A few years back I had a series of columns about comic book retailing called "Counter Intelligence" published on a comic book commentary called sequart.com. Sadly that site is no longer operational and hasn't been for at least a year now. Not to brag, but I always thought these were useful columns for people who were considering going into comic book retailing, especially since so few such resources ever become published in this industry. I used to have many people contact me for more information on these columns, so I know they were informational for at least a handful. Since the former host site is no longer functioning I am going to republish these columns as they appeared at the time of publishing, posting one each week for the next few weeks. I will label them as Retailing 101 so that once they are all posted it will be a bit easier to find them all, should someone decide that they are interesting enough to read.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
In my earlier columns, I explained what I think are the basics of business ownership: taking some basic business/entrepreneurship classes, understanding ethical business practices, and understanding the personal and financial demands. Then I discussed what one needs to research as they prepare to open up a comic book store. This column’s information will largely come from what we did to open Neptune Comics, as well as a few things that we did not do that we later wished we had. This is your chance to find out from a young store how to get started. You can learn from my experiences and mistakes, so that if you should decide to do this for yourself, you can get off to a strong start. If this is the first column of mine you are reading and want to know more about opening your own comic book store, be sure to go back and read the columns prior to this one.
Let me once again include my disclaimer: Neptune Comics is not quite three years old yet, so it is difficult to measure whether or not we have established ourselves to be successful for the long term. These columns are only based on experiences I have had in my one small store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb. Before opening your own comic book store, I encourage you to consult with other professionals.
In my last column, I gave you a list of things to research: fixture prices, retail store rent rates, inventory types and prices, and the demographics of the area where you think you want your store to be. Now you have all kinds of information that can be used for a business plan.
“What’s a business plan?” you ask. I recommend you take a business class to learn more about what a business plan is and how to properly write one, but in the meantime, I’ll give you some information. A business plan is a written explanation of the business. It is used as a tool for the business owner and managers so they have a model to follow in order to keep the business on track. It is also a tool for you as a future business owner, laying down the foundation of how you plan to start this little venture and how you intend to keep it going in the future.
“Do I need a business plan?” you might be wondering. If you need to borrow money to start your business, you will need to show this business plan to banks in order to help convince them that they should help you out. Showing a business plan to a landlord can demonstrate that you know what you are doing, have a plan to make money to pay the rent, and intend on staying in that location for a while. If this is your first retail business, this plan can help guide you in setting goals and budgets for your business. So, I’d say yes, you should have a business plan.
“How do I write a business plan?” you say. There are a wide variety of options here. When we did ours, we used a computer program purchased at an office supply chain and just modified it and added our data. The program gave us the format to follow, and we could just put our information into it. If you look in the telephone book, there are probably people in your area who offer business services like writing a business plan, and you could give them your information and pay them to write a professional business plan for you. Just be prepared to pay them, and know that when you need to modify it in the future as your comic book store opens and runs, you might have to go back to them for changes rather than being able to tweak it yourself. Mel Thompson, who I’ve mentioned in previous columns, can also be hired to write a business plan for you. His rates and details are on his web site (www.comtrac.net), and if you scroll down through that page, he also has a link to a bad business plan example that you can look at for reference and see what not to do. Finally, you could do the whole thing from scratch, on your own. This will be the most work, and you should still have a business professional look it over, however it is the least expensive method.
You’re wondering, “What do I talk about in this business plan thing?”
I recommend that you first give a brief introduction of yourself and your business, as well as a short discussion about what the “direct market” is. Remember that if you are using this business plan to get a loan or establish credibility with distributors, landlords, investors and your in-laws, you will need to discuss these things with them because they might not understand what in the heck a comic book store does.
Next, you should give a numeric discussion of the comic book/pop culture market. Here, you can explain the growth in comic book sales over the last few years and discuss how factors like the increasing number of comic book based movies continues to help spur growth in this market. But don’t just discuss it with words, be prepared to have some graphs or charts showing at least five years of sales for comics and graphic novels and any other items you are considering selling in your store. The more detail you can show here, the easier it will be to convince a lender or investor that your market has room for growth. Be sure your numbers are realistic—don’t just make them up, and cite your references in the business plan.
The next thing to discuss is the specific details of your market in the area where you want your store. You have already looked at competing stores, and should know the proximity of them to you, what they carry, what their hours are, etc. Discuss your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Include stores that might not be “direct” competition too, like baseball card stores, book stores and game stores in your discussion and analysis, and discuss why they are or are not competing with you for business. Then go on to analyze the demographics of the area, describing the age and income level as well as overall population size of the area where you want your store. Also explain what the demographics of your typical comic book customer are, and show what portion of the population of your area could potentially become a customer of yours. Using a map to show where the competing stores are and where yours will be is a great idea here. Including other things like schools and freeway access ramps is also a good idea. This section helps paint a complete demographic picture of your store location, so using a picture is a smart idea. Once again, use real information that is as current as you can get, and cite the sources for the data.
Once you have given an overview of the area where you want to have your store, you can discuss the specific benefits of your location. Refer readers to the map that has freeway access ramps and schools on it, if your store is near those, and discuss how this will help bring consumers into your store. If you have a mass transit stop near your store, talk about that and the benefits of it. Are you putting your store in a mall or other high-traffic retail shopping areas? If so, discuss that and how it will be a benefit to your business. Try to get traffic counts for the street(s) that pass your location, and include those in your plan. How much parking will your customers have access to? Who are your neighbors? What kind of signage will you have? Is the population within a three-mile radius growing or decreasing? Are the residences within a three-mile radius young families or retirees? Will the street(s) that pass your store be under construction in the next few years? What is the crime rate in the area? What is the retail vacancy rate within a three-mile radius of your future store? Try to answer all of these questions in this section of your business plan.
