Starting a bookstore is easy right? After working in the bookstore industry for 30 years, I thought, no problem! The American Booksellers Association (ABA) membership includes the opportunity for excellent online education. First of all, go to Paz & Associates. Sign up and spend the time working through the “Owning a Bookstore” modules.
While there is a cost to this training, it is vital to your research and well worth the investment. The topics are covered thoroughly.
- Overview of Online Training & Assessing the Skills You Bring to the Job
- Competitive Advantages for Bricks-and Mortar Booksellers
- Book Industry Trends
- Start-up Investment
- Your Banking Relationship
- Crowdfunding
- Financial Dynamics of Retail Bookstores
- How to Estimate Sales & Owner’s Earnings
- Assessing the Strength of Your Location
- Lease Negotiation
- Opening Timeline
- Summary & Next Steps
Paz and Associates is a top notch education resource and all their videos are narrated by industry experts. Hence, the instructors have done the work and know the ropes. If want to open a bookstore, start here. I had no idea how much I DID NOT know until I went through this course!
After the modules and homework for each module are completed, go back to the ABA site. Click on the “opening a bookstore” link and get all the financial benchmarking tools they have available to members – invaluable!
Take the knowledge that you got from Paz and incorporate the information from the ABA benchmarking report. Certainly now you can start to see a picture of what your investment might be.
My better half gave constant positive reinforcement. He sent links to news stories about Independent (Indie) Bookstores and how they are making a comeback. My favorite story was probably this Harvard Business study.
Read the stories, watch the videos and understand that Indie Bookstores are successful because they support the community. Furthermore, Indie Bookstores are good neighbors; they entertain and educate.
Continue to write down all your ideas of what you want your store to be. Remember why you like certain bookstores and make notes to refer to later. Market research is the next important step.