Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

We are approached quite regularly by others who aspire to be in the book business.

Usually those people are referred to me because most of our staff is up to their necks in attending to all the details necessary to keep the stores functioning and improving.

For many years I had thought the book business was just as easy as it must appear to the eyes of the casual observer. I would tell people that they didn’t really need much help or advice because most of the most valuable things to learn will be picked up by working hard once they open their shop. I told them if they really wanted to avoid 3-5 years of simple mistakes and miscues we could offer them a one week training course showing them the ins and outs about how we conduct our business.

For most of the first 14 years we were in business we were operating with a simple database we devised on Excel and we could track our sales and trends weekly by religiously deciphering the data in about six hours each week.

As I said, it all seemed so simple to us and although we know three of the four people we trained are still in business - with varying degrees of success - three other people who worked for us (one for two years) and went off to start their own businesses are no longer in the business.

Now, all around us, in the city known to have the highest book buying spenders per capita in the country, book store after book store is going out of business.

Our formula has always been 1. Rent an affordable location. 2. Start with as large an inventory as possible with as many genres as possible. 3. ALWAYS be ready and willing to look through as many books as possible and BUY every book you think might be saleable (Do not accept donations of books and don’t let people leave books behind that you have already judged as unsaleable - your time is too valuable to handle them again). 4. Price your books fairly and consistently, categorize them and group them alphabetically (most often by author but sometimes by title) onto shelves so that neither a buyer or a browser can become confused by your methodology. 5. Talk to everyone who enters your shop (they  - as a group - will teach you everything you ever need to know about your business). 6. Remember - no matter how much you have learned there will always be more to learn. 7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 every moment of every day with passion and dedication. 8, Find a way to record and easily decipher your sales data.

In July of 2002 we started to build a point of sale program linked to our sales details and since then we have been working to turn our database into a comprehensive information system. During the last five years I have come to a much better understanding of just how intricate this business really is - I no longer consider this a simple business and have come to appreciate how many tricks and traps are awaiting those who do. The speed and the ease with which the human brain can process information is astounding - but retaining and assembling the data into a useful report can only be accomplished by a diligent computer programmer. The 6 hours we used to spend compiling rudimentary information into a crude report is now completed in about one minute in a professional format.

There are always other innovations to be made to improve a business so it is nearly impossible to work on a business and work in a business at the same time. As soon as you can - hire someone to help you do the work.

When you have a large enough inventory - think hard about the platitude everyone in this business seems to forget - Location! Location! Location!

Another tip (probably one of the most important ones) - whenever you are going to move to another location rent it six months early and operate both locations. If you don’t send your customers from your old location to your new location you will probably lose most of them. 

Don’t let anyone tell you you cannot be successful at this business. It is true it will probably take many years to build sales to the point you can take a liveable wage but if you love books and like people there is no better lifestyle - that is where true success lies.

Good luck.