Now, move on to what you’ll have on the inside of the store. Here you can discuss not only merchandise, but décor and employees. Again, the more specific and detailed you can be the better, and pie charts and/or bar graphs are always a good idea. Explain what you plan to sell and why, and the potential profit of these items. Discuss percentages: 60% of the store merchandised with new comic books @ 50% profit margin, 10% back issue comic books @ 80% profit margin, 10% action figures @ 25% profit margin and 20% graphic novels @ 50% profit margin—for example. Also, discuss the longevity of the products including how well they sell the first few weeks out and how long into the future they will be displayed in your store. Do the items get “stale?” How often will you restock on the items? How much money will you spend every week/month/year on these items? If you are offering discounts, what are they? Who will get them? How will they affect your profit? This is also a good place to include your potential store floor plan, showing what you want to put where and how much of the store the items take up. Talk about color schemes, traffic patterns, point of purchase displays, non-sale décor items, where your checkout counter will be, etc. Next, you can discuss your employees, if you plan to have them. Make sure you mention how often you will pay them, what their hourly wage will be, and how many hours they might work, and any additional costs to you for having them work there: Unemployment Insurance, social security, employee discounts, etc. You should show your estimated total expense per employee and how many employees you plan to have, as well as discussing how this wage compares to the wage paid to other people working in similar businesses. If you are your only employee at first, do the same thing but just for yourself, and then discuss when you might hire employees down the road.
The previous section and this next one are the places where you are really selling your store and your ideas to readers of the plan. You want to really show that you have planned things out and that you know what you are getting into, as well as showing that you have plans to make the business thrive and even surpass any competition you might have. Marketing is the next thing to discuss. Unfortunately, the saying from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” is not true. You have to let people know that you built it and why they should come. Here again, the more specific numeric information you can show, the better. Most sales people who want you to buy advertising from them will gladly provide you with all kinds of price breakdowns, demographic information, etc. Use this information in your business plan to show how much you plan to spend, where you plan to spend it, how many people will see it, what percentage of them are your demographic, and what kind of return on investment you think you can expect. Include here ALL types of marketing – if you plan to hire a neighbor kid to hand out flyers or walk up and down the sidewalk dressed like Superman, include that and all costs involved with it. Bring up your competitors and the types of marketing they do, if any. Also discuss your plans for making first-time customers repeat shoppers. Will you offer a customer loyalty program? If so, what is it and who will get it? What is the cost to implement it? Will you offer any kind of subscription or holding services? Can your customers pre-order items? One advantage comic book stores have is the frequency in which we receive new merchandise and the commitment of most fans to come in and buy it every week. Discuss this – new comics come in weekly, people who buy mainly graphic novels might come in monthly, people who buy toys might only stop in every few months.
Now, it’s time for the grand finale of your business plan: a summary of all of these numbers. Use spreadsheets, and refer back to charts and numbers used earlier in the plan. You should be prepared to provide a complete financial detail of all of your start up costs, including: build-out and repairs, fixtures, merchandise, any rent you pay before you open, initial marketing, etc. Also include a three, or preferably a five-year cost analysis where you discuss your projected expenses and profits. As with any financial analysis, do your research to make sure your costs are current, and be SURE your math is correct. All of these numbers should have been discussed and explained in the earlier parts of your business plan, these are just summaries used to show how it all adds up.
Once you finish your plan, be sure to have several people proofread it. You might also consider having your accountant look it over to be sure all of the numbers make sense. Even if you have someone else do your business plan, this is a good idea. Ultimately, you want your final product to be error-free and accurate. Once you have a final edition, I suggest that you put a date on the front cover, as well as a line that reads: “given to: _________,” and fill the blank line out every time you submit a plan to someone. This helps you keep track of who has a copy and lets the person you gave it to know you’re keeping track so the information doesn’t get shared.
Getting a loan is probably the biggest reason most entrepreneurs do a business plan, although not the only reason. In a future column, I will give some advice and warnings on acquiring the money to start your new comic book store. I also plan on discussing some tips on choosing a location, stocking your store and other important details for anyone considering opening a comic book store, so stay tuned.
Again, feel free to post any questions you have on comic book retailing here, or send me an email: neptunecomics@sbcglobal.net. I might not have all the answers, but I will do my best to give you ways to find out the answers I don’t have. And check back in a couple of weeks to learn more about starting your own comic book store.
Showing posts with label retailing 101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retailing 101. Show all posts
Monday, June 08, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Retailing 101, Laying the foundation
A few years back I had a series of columns about comic book retailing called "Counter Intelligence" published on a comic book commentary called sequart.com. Sadly that site is no longer operational and hasn't been for at least a year now. Not to brag, but I always thought these were useful columns for people who were considering going into comic book retailing, especially since so few such resources ever become published in this industry. I used to have many people contact me for more information on these columns, so I know they were informational for at least a handful. Since the former host site is no longer functioning I am going to republish these columns as they appeared at the time of publishing, posting one each week for the next few weeks. I will label them as Retailing 101 so that once they are all posted it will be a bit easier to find them all, should someone decide that they are interesting enough to read.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
Two weeks ago I explained what I think are the basics of business ownership: taking some basic business/entrepreneurship classes, understanding ethical business practices, and understanding the personal and financial demands. Now, I will get into some of the more specific points of preparing to open up a comic book store. This column’s information will largely come from what we did to open Neptune Comics, as well as a few things that we did not do that we later wished we had. This is your chance to find out from a young store how to get started. You can learn from my experiences and mistakes, so that if you should decide to do this for yourself, you can get off to a strong start. If this is the first column of mine you are reading and want to know more about opening your own comic book store, be sure to go back and read the two columns prior to this one.
Let me once again include my disclaimer: Neptune Comics is not quite three years old yet, so it is difficult to measure whether or not we have established ourselves to be successful for the long term. These columns are only based on experiences I have had in my one small store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb. Before opening your own comic book store, I encourage you to consult with other professionals.
