OWNING A BOOKSTORE: Foundations For Success
INTRODUCTION & SKILLS
BOOK INDUSTRY TRENDS
Handouts
Links
- Book Industry Results 2019 Market Share & Book Format Data for 2016 (NPD Group BookScan reported in Publishers Weekly)
- Pew Research Center’s Reading in America, a report
- Amazon & Empty Storefronts: The Fiscal and Land Use Impacts of Online Retail, a study
- National Endowment for the Arts, Reading on the Rise, a report
- Tracking Global Reading Habits: Kids Prefer Print
- Free newsletters & book industry content: Publishers Weekly, Newsletter sign-up
- Shelf-Awareness, Newsletter sign-up
HOW WILL YOU COMPETE
Handouts
- Identifying Your Competitive Advantages
- Core Beliefs, An Example
- Seth Godin on Why Buying Books isn’t Necessary
- Bookstore Visual Audit
Links
Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Key Studies on Why Local Matters
- Start-Up Template Use this master spreadsheet to calculate your start-up investment, proforma and cash flow projections for 3 years – exactly what a lender will want to see to approve funding
- How many books can you fit in your store? Use this excel spreadsheet to estimate the number of volumes you’ll be able to offer to customers based on spaces with varying amounts of selling square footage. Research local rates: City – for licenses, fees and permits needed Local shops & commercial real estate brokers – for the going rates for rents in various suitable locations Utilities companies – for details on deposits required for new accounts
ESTIMATING SALES & EARNINGS
OPENING STORE TIMELINE
FINANCIAL DYNAMICS
- Start-Up Template This is the same master template listed above. Don’t reinvent the wheel when this file contains all of the book industry metrics you need to project sales, costs and profits for your start-up. Just fill in the yellow highlighted cells on the Summary and Funding tabs.
- ABACUS Financial Survey of Independent Bookstores Benchmark Summary
- American Booksellers Association ABACUS Survey
BANKING RELATIONSHIP
CROWDFUNDING
- Article, Beyond the Bank: Bookstores and Alternative Funding
- Founders Rewards – Parnassus Books (Ann Patchett’s bookstore)
- Article, Pros and Cons of Bookseller Crowdsourcing
LOCATION
- Research bona fide retail hubs in your community Find out about rental rates and lease terms Investigate the possibility of owning your space by looking at commercial real estate for sale
- Census & Community Information http://www.census.gov http://www.city-data.com
- Census & Community Information https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm