Being surrounded by books makes you want to write.
And of course, to write is to want to create beauty.
Or see the beauty that’s missing in the world, and wrestle, in vain, to express that essence.
I would not have written that one year ago.
Having a book store is inspiring to a wannabe writer.
And let’s be real, does anyone buy a used book store without the writing dream?
Ten Positive Indicators for Used Book Stores, Circa 2016
- There is a torrent of books being released into the world as people downsize.
- This torrent of books can be used to start a business for free.
- It’s usually a millennial or the youngest generation, the Extenders, which I coined, thank you, thank you, that suggest we don’t use a computer, ban WiFi, prohibit mobile phone usage.
- Everyone except eBook publishers and tablet makers prefer print books.
- Three reasons people switch to eBooks: Traveling, accessibility and cost.
- The used book store doesn’t have much to worry about in the short-term, from eBooks
- Ebooks kind of happened and will grow gradually. EBook only reading devices are declining in sales.
- EBook only readers account for 6% of book buyers.
- Title sales themselves are flat over the past two years (although indy authors without an ISBN on their books are under-counted)
- Building a dream team is cheap and easy and fun. The best people in the book store world are now out on the street! But not slouches…not by a long shot.
Building the Book Store Dream Team
We are building a scout team for the book store revolution. I got peeps who love book stores.
That’s the beginning. The resources are there, we have the vitamins, the prayers.
We got,
- A trained manager who loves books. He’s also brought in 20 awesome customers.
- A book store and self publishing encyclopedia, who is familiar with all the latest and greatest in retail.
- A seasoned entrepreneur who specializes in face-to-face selling techniques.
- Two financial experts with deep knowledge and successful careers with public companies.
- A retail store guru that has run Sears, a winery, a bed and breakfast and deeply understands the real estate issues of book stores.
- The most responsive high quality web developer and business troubleshooter in the world.
We got some book selling skills.
Customers are part of the dream team, too.
With a book store, everyone is on the team!
Sometimes they may seem drafted and accosted. Or peppered with questions.
You’re on the team, and we need all the talent we can get. You’re in the book store saving army!
In fact, the talent is oozing out of the walls, coming in the doors and being shared away on social media.
By the way, book store customers have provided me with,
- Fortune 500 level consulting.
- Inventory management (thru requesting books.
- Books to sell.
- Word of mouth.
- Long lists of book for the hunt.
Since they are so great, we have a quixotic goal to serve them.
We want to have every book in the world.
Ok, we want to be at least 75% for single book purchases. Ie, you ask for a book, we have it three out of four times.
Then we get every book in the world.
But today, we are more of a treasure for avid book buyers looking to load up.
Their joy is finding the books.
Oh yes, the books are available on Amazon. Yet the hunt for a treasured book, continues.
God bless them! God bless the hunt for a great book.
Yes, customers are a huge part beyond buying stuff!
Why a team is important right now
The truth is after 3 and half years, I’m pretty much useless at having new ideas.
No, it’s true.
Later in the business, after the joy of creating, you don’t even taste the sugar in your Kool-Aid.
You need to taste other people’s Kool-Aid. That renews the sugar rush.
That’s why it’s important. To not grow is to wither away.
There are huge positives that come with building a team.
When a trusted business partner is pitching good ideas for turning the store into a monster, it’s a good sign.
I’d rather implement a great idea. I no longer care if it’s mine. I no longer need to implement mediocre ideas, expressly because they are mine.
I’m bored implementing my crappy ideas.
That’s the sign of an amateur.
A pro recognizes great ideas, from anywhere and through forecasting the implementation and understanding where to interfere (policies, procedures) and where not to.
That’s my jam, right now.
The thing about a great idea – 80% of it is implemented.
The start is easier, customers walk in the door, customer service is easy because it’s a great idea.
You get better customers and happier employees, because geez this is sure easy to do, and pretty fun, besides.
My great idea success rate is probably one in ten. With a team that is simpatico, it can be one in five.
I’ve probably gone 3 for 30 in testing and creating profitable features for all this.
Which isn’t bad. That ratio keeps the lights on at venture capital firms.
A mediocre idea …it’s the opposite.
