennially popular.
The next thing is to build or buy half shelves,
tables and revolving racks for other or more books. The half shelves--about 4
feet wide by 4 feet high and similar to book cases in your home--should be
located at right angles to your wall shelves, and in the rear of your store.
The tables should be about 3 feet wide by 4 feet long, and about 30 inches
high. These also should be located at right angles to your wall shelves, but
closer to the front of your store. A revolving wire rack, to hold currently popular
or specially featured books, and located at the front of your store, will be a
special extra merchandising effort that'll really pay off in sales of your
books.
In locating your half shelves and tables
down the middle of your store, stagger them--one 3 feet from the wall shelves,
the next one 6 feet out, then 4 feet and so on. This will allow people to be
"seen" in your store; cut down on the appearance of a formal or
military layout, and project a more casual atmosphere for browsing and this is
precisely what you want. This kind of arrangement will cost you some space, but
it will be worth it with increased traffic.
Another merchandising idea that works very
well is a couple of revolving wire racks on wheels...These you push outside and
position near the entrance to your store. You can feature popular paperbacks,
and a few oversize hard cover books with bright, flashy colors in these racks.
Your store hours should match those of
your neigbors...In fact, you cold "jump off to a quick start," by
opening a half hour earlier than your neighbors. Use his opening half hour to
take care of paperwork, and get yourself organized for the day. When the early
shoppers see you're open early, they'll begin coming into your store to
"browse and kill time" while they wait for the other stores to open.
If you cannot be there to "open the
store," then hire part time help. The best arrangement is house wives or
college students in 4 hour shifts at the minimum wage.
First off, write out a list of duties you
want each clerk to perform while he's on shift. In addition to taking care of
sales transactions, you might want him to do some stocking, dusting, cleaning,
sorting and prcing..Regardless, you'll have fewer problems and enjoy bigger
profits if you formally write these "shift duties" out, and post them
as job requirements, and explain them when you interview for hired help.
Look for, and try to hire only book lovers
who are personable, outgoing, and have some sort of business aptitude. You the
train these people in all phases of your operation, with the thought in mind
that they will run the store in your absence, and eventually be your store
manager. the best way to find such people is by talking with your customers,
observing which might be willing to work for you, and which of them might best
fulfill your needs.
You'll need a outside sign for your store-
preferably one that hangs right angles to the flow of traffic in front of your
store.
Many successful used book stores utilize
hand-carved wooden signs, while others display painted signs with calligraphic lettering.
By all means, spend the extra hundred dollars or so to have spotlights
installed on your store front, focusing on your store signs. Backlit plastic
signs just don't create the comfortable image necessary for the success of a
good used book store
Newspaper and/ or broadcast advertising
will be much more expensive than it's worth. Your best bet is to create a comfortable
feeling and open invitation for browsers, price your stock fairly, concentrate
on personal service, and let word-of-mouth advertising and time do the rest.
Even so, you should run an ad in the
yellow pages. perhaps and ad in the college paper, and from time to time,
special sales ads in your local shopping papers. Inexpensive flyers inviting
people in to exchange books, or to just browse, can be printed at your local
quick print shop and handed out or placed under the windshields of cars in the
larger shopping center parking lots. Advertising, and special sales during
holiday periods such as Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day are generally
quite effective in bringing new customers into your store.
Most used book store entrepreneurs use
their own book collections as start-up inventory base. In addition, talk to as
many neighbors, friends and relatives as possible for the donation of books.
Then start making the rounds of all the garage sales and flea markets. You
should have at least 10,000 books in stock when you open for business- and
that's a lot of books. Search for books to sell-those you can buy for 25 cents
or less--in all thrift shops, Goodwill stores and Salvation Army outlets.
Church bazaars and estate sales also sometimes provide you with almost "complete"
libraries.
You might place a small ad in your
newspaper announcing that you're looking for good used books to buy. Generally,
you evaluate a book according to the price you think you can get it for in your
store. Then you subtract two thirds of that total, and offer that as your
" buying" price. Always separate the books you feel certain you can
sell from those you aren't sure about. It's
going to take awhile for you to become proficient as a book buyer, but with
practice and some experience, you'll quickly develop the "intuition"
you need to realize a profit on every book you buy. Always flip thru the pages
of each individual book, and be sure of its condition before you quote a price.
In many instances you'll also find that out of a box of 25 books, you're only
interested in buying 10...The seller will generally be wanting to get rid of
his books, now...And for a couple of dollars more than your "bid
price" on the 10 books you want, he'll let you have all 25 of them..This
is like a windfall to you because you can always use the "unwanted"
books as leader items or extras to generate traffic during two-for-one sales;
all books on a certain table for just a nickel each; or your choice of free books
for everyone coming in to browse on certain days..
You should carry hardcover as well as
paperback books. Pay no more than 25% of new price for a mint condition
hardcover book, and buy only those you are certain can be sold in your store.
pay no more than 10% of the new price for a mint condition used paperback, and
steer clear of the hard-core sexually oriented books.
Visit the libraries and book stores in
your area. Observe what people are interested in reading and what they're
checking out or buying. Stock your store with these kinds of books.
below is a listing of the kinds or types
of books you should consider stocking in your used books store:
BUSINESS BOOKS: These
should include books on leadership, career advancement, time management and
people management.
