A USED BOOK STORE

Operating a used book store is a lot like Owning a recycling center - not too glamourous until you take a look at the owner's bank account.

 This is an ideal "absentee-Owner" type of business, or a small investment type business for someone to start while holding down a regular, full time job. The type of person "best-suited" to running a successful used book store, is the man or woman who
loves to read, has collected books over the years, and enjoys associating with people of similar interests.

 Start-up risks are rated high, with the average time period needed to become firmly established, about 3 years. After that "becoming established" stage however, you should be able to enjoy ownership of a business without extreme market fluctuations, plus an income close to 50,000 per year or more.

 Ideally, a used book store will need a market population of at least 50,000 per sons to support it. Try to locate your store in a "high traffic" area, as near as possible to a college or university campus. Something to bear in mind is the shopping habits of the average used book buyer: First, he's a browser. He notices your shop, drops in and begins looking around to see what kind of books you have available. If he spots some thing that really interests him, he'll probably buy then and there. If not, and provided you've made him feel comfortable this first time in your store, he'll be back - dropping in to browse whenever he's in the area.

 Shopping Malls are excellent locations for book stores. Locations near other, or "new" book stores are also very good -if the buyer doesn't find what he wants in the "other" book stores, he'll check your store. Grocery store shopping centers are generally poor locations for book stores of any kind.

 It's important that there be a lot of casual strollers in your location area, and that you encourage these people to drop in, and browse around.

 If you want the entire front of your store to be a show window, take pains to arrange your window display in an uncluttered manner, showing the kinds of books you have... However, a window display is not really necessary... more important is a window for the passers-by to see into your store. At any rate, if you do go with a window display, keep it low - never more than 36-inches high - leaving a lot of room for the people passing by to see into your store, and notice the people browsing through your books. We know of one successful operator who had members of his family, relatives and friends, purposely
"browsing" through his store, just to project that kind of image for the store.