ESYB2 017 - Local Business - Bookstore
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[00:00:00] Now, let's do another example of starting a business. This one is going to be hypothetical. It's a business that I'm not going to start, but what if I was, let's say a brick and mortar bookstore business. Let's say I was planning to start it. What would I do? Let's talk about that. Like from literally. idea stage on day one?

Well, first, after the excitement subsides, I have to begin doing research. What does the research entail? First of all, how popular is this business already in the local area? So I would find and then go literally visit all the similar stores on like a five mile radius. And I visited multiple times. I would chat with the owner if possible.

I don't have to tell the owner. That I want to start a business like that just yet. But at least I chat them up and see how business is going, see what else they're doing, see what they're involved in, because often they're involved in a lot of community events and community activities, [00:01:00] things like that.

And that will give you a sense of how their business is going, kind of approximately. You'll never know exactly, but you'll get a sense. And once you understand How successful these stores are and where the more successful ones are and how the more successful ones are run Well, then you can start shopping for locations with high passerby food traffic Where there are demographics of people who like books.

So for example if you Want to open a bookstore that's centered around children and have a lot of children's books. Then, of course, you'd go to a family friendly neighborhood. And when I say shop locations, I don't mean buy anything or rent anything yet. This is just research. See what the prices are like.

And then you want to start calculating, like, well, what are going to be your costs? For example, rent and employee costs. Typically are the biggest costs you'd have to calculate. Well, how many employees will you need? Of course, you'd work there all the time, but who else would be needed? Of course, [00:02:00] your family would help, but of course they can do everything.

And then after that, you will need to calculate your legal fees. How are you going to get your book inventory? How much the remodeling is going to cost and how much remodeling you want to do. All those things will be significant costs before you ever open your doors of your business. Then you want to think about, well, how will this impact your life?

This is a lot of stress. You'll be working there most of the time for the foreseeable future. And when I say foreseeable future, I don't mean like, oh, for three months, it may be years. Do you want that lifestyle? And there are some good things that can come out of this. You'll be integrated well in your local community.

You'll form some amazing friendships. You'll have some freedom because this is your own business. And you'll be building something that's your own and it's for your future. But with that good come challenges, a lot of stress. You'll have to deal with bad customers. You have a lot of financial risk. And there's [00:03:00] a lot of feeling.

of being truly tied down and that feeling is accurate. You actually are, you're kind of married to that store and that's something you only consider from day one because let's say you don't want to open a bookstore, but a lot of people want to open a coffee shop or a restaurant, those kinds of attractive businesses.

But then you're married to that store for a long time and the excitement. of doing that business is not the day to day. Day to day is like a grind and that's something to realize early because that's what you're potentially getting yourself into. Additionally, you're getting yourself into some additional expenses.

There are all kinds of registration licenses. Your city and state will require some licenses. You'll need to open your business as a legal entity. You'll have legal fees and surely there will be some unforeseen And it will take you a few months to get all these licenses, apply, reapply, and follow all the procedures so that you're legally set up.

[00:04:00] One thing you could do is instead of opening a totally new When you're researching existing businesses in your area, one option is to approach them to buy them because perhaps that owner is tired of that business and they might want to sell their business. That way you don't have to have remodeling costs, that way you have some inventory, and all the other costs may be smaller.

This is a common thing to do, like let's say, You're opening a restaurant. Well, you don't open one from absolute scratch. You take one over and remodel it, redo it to your style of restaurant. But at least the kitchen is all there. Some equipment is all there. So a lot of things are already there in place.

Perhaps even some experienced staff. So once you've done all that, and you've actually gone through all these steps and started, what happens when you start? Things usually go, you know, a little bit flat line, a little bit up and to the right. There's slow growth. Of course, when you start, you have your grand opening, you get some [00:05:00] local press, you do a lot of other marketing in the community, but at some point it sort of dies down, and then you have to grow little by little.

And then every day it's kind of business as usual and you have relatively few regular customers and you just gotta keep on running your business and over time grow your clientele while the local community gets accustomed that your store is there and they should go and visit and they should buy books and all that.

So on your part, your day to day will contain a lot of marketing, a lot of partnering with Other businesses, other organizations in the area putting on perhaps some events for kids, some book readings, other days, something in the afternoons, something in the evenings, basically just a lot of activities to get people into the door.

for different reasons and hopefully stay for the books and come back for the books. So these are the steps to starting such a store. Did I probably skip some steps? I'm sure that I did. No matter [00:06:00] how much you plan, you can't plan for everything. But this is the approximate trajectory and steps for starting a business and carrying it on for a long time and giving it a chance to succeed.