HOW-TO BOOKS: These should include all the
self-help and self-improvement manuals you can find--mail order, auto repair, carpentry,
metalwork, home building, gardening, and business start-up.
COOK BOOKS: You'll probably be surprised
at how many people buy books relating to the culinary arts. A well stocked
cookbook section will mean definite profits for you. Forget about books on dieting,
home economics, and etiquette--these just don't do well in used book stores.
SPECIAL INTEREST BOOKS: Watch and listen
to the people of your area...Be on the lookout for people into World War,
history, aviation, sports perfection, movies and just plain old book collectors...
PAPERBACKS: Women's romance, science
fiction, mysteries, and historical novels are all good movers--currently
enjoying an upsurge in popularity and sales. These will be the "best
movers" in your inventory, so develop good sources of supply, and price
them for fast sales.
Building and maintaining your inventory,
while continuing to rapidly turn that inventory over, can be handled in a
number of different ways. It's not a good idea for you to exchange two or three
of your customer's books for one of yours. There's always a variance in price,
plus you may not want the type of books your customer is offering to trade.
The most feasible plan seems to be to give
the customer a "credit chit" for each book you buy from him. Simply have
a supply of business cards promoting your store, printed at your local quick
print shop. On the back of the card, have them print something along these
lines:
"The bearer of this card is entitled
to _______________ cents credit on 50% of the listed price of any book at Ye
Olden Book Store/s/ Your Signature."
Then when someone brings in a couple of
books to sell, you pay him in credit chits, marking in the amount and signing
your name on the card. An easier way might be to have your signature printed on
the cards when you order them--you or your clerk would simply fill in the
credit amount, and emboss the card with a notary-type embosser.
Usually, you allow 20 to 25 cents for mint
condition paperbacks, and about one quarter of your selling price for
hardbacks. Always make sure the customer understands that regardless of how
many 'credit chits" he has, the credit chits can only pay for half the purchase
price. This of course, is to protect your cash-flow
problems, and your income of "hard
money."
Many used book stores add to their income
potential by adding tape cassette lending libraries. These are a real money
makers with a kind of service tat lends out "books on tape" and
special learning programs where portions of the rental fee applies to the purchase
of the original tape cassette.
A great many used book stores add to their
income by running mail order book selling operations in addition to the retail
business. This is a natural, either for a retail operator wanting to expand his
market or a mail order operator wanting to increase his
income.
TYPICAL USED BOOK STORE START-UP COSTS....
1,000 TO 1,500 SQUARE FOOT STORE
RENT (1st and Last
month's)..........$1,000 to $2,000
UTILITY & PHONE
DEPOSITS.............$50 TO 300
INSURANCE (1st Quarter Payment).......$100
TO 200
LICENSES &
PERMITS...................$50 to 250
INVENTORY............................$2,500
to 5,000
SHELVING &
REMODELING................$2,000 TO 5,000
MISC (Decorating, checkout counter
cash register,
supplies........$1,000 to 1,500
LEGAL &
ACCOUNTING...................$600 TO 1,200
ADVERTISING &
SIGNS...................$1,000 TO 3,500
__________________
TOTAL................................$8,250
TO 18,950
OPERATING
CAPITAL....................$5,OOO TO 12,000
Entrepreneur should have enough operating
capital in reserve to
not only keep the store operating for the
first year, without
counting on anticipated profit, but also
enough for unseen
emergencies without having to count upon
income from the store to
see him through.
TYPICAL USED BOOK STORE MONTHLY OPERATING
COSTS...
PAYROLL.............................$1,500
to $2,500
OWNER/OPERATOR SALARY...............$1,000
to $2,000
RENT/LEASE..........................$
600 to $1,000
ADVERTISING........................$
500 to $ 1,000
DEPRECIATION........................$
100 to 150
UTILITIES & PHONE...................$
150 to 300
PRINTING & STATIONERY................$
100 to 200
SHIPPING COSTS......................$
100 to 150
INSURANCE...........................$
50 to 100
MAINTENANCE.........................$
50 to 100
MISCELLANEOUS.......................&
100 to 150
____________________
TOTAL...............................$4,200
TO 7,650
OPERATING COSTS.....................$4,200
TO 7,650
ANTICIPATED SALES...................$5,000
TO 8,500
NET PROFIT BEFORE TAXES.............$
800 TO 850
PRO FORMA ANNUAL INCOME (B/T).......$9,600
to 3,000
A word of caution: Though you must project
an open, COMFORTABLE invitation to browsers and would-be book buyers, you MUST
also inconspicuously guard against shoplifters and outright thieves. The best
is to place mirrors strategically throughout the store so you can see your
customers from the checkout desk at all times. Your smaller and more expensive
books should be kept up front SO that you can see them and what your customers
are doing with them, without seeming to be guarding them. There are a number of
theft prevention gadgets and devices available, but even more important is
alert hired help that can keep an eye on the customers without making them feel
they're being watched.
The risks of starting a used book store
are high for the dreamer unaware that it's just another retail business and
should be handled as such. Well organized and intelligently-operated used book
stores are very stable, and they provide a very comfortable income for the
owner-operator willing to persist thru the start-up period.
This can be the kind of business you've
always dreamed of owning, but you'll have to have the patience to let it grow
and the perseverance to see it thru to its ultimate success. With these thoughts
in mind, I say reach for the sky and may the angels of paradise always be
smiling upon you with endless good fortune!
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