How to Start a Bookstore Business

Thursday, March 28, 2013

How to Start a Bookstore Business

Bookstore businesses are fairly easy to set up. The most involved part of the process is finding the right location for your new business. A store in a large city may attract the most traffic, but your rent and utilities costs will be higher than in a small town. Your bookstore business may thrive in a small town if you can pinpoint a lucrative target market in the area.

Instructions

1.Find an optimal location for your new bookstore. You want a store that is: 1) near a shopping center; 2) in a relatively safe, burgeoning area rife with potential book lovers; and 3) large enough for bookshelves and display units to make book-shopping comfortable and simple for your customers. The easiest method is to find a bookstore that has closed, and reopen it under new management. (Keep in mind, however, that you must find out why the bookstore closed--for instance, a problem with the location or customer traffic.)

2.Learn the demographics of your chosen bookstore location to determine which titles are most likely to sell quickly there. For example, if your area has a high concentration of families with young children, you should keep a large section of popular kids' titles in your store. The U.S. Census Bureau offers a fact finder tool (see "Resources"). You'll find information about the book-buying habits of specific demographics at "Publishers Weekly" and other sites that cater to those in the bookstore business.

3.Sign up for a purchaser account with Baker and Taylor, Ingram and other small book wholesalers and distributors who sell the books you will order on a regular basis. You likely will have to pay the wholesalers 60 to 70 percent of the retail price, which leaves you with a profit of about 30 to 40 percent.

4.Purchase the following items for your new bookstore business: bookshelves; book-display units; cash register; and surveillance cameras (to reduce shrinkage). You also may need to have counter space built for your register area. You also need to open a merchant account.

5.Organize a book-signing event for your store on the day that it will open. Invite local authors to sell their books.

Tips & Warnings

You also can establish an online book business, for which you will need a hosting account, domain name, shopping cart and virtual merchant account. Many website hosts offer complete packages to meet these needs.

Reference:click here

1 comment:

Bookstore BusinessDecember 17, 2013 at 1:59 PM
Bookstore, Bookstore Business, How to Start a Bookstore Business
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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Thursday, March 28, 2013