Speaking of consulting with other professionals, once we were fairly sure we wanted to open a comic book store, we contacted comic book industry consultant Mel Thompson out of California. He is, if not the only, the leading consultant for comic book retailing. While it can be challenging to get Mel on the phone, once we were able to talk to him, he was a wealth of information, and I would encourage anyone who is considering opening a comic book store to give him a call. He encouraged us to do an analysis of other area stores and evaluate things like their accessibility to public transportation, their parking lot situation, their hours, what they stocked, how their store looked, etc. This helped us really see what things other stores had, and what things they might be lacking. If you have comic book stores in your area and you are considering opening one yourself, I encourage you to do the same thing. Hopefully this will help you better determine if there is a need for a new store in your community and how you can meet any demands the others might not be meeting. If there is not a store in your neighborhood, I still encourage you to take a trip or two out to some comic book stores and see what they are like. Talk to owners, if you feel comfortable, and let them know you are thinking of opening a store. Many store owners are happy to give advice to new upstarts.
You can, and should, go online to comic book store web sites. Many of them have in-store photos that you can look at. You can see a few photos of my store on our web site home page: www.neptunecomics.com. This will help you see what items stores carry, how they merchandise and design their stores, what their hours are, and other useful tidbits. Again, if you feel comfortable, contact some of the owners via email and ask them for advice on opening a store. Many of them will give you information if you ask specific questions. Just keep in mind that they are also busy running their own comic book stores and might not have the time to get to you right away, especially if you contact them on a Wednesday. Keep your notes handy, because you will use them a great deal as you prepare things like business plans, budgets, floor plans, and more.
It is not quite time yet to choose a location, but you need to get a rough idea of where you want to set up shop and how much it will cost you to do so. Look in the area’s local newspaper under the commercial rentals. See what is available and what they charge per square foot per month. Drive out to some of these to see what the area is like. Get a feel for the neighborhood. Check out some other businesses there, and see what their shoppers look like. If an owner or manager is available, ask them how long they’ve been there and how they like the area. If they will tell you, find out what they pay per square foot for rent. Be sure to keep track of this information because you will need to refer to it again later. I will discuss location again more thoroughly in a future piece.
Think about what you want to have in your store and how you want to display it. Are you going to have lots of back issues? How will you display new comics? Will you have graphic novels, and if so, will you want them front out, spine out or a combination of the two? Will you carry other products like games or novelty items or clothing? Once you get an idea of the types of items you want in your store, you can get an idea of the types of store fixtures you will need. For those of you who have not taken that entrepreneurship or retailing basics class, fixtures are the displaying furniture you put your product on: racks, counters, display cases, shelves, slat wall, bins, etc. Most stores will have a combination of these items. Check out online retail fixture stores or local ones if you have one in your area. Get retail fixture catalogs sent to your house. These will give you an idea of the costs involved in setting up your new store. Often, fixtures are the largest investment when opening a new comic book store, along with the inventory itself. As you get closer to the time when you need to actually buy these fixtures, keep an eye open for businesses closing up. A great deal of the fixtures in my store (about 70%) were purchased from stores going out of business. We saved a lot of money this way, and as we have grown and changed, we slowly got rid of some of those fixtures and replaced them with new. Look in the phonebook too, because there might be a used fixture store in your area where you could wander through and find some nice pieces to get you started. Whatever you do, be sure that if you do decide to get used fixtures they look nice and will be able to properly display the merchandise you plan to put on it. You don’t want to save money and then have your store look run down the day you open!
Be sure to consider lighting fixtures as well. Often, stores are not very well lit or have areas that could use more light. There is no such thing as having too much light in a comic book store! I had extra track lighting installed in my store. Other stores I’ve seen have also done track lighting, some have installed ceiling fans with lights, and others have floor spot lights. Depending upon how you lay out your store and what kind of pre-existing lighting there is in the location will determine how much and what kind of extra lighting you will need. But do plan on having to spend some money on extra lighting.
Now you have all kinds of information that can be used for a business plan. “What’s a business plan?” you ask. Again, take that business class to learn more about what a business plan is and how to properly write one. A business plan is a written explanation of the business. It is used as a tool for the business owner and managers so they have a model to follow in order to keep the business on track. It is also a tool for you as a future business owner, laying down the foundation of how you plan to start this little venture and how you intend to keep it going in the future. Should you need to borrow money to start your business, you will need to show this business plan to banks in order to help convince them that they should help you out. Showing a business plan to a landlord can demonstrate that you know what you are doing, have a plan to make money to pay the rent, and intend on staying in that location for a while. The business plan is a whole discussion in and of itself, and I will go into it more specifically in my next installment of this “how to” for comic book retailing.
Again, feel free to post any questions you have on comic book retailing here, or send me an email: neptunecomics@sbcglobal.net. I might not have all the answers, but I will do my best to give you ways to find out the answers I don’t have. And check back in a couple of weeks to learn more about starting your own comic book store.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
Two weeks ago I explained what I think are the basics of business ownership: taking some basic business/entrepreneurship classes, understanding ethical business practices, and understanding the personal and financial demands. Now, I will get into some of the more specific points of preparing to open up a comic book store. This column’s information will largely come from what we did to open Neptune Comics, as well as a few things that we did not do that we later wished we had. This is your chance to find out from a young store how to get started. You can learn from my experiences and mistakes, so that if you should decide to do this for yourself, you can get off to a strong start. If this is the first column of mine you are reading and want to know more about opening your own comic book store, be sure to go back and read the two columns prior to this one.
Let me once again include my disclaimer: Neptune Comics is not quite three years old yet, so it is difficult to measure whether or not we have established ourselves to be successful for the long term. These columns are only based on experiences I have had in my one small store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb. Before opening your own comic book store, I encourage you to consult with other professionals.
