The other day I wrote about my friend, code-named 'Raoul' because I both like Hunter S. Thompson and because it sounds vaguely mysterious. (Kathy wondered what the heck 'Raoul' had to do with anything, to which I might ruefully agree) Anyway, I wrote about how Raoul is stuck in the old ways of doing business and refuses to change, and how he was becoming increasingly discourages as the world conspired against his methods. But as we struggled through this weekend's two-day garage sale (never again!), I came to realize that I was more like Raoul than I had thought. I was not embracing new things, either, I was stuck in the past, and that needed to change.
One of the most surprising aspects of opening our new business has been the necessity for re-evaluating the priorities of how to actually conduct that business. Kathy and I both have other revenue streams, which means we have other jobs, but what has struck me the most is how different the personality traits are for this new business than what is needed for my other business, selling books.
You would think booksellers are a fiercely independent group of people who want to do things their way, and you would be right. At least, the old school booksellers are. But there is also a new breed of book people who use electronic devices to help them find inventory. I have always made fun of them, because these reliance on these devices often leads them to miss some terrific books. What I did not realize, until today that is, is that used properly these devices can be wonderful tools.
What does this have to do with our new business? Simply this: the people in the book business using these new devices want to make money, they don't want to fail, they are go-getters and forward-thinkers, and that is exactly who we need to partner with now. If they rely solely on those devices, however, and do not do the training necessary to learn their craft, then they will eventually fail. The last people we need on our team are the old-school types who are married to process and precedent, or those who do not want to put in the time and effort to make money while having fun. Neither are not the sort to 'make a living...living,' but the person who is always willing to learn most certainly is that sort of partner. I have been what I made fun of, but this new venture has forced an introspection that has lead me to understand this. If I achieve nothing else, this has made the whole experience worthwhile.
Showing posts with label Business basics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business basics. Show all posts
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I prefer to be happy
Before I forget, happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Yep, born on the same day. I'll bet Hobbit parties are something to remember.
Before I begin today's entry, let me ask a favor: if you read and like my blog, please subscribe. It does not mean much except to me. Thanks!
I was thinking today about a friend of mine who is also a bookseller. Let's call him...Raoul. (Any other Hunter S. Thompson fans out there?) A few weeks ago I was at a book sale, not so much because I needed inventory, but more because it's one I attend every year. I had been there about forty-five minutes or so, pushing my shopping cart and perusing the books, when Raoul kind of shambled over holding four books.
Raoul is a great bookseller, from the old school. He knows his stuff inside and out, he can tell printing editions on books I have never heard of from across the room. The guy is good. But since I have known him, which is about 15 years, Raoul has been growing increasingly morose. If I didn't know him so well I would fear that he might harm himself. How come he's like this? Because Raoul wants to sell books like he did in 1990, and that world is gone forever. He does not like the new world of technology and he does not understand it. Nor does he want to.
For more than a decade I have been offering to school my friend on the latest techniques in selling via the internet, how to set up a web-site, which database to use, which sites produce the best results for what stock...in short, I was going to give him all of the tools and skills which I had to learn completely on my own when I started billthebookguy.com in 1998. But Raoul consistently has declined. I offered again at that sale a few weeks ago, and once again he declined. Yet Raoul is utterly miserable, because he isn't selling anything and he isn't making the money he needs to make.
Raoul has seven storage lockers filled with books he has bought that he has not yet priced or processed. According to him, he has not laid eyes on some of them for more than 15 years. In all of that time he has been paying storage for them, but they are nothing more than dead weight on his business. And when he told me what he thought they might be worth I almost fainted...I won't reveal that here, but suffice to say it is well into six and possibly even seven figures, he has no idea.
If I had inventory in the six figure range sitting around doing nothing, I would work until I dropped marketing it, making a profit and re-investing the money so that I could retire early and be happy doing things I want to do now. Like travel! (Nice how I worked that in, wasn't it?) For most booksellers, the hard part is finding grade-A inventory. We wait outside houses early on Friday and Saturday mornings for estate sales to open, we get to book sales early so we can have first pick, we pay extra to get in early, we do all sorts of things to find good inventory. Raoul does not have that problem, he already has the inventory. Raoul just doesn't want to market it.
His one and only source of selling on the internet is Amazon.com. There is no reason to go into the various venues available to booksellers, there are many, but of all of them Amazon is the worst for the seller. They take the most commission and keep the most shipping allowance. They are, in short, the least profitable. But they ARE the easiest. They are the easy way out.
Raoul could have been rich by now. He could still earn a very good living, even at this late date. He has done the hardest work by learning his craft and amassing his inventory. But years and years of beating his head against the wall with poor business practices has left him drained and defeated. He would rather work for someone else for a pittance, that someone else being Amazon, than invest a minuscule bit of time and capital to do something different.
As for me, I would rather try something new, even if I fail. Because maybe I won't fail. Maybe I will succeed. Or maybe, I just prefer to be happy.
Before I begin today's entry, let me ask a favor: if you read and like my blog, please subscribe. It does not mean much except to me. Thanks!
I was thinking today about a friend of mine who is also a bookseller. Let's call him...Raoul. (Any other Hunter S. Thompson fans out there?) A few weeks ago I was at a book sale, not so much because I needed inventory, but more because it's one I attend every year. I had been there about forty-five minutes or so, pushing my shopping cart and perusing the books, when Raoul kind of shambled over holding four books.
Raoul is a great bookseller, from the old school. He knows his stuff inside and out, he can tell printing editions on books I have never heard of from across the room. The guy is good. But since I have known him, which is about 15 years, Raoul has been growing increasingly morose. If I didn't know him so well I would fear that he might harm himself. How come he's like this? Because Raoul wants to sell books like he did in 1990, and that world is gone forever. He does not like the new world of technology and he does not understand it. Nor does he want to.
For more than a decade I have been offering to school my friend on the latest techniques in selling via the internet, how to set up a web-site, which database to use, which sites produce the best results for what stock...in short, I was going to give him all of the tools and skills which I had to learn completely on my own when I started billthebookguy.com in 1998. But Raoul consistently has declined. I offered again at that sale a few weeks ago, and once again he declined. Yet Raoul is utterly miserable, because he isn't selling anything and he isn't making the money he needs to make.
Raoul has seven storage lockers filled with books he has bought that he has not yet priced or processed. According to him, he has not laid eyes on some of them for more than 15 years. In all of that time he has been paying storage for them, but they are nothing more than dead weight on his business. And when he told me what he thought they might be worth I almost fainted...I won't reveal that here, but suffice to say it is well into six and possibly even seven figures, he has no idea.
If I had inventory in the six figure range sitting around doing nothing, I would work until I dropped marketing it, making a profit and re-investing the money so that I could retire early and be happy doing things I want to do now. Like travel! (Nice how I worked that in, wasn't it?) For most booksellers, the hard part is finding grade-A inventory. We wait outside houses early on Friday and Saturday mornings for estate sales to open, we get to book sales early so we can have first pick, we pay extra to get in early, we do all sorts of things to find good inventory. Raoul does not have that problem, he already has the inventory. Raoul just doesn't want to market it.
His one and only source of selling on the internet is Amazon.com. There is no reason to go into the various venues available to booksellers, there are many, but of all of them Amazon is the worst for the seller. They take the most commission and keep the most shipping allowance. They are, in short, the least profitable. But they ARE the easiest. They are the easy way out.
Raoul could have been rich by now. He could still earn a very good living, even at this late date. He has done the hardest work by learning his craft and amassing his inventory. But years and years of beating his head against the wall with poor business practices has left him drained and defeated. He would rather work for someone else for a pittance, that someone else being Amazon, than invest a minuscule bit of time and capital to do something different.
As for me, I would rather try something new, even if I fail. Because maybe I won't fail. Maybe I will succeed. Or maybe, I just prefer to be happy.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Business Basics
I get it. Finally. Now I know what people mean when they say they want to earn some extra money from home.
I can't count how many times someone has asked me if I know of any jobs that can be done from home to earn a few extra bucks, usually by a spouse who works outside the home. In my experience, the economy has either blocked that spouse's promotion and flat-lined their pay scale, actually reduced their salary or, God forbid, threatened their job entirely. Not to mention those who are laid off and remain unemployed. Naturally these folks want their household to be as financially secure as possible, and on at least a dozen occasions I have tried to help people start their own home-based business. And none, not one of them, has ever taken me up on my offer to help. Not one.
I realize I'm not a financial genius, but I have run my own home-based business since 1998 and I offered my assistance to all of these people for free. FREE. My time, your potential earnings. Mr. Nice Guy just likes to see his friends succeed and wanted to helped them just to be a good friend. Yet none of those people ever took me up on my offer. Not one. And today I finally realized why.
See, those people did not actually want to start their own business. What they wanted was a home-based job built with somebody else's money, where they could earn a lot of money without taking too much time or effort, and preferably one that was easy. They did not want to build their own business, they wanted somebody to hire them to do simple tasks at high wages that took little time.
Sounds good, right? Except, such jobs don't actually exist. They just don't. If you want to work from home, with a few exceptions, you are going to need to start some sort of business. But if I brought this up to these people and even mentioned spending a few bucks, such as the $700-plus to build a decent website, with associated fees (like hosting and domain names), and on-going expenses, they looked at me like I was nuts. What? Spend money to make money? Are you crazy?
If you want to make money from home, you can. It's going to be hard and it's going to require effort and you're going to have to invest some capital, although probably a lot less than you think. But the point is, you are going to have to invest in yourself, because nobody else is going to. I think the reason it took me so long to figure this out is because, for me, this has always been so obvious. I have lots and lots of capital at risk in my book business, far more than I do in The VTL Team, so for me this was just Life 101.
The folks who turned down my offer are all good people, they all have much to offer and most of them would probably be great business owners, if they would only trust the one person that matters most: themselves.
I can't count how many times someone has asked me if I know of any jobs that can be done from home to earn a few extra bucks, usually by a spouse who works outside the home. In my experience, the economy has either blocked that spouse's promotion and flat-lined their pay scale, actually reduced their salary or, God forbid, threatened their job entirely. Not to mention those who are laid off and remain unemployed. Naturally these folks want their household to be as financially secure as possible, and on at least a dozen occasions I have tried to help people start their own home-based business. And none, not one of them, has ever taken me up on my offer to help. Not one.
I realize I'm not a financial genius, but I have run my own home-based business since 1998 and I offered my assistance to all of these people for free. FREE. My time, your potential earnings. Mr. Nice Guy just likes to see his friends succeed and wanted to helped them just to be a good friend. Yet none of those people ever took me up on my offer. Not one. And today I finally realized why.
See, those people did not actually want to start their own business. What they wanted was a home-based job built with somebody else's money, where they could earn a lot of money without taking too much time or effort, and preferably one that was easy. They did not want to build their own business, they wanted somebody to hire them to do simple tasks at high wages that took little time.
Sounds good, right? Except, such jobs don't actually exist. They just don't. If you want to work from home, with a few exceptions, you are going to need to start some sort of business. But if I brought this up to these people and even mentioned spending a few bucks, such as the $700-plus to build a decent website, with associated fees (like hosting and domain names), and on-going expenses, they looked at me like I was nuts. What? Spend money to make money? Are you crazy?
If you want to make money from home, you can. It's going to be hard and it's going to require effort and you're going to have to invest some capital, although probably a lot less than you think. But the point is, you are going to have to invest in yourself, because nobody else is going to. I think the reason it took me so long to figure this out is because, for me, this has always been so obvious. I have lots and lots of capital at risk in my book business, far more than I do in The VTL Team, so for me this was just Life 101.
The folks who turned down my offer are all good people, they all have much to offer and most of them would probably be great business owners, if they would only trust the one person that matters most: themselves.
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