It’s a pain in the ass to implement. Customers struggle to understand, customer service shares in their struggle.
Fires all over the place.
I’m just saying that I no longer need to do that to myself or the business.
Luckily, I actively started developing the habit of letting go of the need to do everything, decide everything.
That was 2013. I’m gonna need that habit because it’s still hard to do, to let go.
When you decide to sell out
I know first hand that if you sell your book store, you still find yourself out scouting books.
Instinctively knowing what would sell.
You don’t give up a love of books. This was a lifestyle after all.
Selling your business, it is a divorce. Not as painful, perhaps, but similar in that it’s a change of life-style.
A book store is a life-style business. It becomes your social life – your state of being.
It’s hard to walk away from a state of being.
Our customers like that we are a “real book store”
A real book store is what you think it means.
I can assure you, that customers don’t mean the online store.
I do get a little tinge when some people tour the store like it’s some odd historical exhibit, titled.
“Replica of a Late 20th Century Bookstore”
The language is intentional. Notice they don’t include the 21st century.
That’s historical rounding down. Clearly, a book store was a 20th century thing!
Pity the poor fool who bought the last bookstore. And then led a whole “dream team” over a waterfall in a Winnebago.
But the truth is my team doesn’t care. They’ll go over the cliff with me to save book stores.
They like being around the books. They soothe their soul.
God bless, em.
Sometimes, I think I’m the only one who sees the cliff. “Hey, look there’s a cliff, we need to change direction or grow wings!”
But usually I’m just catastrophizing.
I need to live the dream.
And having a team has taught me that. Make the dream happen, build ways to add to that, have fun with books.
Paradoxically…
Paradoxically, the online store makes “the real store” happen. Amazon helps make it go. I understate this.
Amazon makes it go. And it’s really not a bad place to be.
Amazon is so beyond bookselling in its focus. Cloud services, robotics and Internet of Things (IoT), that is where they are. All they want from retail is to make sure Prime keeps working well for customers.
It’s been my hunch that books are very important to attracting new customers to Prime.
And when Amazon began opening real book stores, I wasn’t sure if it was a positive or a negative.
I vacillated. It’s the end of the world (if they go big). Or a shrug (if they’re dabbling). Or good, (it validates that book stores have future growth after all)
I now think they are dabbling. Why?
First, I think that Amazon itself is at least a little surprised at how well its Cloud Services has done, and how quickly the Future is coming.
Second, this was more than two years ago when I thought AZ would push into brick & mortar; I’d theorized that internet sales tax would encourage Amazon to take over the book business and further encourage online retailers, Google, Netflix, Facebook to create local store concepts as well.
If Apple stores were any judge, it seemed very likely that the internet giants could realize Big Gains In Brick and Mortar.
But today, I think they don’t give a crap about retail. Amazon included. They’ve been there and done that.
All these companies are pivoting to “Billion Person” problems, intractable issues which seems to have tractable solutions.
Delivered by technology.
I’m talking about virtual reality, artificial reality, IoT, and robotics, to mention four, and leave out entire fields of parallel and powerful innovation.
All of this as a business opportunity, it just came faster then any of the internet titans thought it would. Like in 2014, it seemed a possibility and all of a sudden, by 2016, it became a necessity.
Either way, they don’t care about our bookstore or books anymore!
As for my fear of the outcome, driving up retail rents, it was being in Colorado that’s proved worse.
Legal pot did a damn good job of driving up commercial rates!
Either way, worrying about the future is worrying about things that never happen.
and missing the other things you don’t see coming.
Buying a retirement business 20 years before you retire.
Coming back around to the state of the store, 150 days in, the turnaround is going to take twice as long and twice as much as forecast.
I’m pretty…pretty sure I added in twice as much time and twice the cash in the original forecast/plan. So that would be four times the time and four times the cost.
Still what’s a year, to own a bookstore, a real bookstore.
Either way, for some reason I decided to buy my retirement business, right now.
Maybe it’s a sign. Retire and build something that is fun.
Maybe I just did!
The book store dream.
On Day 150, I’m in the dream, surrounded by the dream, creating the dream.
I’m breaking the habit of being myself and bringing in new consciousness to this all.
And making beautiful sentences sometimes.
– Matt