Speaking of consulting with other professionals, once we were fairly sure we wanted to open a comic book store, we contacted comic book industry consultant Mel Thompson out of California. He is, if not the only, the leading consultant for comic book retailing. While it can be challenging to get Mel on the phone, once we were able to talk to him, he was a wealth of information, and I would encourage anyone who is considering opening a comic book store to give him a call. He encouraged us to do an analysis of other area stores and evaluate things like their accessibility to public transportation, their parking lot situation, their hours, what they stocked, how their store looked, etc. This helped us really see what things other stores had, and what things they might be lacking. If you have comic book stores in your area and you are considering opening one yourself, I encourage you to do the same thing. Hopefully this will help you better determine if there is a need for a new store in your community and how you can meet any demands the others might not be meeting. If there is not a store in your neighborhood, I still encourage you to take a trip or two out to some comic book stores and see what they are like. Talk to owners, if you feel comfortable, and let them know you are thinking of opening a store. Many store owners are happy to give advice to new upstarts.
You can, and should, go online to comic book store web sites. Many of them have in-store photos that you can look at. You can see a few photos of my store on our web site home page: www.neptunecomics.com. This will help you see what items stores carry, how they merchandise and design their stores, what their hours are, and other useful tidbits. Again, if you feel comfortable, contact some of the owners via email and ask them for advice on opening a store. Many of them will give you information if you ask specific questions. Just keep in mind that they are also busy running their own comic book stores and might not have the time to get to you right away, especially if you contact them on a Wednesday. Keep your notes handy, because you will use them a great deal as you prepare things like business plans, budgets, floor plans, and more.
It is not quite time yet to choose a location, but you need to get a rough idea of where you want to set up shop and how much it will cost you to do so. Look in the area’s local newspaper under the commercial rentals. See what is available and what they charge per square foot per month. Drive out to some of these to see what the area is like. Get a feel for the neighborhood. Check out some other businesses there, and see what their shoppers look like. If an owner or manager is available, ask them how long they’ve been there and how they like the area. If they will tell you, find out what they pay per square foot for rent. Be sure to keep track of this information because you will need to refer to it again later. I will discuss location again more thoroughly in a future piece.
Think about what you want to have in your store and how you want to display it. Are you going to have lots of back issues? How will you display new comics? Will you have graphic novels, and if so, will you want them front out, spine out or a combination of the two? Will you carry other products like games or novelty items or clothing? Once you get an idea of the types of items you want in your store, you can get an idea of the types of store fixtures you will need. For those of you who have not taken that entrepreneurship or retailing basics class, fixtures are the displaying furniture you put your product on: racks, counters, display cases, shelves, slat wall, bins, etc. Most stores will have a combination of these items. Check out online retail fixture stores or local ones if you have one in your area. Get retail fixture catalogs sent to your house. These will give you an idea of the costs involved in setting up your new store. Often, fixtures are the largest investment when opening a new comic book store, along with the inventory itself. As you get closer to the time when you need to actually buy these fixtures, keep an eye open for businesses closing up. A great deal of the fixtures in my store (about 70%) were purchased from stores going out of business. We saved a lot of money this way, and as we have grown and changed, we slowly got rid of some of those fixtures and replaced them with new. Look in the phonebook too, because there might be a used fixture store in your area where you could wander through and find some nice pieces to get you started. Whatever you do, be sure that if you do decide to get used fixtures they look nice and will be able to properly display the merchandise you plan to put on it. You don’t want to save money and then have your store look run down the day you open!
Be sure to consider lighting fixtures as well. Often, stores are not very well lit or have areas that could use more light. There is no such thing as having too much light in a comic book store! I had extra track lighting installed in my store. Other stores I’ve seen have also done track lighting, some have installed ceiling fans with lights, and others have floor spot lights. Depending upon how you lay out your store and what kind of pre-existing lighting there is in the location will determine how much and what kind of extra lighting you will need. But do plan on having to spend some money on extra lighting.
Now you have all kinds of information that can be used for a business plan. “What’s a business plan?” you ask. Again, take that business class to learn more about what a business plan is and how to properly write one. A business plan is a written explanation of the business. It is used as a tool for the business owner and managers so they have a model to follow in order to keep the business on track. It is also a tool for you as a future business owner, laying down the foundation of how you plan to start this little venture and how you intend to keep it going in the future. Should you need to borrow money to start your business, you will need to show this business plan to banks in order to help convince them that they should help you out. Showing a business plan to a landlord can demonstrate that you know what you are doing, have a plan to make money to pay the rent, and intend on staying in that location for a while. The business plan is a whole discussion in and of itself, and I will go into it more specifically in my next installment of this “how to” for comic book retailing.
Again, feel free to post any questions you have on comic book retailing here, or send me an email: neptunecomics@sbcglobal.net. I might not have all the answers, but I will do my best to give you ways to find out the answers I don’t have. And check back in a couple of weeks to learn more about starting your own comic book store.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Retailing 101, Making the commitments
A few years back I had a series of columns about comic book retailing called "Counter Intelligence" published on a comic book commentary called sequart.com. Sadly that site is no longer operational and hasn't been for at least a year now. Not to brag, but I always thought these were useful columns for people who were considering going into comic book retailing, especially since so few such resources ever become published in this industry. I used to have many people contact me for more information on these columns, so I know they were informational for at least a handful. Since the former host site is no longer functioning I am going to republish these columns as they appeared at the time of publishing. I will label them as Retailing 101 so that once they are all posted it will be a bit easier to find them all, should someone decide that they are interesting enough to read.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
In my last piece, I discussed why I became a comic book retailer, as well as why some other folks got into the business as well. There were a couple of key points in that column worth repeating before I move on: if YOU want to become a comic book retailer, do it for the right reasons (not because you have a massive back issue collection you want to unload); and you probably will NOT become filthy rich in a few years by selling comic books. Over the next few installments of Counter Intelligence, I will be discussing what it takes to be a comic book retailer. In this piece, I will go over what I call “Step One – Basic Business Ownership.” I will illuminate you as to what the very basics are, before you ever open a store.
