Operating
a used book store is a lot like owning a recycling
centre
- not too glamorous 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 the man or woman who
loves
to read, has collected books over the years, and enjoys
associating
with people of similar interests.
Start
up risks are rated high, with the average time period needed
to
become firmly established, of about 3 years.
After that
becoming
established period, however, you should be able to enjoy
ownership
of a business without extreme market fluctuations, plus
an
income close to œ50,000 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's 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
centres are excellent locations for book stores.
Locations
near other, or "new" book stores are also very good - if
the
buyer doesn't find that he wants in the other book shops,
he'll
look in your shop. Grocery shop areas
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 shop 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 shop. 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 by to see into
your
shop and notice the people browsing through your books. We
know
of one successful operator who had members of his family,
relatives
and friends, purposely "browsing" through 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 colour, such as mahogany.
Install a
lighter
shade of indoor/outdoor carpeting throughout.
The
lighting
should be indirect, and somewhat subdued, to give your
store
a warm feeling.
Locate
your till 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
the
store. In other words, do everything you
can to encourage the
browsers,
because it's been proven time and time again that the
browsers
are the book buyers. Allow the people to
come and go
generally
as they please; to pick up and thumb through 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 - colourful and descriptive travel
posters,
broadway show billboards, concert posters and full colour
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 the 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 more
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'll be worth it with
increased
traffic.
Another
merchandising idea that works 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 over-size hard cover books with bright,
flashy
colours in these racks.
Your
store hours should match those of your neighbours ... in
fact,
you could jump off to a quick start, by opening a half hour
earlier
than your neighbours. Use this opening
half hour to take
care
of paperwork, and get yourself organised 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.
First
off, write out a list of duties you want each assistant 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 pricing ... Regardless, you'll have fewer
problems
and enjoy bigger profits if you formally write these
shift
duties out, and put 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 then 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 an outside sign for your store - preferably one that
hangs
at right angles to the flow of traffic in front of your
store.
Many
successful used book stores utilise hand carved wooden signs,
while
others display painted signs with calligraphic lettering.
By
all means, spend the extra money to have spotlights installed
on
your shop front, focusing on your store sign.
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 an ad
in
the college paper, and from time to time, special sales ads in
your
local shopping newspapers. 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
window
wipers of cars in the larger shopping centre car parks.
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
a start-up inventory base. In addition,
talk to as many
neighbours,
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 25p or less - in all the
charity
shops, car boot sales, jumble sales, bazaars, etc.
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 a while for you to become proficient as a book
buyer,
but with practice and some experience, you'll quickly
develop
the "intuition" you need to realise a profit on every book
you
buy. Always flip through 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 pounds
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 50p each, or your choice of free books for everyone
coming
in to browse on a certain day.
You
should carry hard cover as well as paperback books. Pay no
more
than 25% of the new price for a mint condition used hard
cover
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 that
the
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 book 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
BOOK: 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 books 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 your own.
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"
for
each book you buy from him. Simply have
a supply of business
cards
promoting your store, printed at your quick print shop. On
the
back of the card, have them print something along these lines:
"The
bearer of this card is entitled to ________ pence credit on
50%
of the listed purchase price of any book at This Book Store."
Your
signature follows.
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 a clerk would
simply
fill in the credit amount, and stamp the card.
Many
used book stores add to their income potential by adding tape
cassettes
lending libraries. These are real money
makers, with a
kind
of service that lends out "books on tape", and special
learning
programmes 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.
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 shop lifters and outright thieves.
The
best bet is to place mirrors strategically throughout the
store
so that 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 the 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 organised and
intelligently operated used
book
stores are very stable, and they do provide a very
comfortable
income for the owner operator willing to persist
through
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 through 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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