Let me once again insert my disclaimer here: we are only a couple years old, so it is difficult for me to look back and see how successful we have been in the long term. Also, I am not, in any way, saying that we are the most successful store out there, or that my way is the only way. These are just the opinions and adventures of one comic book retailer with one little store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb who is a handful of months away from celebrating a three-year store anniversary and preparing for our first store expansion. Now, on with the show!
Before you start pricing your back issues, and before you start looking for a store front, there are things that must be done in order to properly run a retail store. Notice I did not specifically say “a comic book store.” That is because this column is going to deal more with the basics of business ownership than specifically with comic books. But, these points are sometimes overlooked by store owners who are more hobbyists than business owners, so they are definitely valid to bring up in the discussion of what is involved in owning a comic book store.
The first and most basic thing is how to run a business. You might be amazed at how many people have asked me for advice on how to run a business and are shocked when I suggest that they take some business classes before they ask a bank for money. Both my husband, Craig and I took business classes in high school and college. After we got married and decided we wanted to own a business together, we took a few more business classes to help us refresh ourselves as well as to get some ideas of what kind of business we might be suited for. We also picked up lots of books at the library and local book stores. I am not suggesting that you get a four-year business degree before you open a comic book store, although I would not object to that should you feel that it would benefit you. But you should definitely take a few classes and read some books on entrepreneurship and managing a business. Often, community college campuses offer inexpensive business classes that are available to the general public. We took classes offered by the local Women’s Business Initiative Association, a branch of the Small Business Administration. Most classes were free or very inexpensive, and the instructors were business owners themselves.
Why waste your time taking business classes just to run a comic book store? Because it is a store, not a rummage sale or flea market, and a store is a business. In fact, a store is a tricky business. If you manufactured products, you just make the product based on orders. If you sell products you convince a person to buy it and then deliver it, and often times you can order it for them after they agree to buy it. In a store, you have merchandise that you must order before you have any idea if someone will buy it. Then, you must rotate the old merchandise as you buy new merchandise. In order to maximize sales, the store needs to be open many, many hours each and every week. To get customers to come into the store they need to know what kind of store it is; that it exists; and that they can find things they want there. Then, the store needs to make an impression upon the shoppers that causes them to come back and to send other people to your store too. Unlike many other businesses, in retail there is a lot of risk because of the inventory and often high rent and fixture costs. Taking business classes and reading up on retail store ownership will help you: 1.decide if you can even handle it and 2. give you lots of tips on getting started and running the day-to-day operations of said business.
Hopefully the classes you have taken and books you have read will also touch on ethics. Honesty is important in all businesses, and can make or break a customer’s loyalty in you and yours. This is no less important for a comic book store retailer. In fact, in order to stand out and compensate for years of unethical comic book retailing, today’s comic retailers need to make ethics a top priority. If you graduated from the Enron School of Ken Lay, then please avoid business ownership altogether. You should not, as a general rule, think that it is OK to sacrifice ethics for a buck. I am often amazed at stories new customers share with me about experiences at other comic shops. The stories frustrate me because these unethical actions turn people away from comic book stores every day, people who just decide that every store is probably the same, and they have had enough. It can be tough to make a decent living by selling comic books, but cheating customers and/or employees in order to fatten your own wallet is indecent, and eventually karma will bite you in the ass for it.
After learning about what is required to run a business, you need to think about the personal demands it takes to do it. Books and classes may or may not inform you about the personal investment required to run a retail store. First, the hours are long. As a new business you might not have the finances right off the bat to be able to hire a fleet of employees, so expect to have to put those hours in yourself. I am at my store every single day of the week except for every other Sunday and the occasional holiday, and often I am there from before we open until after we close. Depending upon the day, it could be anywhere from five to ten plus hours every day. Sometimes, those hours fly by, and other times they drag on and on. This time investment makes it difficult to have any kind of life outside of the store. (I have taken one non-comic book oriented vacation since we opened the store.) I do not have children, but parents should consider this time commitment and the impact it could have on their family before they plunge head-on into it.
A second personal commitment is financial. I will talk about money and financing more in a future installment, but there are some financial aspects to consider in this segment of my discussion as well. You should have at least a portion of the money you need to start the business come from your own pocket before you ask for a loan from a bank or other lending institution. As a new business it can be very difficult to get someone to give you a loan, so having some of your own money to invest helps. You also need to think about getting paid. What are you earning now? What will your business be able to afford to pay you in the first six months, or year or two? Can you survive on that income for any length of time? Most retail stores take three to five years to become “established,” meaning it takes that long for them to become well-known in a community and reach a business plateau where one can be somewhat comfortable with annual earnings projections. Can you survive financially on a comic book store owner’s income for three years? As I mentioned before, you probably will not get rich owning a comic book store. If you are looking for a business that makes you lots of money so that you can travel, buy nice cars and retire early, I would suggest that you avoid a career in comic book retailing.
The final big commitment required to own a comic book store is an emotional one. There will be good days and bad days, emotional highs and lows. Deadlines for orders loom, telemarketers call at the worst times, good customers come and go, vital merchandise can get damaged or delayed, landlords can be a blessing or a curse… There are all kinds of daily events that can make or break a day, or one part of a day. One day you could be patting yourself on the back for your great idea of opening a comic shop, and the next day you could be slapping yourself for getting into this mess. You need to be prepared for these emotional ups and downs. It is a good idea to have someone you can vent to, or an activity that helps you release your stress, in order to keep yourself from getting high blood pressure or having an emotional break down. If you can’t do it, accept that. There are plenty of people who just cannot stomach the emotional risks required to own a business, and plenty who thought they could only to find out that they could not.
If I have not scared you away from comic book retailing altogether, then read my next column and find out what comes next when heading down the path of becoming a comic book retailer. For those of you who have no intention of selling comic books for a living, but enjoy the insight into what your local retailer has gone through to bring you those lovely 32-page colored books, I promise to try to continue to make these articles both interesting and entertaining. Go ahead and post your comments here and feel free to send me an email (neptunecomics@sbcglobal.net) if you have specific questions for me.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
In my last piece, I discussed why I became a comic book retailer, as well as why some other folks got into the business as well. There were a couple of key points in that column worth repeating before I move on: if YOU want to become a comic book retailer, do it for the right reasons (not because you have a massive back issue collection you want to unload); and you probably will NOT become filthy rich in a few years by selling comic books. Over the next few installments of Counter Intelligence, I will be discussing what it takes to be a comic book retailer. In this piece, I will go over what I call “Step One – Basic Business Ownership.” I will illuminate you as to what the very basics are, before you ever open a store.
Let me once again insert my disclaimer here: we are only a couple years old, so it is difficult for me to look back and see how successful we have been in the long term. Also, I am not, in any way, saying that we are the most successful store out there, or that my way is the only way. These are just the opinions and adventures of one comic book retailer with one little store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb who is a handful of months away from celebrating a three-year store anniversary and preparing for our first store expansion. Now, on with the show!
Before you start pricing your back issues, and before you start looking for a store front, there are things that must be done in order to properly run a retail store. Notice I did not specifically say “a comic book store.” That is because this column is going to deal more with the basics of business ownership than specifically with comic books. But, these points are sometimes overlooked by store owners who are more hobbyists than business owners, so they are definitely valid to bring up in the discussion of what is involved in owning a comic book store.
The first and most basic thing is how to run a business. You might be amazed at how many people have asked me for advice on how to run a business and are shocked when I suggest that they take some business classes before they ask a bank for money. Both my husband, Craig and I took business classes in high school and college. After we got married and decided we wanted to own a business together, we took a few more business classes to help us refresh ourselves as well as to get some ideas of what kind of business we might be suited for. We also picked up lots of books at the library and local book stores. I am not suggesting that you get a four-year business degree before you open a comic book store, although I would not object to that should you feel that it would benefit you. But you should definitely take a few classes and read some books on entrepreneurship and managing a business. Often, community college campuses offer inexpensive business classes that are available to the general public. We took classes offered by the local Women’s Business Initiative Association, a branch of the Small Business Administration. Most classes were free or very inexpensive, and the instructors were business owners themselves.
Why waste your time taking business classes just to run a comic book store? Because it is a store, not a rummage sale or flea market, and a store is a business. In fact, a store is a tricky business. If you manufactured products, you just make the product based on orders. If you sell products you convince a person to buy it and then deliver it, and often times you can order it for them after they agree to buy it. In a store, you have merchandise that you must order before you have any idea if someone will buy it. Then, you must rotate the old merchandise as you buy new merchandise. In order to maximize sales, the store needs to be open many, many hours each and every week. To get customers to come into the store they need to know what kind of store it is; that it exists; and that they can find things they want there. Then, the store needs to make an impression upon the shoppers that causes them to come back and to send other people to your store too. Unlike many other businesses, in retail there is a lot of risk because of the inventory and often high rent and fixture costs. Taking business classes and reading up on retail store ownership will help you: 1.decide if you can even handle it and 2. give you lots of tips on getting started and running the day-to-day operations of said business.
Hopefully the classes you have taken and books you have read will also touch on ethics. Honesty is important in all businesses, and can make or break a customer’s loyalty in you and yours. This is no less important for a comic book store retailer. In fact, in order to stand out and compensate for years of unethical comic book retailing, today’s comic retailers need to make ethics a top priority. If you graduated from the Enron School of Ken Lay, then please avoid business ownership altogether. You should not, as a general rule, think that it is OK to sacrifice ethics for a buck. I am often amazed at stories new customers share with me about experiences at other comic shops. The stories frustrate me because these unethical actions turn people away from comic book stores every day, people who just decide that every store is probably the same, and they have had enough. It can be tough to make a decent living by selling comic books, but cheating customers and/or employees in order to fatten your own wallet is indecent, and eventually karma will bite you in the ass for it.
After learning about what is required to run a business, you need to think about the personal demands it takes to do it. Books and classes may or may not inform you about the personal investment required to run a retail store. First, the hours are long. As a new business you might not have the finances right off the bat to be able to hire a fleet of employees, so expect to have to put those hours in yourself. I am at my store every single day of the week except for every other Sunday and the occasional holiday, and often I am there from before we open until after we close. Depending upon the day, it could be anywhere from five to ten plus hours every day. Sometimes, those hours fly by, and other times they drag on and on. This time investment makes it difficult to have any kind of life outside of the store. (I have taken one non-comic book oriented vacation since we opened the store.) I do not have children, but parents should consider this time commitment and the impact it could have on their family before they plunge head-on into it.
A second personal commitment is financial. I will talk about money and financing more in a future installment, but there are some financial aspects to consider in this segment of my discussion as well. You should have at least a portion of the money you need to start the business come from your own pocket before you ask for a loan from a bank or other lending institution. As a new business it can be very difficult to get someone to give you a loan, so having some of your own money to invest helps. You also need to think about getting paid. What are you earning now? What will your business be able to afford to pay you in the first six months, or year or two? Can you survive on that income for any length of time? Most retail stores take three to five years to become “established,” meaning it takes that long for them to become well-known in a community and reach a business plateau where one can be somewhat comfortable with annual earnings projections. Can you survive financially on a comic book store owner’s income for three years? As I mentioned before, you probably will not get rich owning a comic book store. If you are looking for a business that makes you lots of money so that you can travel, buy nice cars and retire early, I would suggest that you avoid a career in comic book retailing.
The final big commitment required to own a comic book store is an emotional one. There will be good days and bad days, emotional highs and lows. Deadlines for orders loom, telemarketers call at the worst times, good customers come and go, vital merchandise can get damaged or delayed, landlords can be a blessing or a curse… There are all kinds of daily events that can make or break a day, or one part of a day. One day you could be patting yourself on the back for your great idea of opening a comic shop, and the next day you could be slapping yourself for getting into this mess. You need to be prepared for these emotional ups and downs. It is a good idea to have someone you can vent to, or an activity that helps you release your stress, in order to keep yourself from getting high blood pressure or having an emotional break down. If you can’t do it, accept that. There are plenty of people who just cannot stomach the emotional risks required to own a business, and plenty who thought they could only to find out that they could not.
If I have not scared you away from comic book retailing altogether, then read my next column and find out what comes next when heading down the path of becoming a comic book retailer. For those of you who have no intention of selling comic books for a living, but enjoy the insight into what your local retailer has gone through to bring you those lovely 32-page colored books, I promise to try to continue to make these articles both interesting and entertaining. Go ahead and post your comments here and feel free to send me an email (neptunecomics@sbcglobal.net) if you have specific questions for me.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Retailing 101, Why do it?
A few years back I had a series of columns about comic book retailing called "Counter Intelligence" published on a comic book commentary called sequart.com. Sadly that site is no longer operational and hasn't been for at least a year now. Not to brag, but I always thought these were useful columns for people who were considering going into comic book retailing, especially since so few such resources ever become published in this industry. I used to have many people contact me for more information on these columns, so I know they were informational for at least a handful. Since the former host site is no longer functioning I am going to republish these columns as they appeared at the time of publishing, posting one each week for the next few weeks. I will label them as Retailing 101 so that once they are all posted it will be a bit easier to find them all, should someone decide that they are interesting enough to read.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
In my next several columns, I plan on discussing, in great detail, more about being a comic book retailer. This piece gives some insight into why I’m in this business of comic book retailing. Future columns will go over how we started our comic book store, provide some tips and tricks we discovered as we’ve gone down this road, discuss things we have done that have helped us be successful in our area, and address industry trends and how we have dealt with them. If you have ever thought about opening your own comic book store, or if you have wondered what it is like to own one, my next several columns should give you the positives and negatives as well as provide some insight into what it takes. Let me just ad a disclaimer: we are only a couple years old, so it is difficult for me to look back and see how successful we have been in the long term. Also, I am not, in any way, saying that we are the most successful store out there, or that my way is the only way. This is just the tale of one retailer with one little store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb who is a handful of months away from celebrating a three-year store anniversary and budgeting for our first store expansion. Now, on with the show!
WHY do we do this? I recently threw that question out to owners and managers of some of the best stores in comicdom. Many responded with the slightly sarcastic answer, “for the money.” One clever publisher and comic creator said he got into it for the women, but stayed in it for the money. Another sarcastic comment from a retailer in Georgia was that he “wanted to create a collector's market in the area, lord over multiple comic books and jack up the prices, gain weight, an be a true collector by packaging everything in mylar…and to be a character on an animated TV show by Matt Groening!” Then he quickly realized that these things had already been done by someone else. Out of those who answered honestly, there were a few reasons that seemed shared by several comic book professionals. One being that they “fell into” it or had the opportunity present itself in a way where they felt they could not say no. Another was that they had worked a more stressful job and were looking for something more fun to do, where he or she could be his or her own boss. And the last common answer comic book retailers seemed to have for opening their own shop was that they saw a need of some kind and wanted to fill it, mainly due to their love of comic books.
There was only one person who got into it more because it was a hobby they enjoyed and wanted to sell/buy for that hobby, and he was a Magic: The Gathering player, not a comic book collector. But, industry wide, this is often a common reason for people to decide that they want to open a store. It is a hobby they love, so they want to be able to both grow and sell their collection. That can be a perfectly fine reason for opening a comic book store. However, if you run the store like it is your parent’s basement instead of a business, you will, more than likely, run into problems. I will get into this more in a future column, but let me just say this: no matter how much you love comic books, or how long you have been collecting them, or how much you think your collection is worth, or how badly you want to buy other people’s collections and new books at a discount to ad to your growing portfolio of comics that you think you will one day sell and retire on, or how much you know about X-Men, Superman, and Amazing Spidey, in order to be really successful as a comic book retailer, you need to treat a store as a business, not as a warehouse for your collection.
In my retailer survey, there was one retailer from California whose answer would be almost exactly what I would say my reason was for having a comic book store. He said, “I bought my shop because I love comics and wanted to be my own boss. I'm keeping it because I love the customers and I enjoy helping people find good comics.” I did not buy an existing shop; I started one from scratch, but for the same reason. My husband Craig and I wanted to own a business together. We looked at several other businesses, but Craig kept bringing up his comic book store idea, over and over. I brushed it off, thinking it was just some phase he was in—wanting to relive some lost element of his childhood. Sure, he had some long boxes filled with comics up in our attic, but I never thought it was something he wanted to pursue as a business. Besides, I just could not grasp how one could have a successful business by selling two-dollar pamphlets about super heroes. I started to say to him, “sure, whatever,” thinking he’d eventually let it drop and move on to a serious business idea.
Craig bought Brian Hibbs’ book, “Tilting at Windmills” and started to read that. Then he contacted one of the top business consultants for comic book retailers, Mel Thompson. Suddenly I thought he must actually be serious about this crazy idea, so I asked him how on earth he thought we could possibly be successful as comic book retailers. So, he took me on a tour of a bunch of comic book stores, some a couple of hours away and others that we hand been driving past almost daily. Some were beautiful stores, others…well…let’s just say they didn’t make me feel comfortable shopping there. Another seemed to never be open, and we had gone by it several times over a few different days. That convinced me – the fact that there were successful stores in the area, both good and bad, having grown and stood the test of time. I thought we could make our store really great by not doing the things the “uncomfortable” stores did, while taking ideas from the more impressive stores and incorporating some of our own ideas into it. I had never collected comics myself, and only casually read them every once in a while, but I thought they were cool and that it could be fun to own a business that dealt in “funny books.” I said, “Let’s give it a try,” and soon the wheels were in motion.
I have done plenty of shopping in my life, in stores in a number of states as well as a few foreign countries. No retail experience compares to that of the comic book store. This is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing. We have had ups and downs, emotional highs and days when we thought maybe we just couldn’t do this. Sometimes it is great fun, and other days we ride quietly home in the car at the end of a day that seemed like it would not end. But one thing has been constant; we enjoy the business of selling comics and games. That, and you definitely won’t get rich owning a comic book store.
Formerly published on Sequart.com:
In my next several columns, I plan on discussing, in great detail, more about being a comic book retailer. This piece gives some insight into why I’m in this business of comic book retailing. Future columns will go over how we started our comic book store, provide some tips and tricks we discovered as we’ve gone down this road, discuss things we have done that have helped us be successful in our area, and address industry trends and how we have dealt with them. If you have ever thought about opening your own comic book store, or if you have wondered what it is like to own one, my next several columns should give you the positives and negatives as well as provide some insight into what it takes. Let me just ad a disclaimer: we are only a couple years old, so it is difficult for me to look back and see how successful we have been in the long term. Also, I am not, in any way, saying that we are the most successful store out there, or that my way is the only way. This is just the tale of one retailer with one little store in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb who is a handful of months away from celebrating a three-year store anniversary and budgeting for our first store expansion. Now, on with the show!
WHY do we do this? I recently threw that question out to owners and managers of some of the best stores in comicdom. Many responded with the slightly sarcastic answer, “for the money.” One clever publisher and comic creator said he got into it for the women, but stayed in it for the money. Another sarcastic comment from a retailer in Georgia was that he “wanted to create a collector's market in the area, lord over multiple comic books and jack up the prices, gain weight, an be a true collector by packaging everything in mylar…and to be a character on an animated TV show by Matt Groening!” Then he quickly realized that these things had already been done by someone else. Out of those who answered honestly, there were a few reasons that seemed shared by several comic book professionals. One being that they “fell into” it or had the opportunity present itself in a way where they felt they could not say no. Another was that they had worked a more stressful job and were looking for something more fun to do, where he or she could be his or her own boss. And the last common answer comic book retailers seemed to have for opening their own shop was that they saw a need of some kind and wanted to fill it, mainly due to their love of comic books.
There was only one person who got into it more because it was a hobby they enjoyed and wanted to sell/buy for that hobby, and he was a Magic: The Gathering player, not a comic book collector. But, industry wide, this is often a common reason for people to decide that they want to open a store. It is a hobby they love, so they want to be able to both grow and sell their collection. That can be a perfectly fine reason for opening a comic book store. However, if you run the store like it is your parent’s basement instead of a business, you will, more than likely, run into problems. I will get into this more in a future column, but let me just say this: no matter how much you love comic books, or how long you have been collecting them, or how much you think your collection is worth, or how badly you want to buy other people’s collections and new books at a discount to ad to your growing portfolio of comics that you think you will one day sell and retire on, or how much you know about X-Men, Superman, and Amazing Spidey, in order to be really successful as a comic book retailer, you need to treat a store as a business, not as a warehouse for your collection.
In my retailer survey, there was one retailer from California whose answer would be almost exactly what I would say my reason was for having a comic book store. He said, “I bought my shop because I love comics and wanted to be my own boss. I'm keeping it because I love the customers and I enjoy helping people find good comics.” I did not buy an existing shop; I started one from scratch, but for the same reason. My husband Craig and I wanted to own a business together. We looked at several other businesses, but Craig kept bringing up his comic book store idea, over and over. I brushed it off, thinking it was just some phase he was in—wanting to relive some lost element of his childhood. Sure, he had some long boxes filled with comics up in our attic, but I never thought it was something he wanted to pursue as a business. Besides, I just could not grasp how one could have a successful business by selling two-dollar pamphlets about super heroes. I started to say to him, “sure, whatever,” thinking he’d eventually let it drop and move on to a serious business idea.
Craig bought Brian Hibbs’ book, “Tilting at Windmills” and started to read that. Then he contacted one of the top business consultants for comic book retailers, Mel Thompson. Suddenly I thought he must actually be serious about this crazy idea, so I asked him how on earth he thought we could possibly be successful as comic book retailers. So, he took me on a tour of a bunch of comic book stores, some a couple of hours away and others that we hand been driving past almost daily. Some were beautiful stores, others…well…let’s just say they didn’t make me feel comfortable shopping there. Another seemed to never be open, and we had gone by it several times over a few different days. That convinced me – the fact that there were successful stores in the area, both good and bad, having grown and stood the test of time. I thought we could make our store really great by not doing the things the “uncomfortable” stores did, while taking ideas from the more impressive stores and incorporating some of our own ideas into it. I had never collected comics myself, and only casually read them every once in a while, but I thought they were cool and that it could be fun to own a business that dealt in “funny books.” I said, “Let’s give it a try,” and soon the wheels were in motion.
I have done plenty of shopping in my life, in stores in a number of states as well as a few foreign countries. No retail experience compares to that of the comic book store. This is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing. We have had ups and downs, emotional highs and days when we thought maybe we just couldn’t do this. Sometimes it is great fun, and other days we ride quietly home in the car at the end of a day that seemed like it would not end. But one thing has been constant; we enjoy the business of selling comics and games. That, and you definitely won’t get rich owning a comic book store.
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