So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Space?
October 20, 2018 8:22 PM   Subscribe

A cautionary tale by poet Noel Black.
posted by Foci for Analysis (32 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reading this gives me literal flashbacks to the days when I worked for nonprofit organisations. *shudder*
posted by frumiousb at 9:32 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Ugh. What a bitter, ugly article by a bitter, angry man.

You want to open a small retail business selling books (or records or dresses or handmade bags or...). It's easy: Get a job working retail in a successful, respected independent outlet. Learn how it works and confront what it takes. Still keen? Copy its model.

Don't like retail? Don't do it. Don't like people? Don't do it. Don't like work? Don't do it. Think you're entitled to a store because X? Don't do it.

But, if you are a nice person who knows the ins and outs of the product you want to move (books, poetry, records, whatever), and you have basic business sense, there is no time in history when it's been easier to make that dream happen. The internet, cell phones, and, if you want, social media, make it ridiculously easy to get the word out and engage with your customers.

You used to have to worry about "location, location, location". Not anymore. If you can be found online, people will find your store.

You used to have to worry about costs and difficulty of marketing. Not anymore -- anyone can market their wares for next to nothing thanks to the internet.

You used to have to commit to long-term leases -- not anymore! Rent a pop-up -- or sell out of art fairs every couple months, alerting your customers via Instagram or text or Mail Chimp.

You used to have to maintain a rigid schedule so people wouldn't waste time travelling to a store to find it closed. Not anymore -- make it clear that you don't follow a schedule and customers will know to check in (on the web, or instagram, or by text) to ensure you're there. Hell, if you want, be closed all the time except by appointment (that's what I do). Turn that quirkiness into a selling feature.

...

Anyway, that article made me very angry. I get asked for retail business advice all the time. Not a week goes by without someone asking me how to do it. I'm generally very positive and enthusiastic when someone tells me they want to open a store and need help. But every once in a while someone with Black's negativity comes calling and I always tell them the same thing: you have neither the grit or the stamina -- don't do it.
posted by dobbs at 10:19 PM on October 20, 2018 [32 favorites]


I'm sure there is another side to the story, but the guy was trying to do something quite different than flogging some stuff off a truck every couple of months.
posted by praemunire at 11:24 PM on October 20, 2018 [16 favorites]


I don't like how he acts like the heads of ghost ship were legal victims.
posted by boilermonster at 12:02 AM on October 21, 2018 [8 favorites]


If you want to open a business, you have to plan to run it as a business. The issues here are similar to the issues in any new business. Yes, as people have pointed out, he's bitter. And the people who most need his advice are the ones least likely to heed it.

I have been the person who runs things that got pushed out by someone who thought they could do better, only to have the venture collapse a month after they took over. I've also been the frustrated employee in a collapsing business run by a friend. I recognize his side, and can also see the other side that he's not telling and doesn't know.

I'd be very interested to hear the one staffer's story.

And what he said about the Ghost Ship is some bullshit.
posted by rednikki at 12:17 AM on October 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


Wow, some weird takes here. It's actually a lot less bitter and angry than might be expected for the situation, more a regretful look back at lessons learned. And he doesn't say that the Ghost Ship leaseholders were victims, he says they were the ones legal responsibility fell on, which is a repeated theme in the whole piece. That a lot of people want the fun parts of running a space, but not be the ones responsibility for the legal liabilities.
posted by tavella at 12:39 AM on October 21, 2018 [22 favorites]


I think a lot of the acrimony thrown around between business owners comes down to a little-understood divide - there is an inherent difference between a personal business and a scaleable business.

I'm a translator, somewhere between the fields of law, cinema, literature, and technology. My business, by definition, doesn't scale beyond my brain, time, and energy. When people hire me, they rarely just want my expertise, they want my time, raw labor, and unique history. I have enough of a reputation that I get a premium 'cause it's me. I've tried, through various agencies and subcontractors, to scale what I do, and while cases could be made that some tasks in my labor are replicable, a lot aren't. My business is me.

I have no idea how to run it, and the law isn't built for businesses like mine. The law is built for cafes, factories, banks, and other businesses that offer mostly similar services that can be easily differentiated by price.

I agree that the writer is bitter. I would be too. The things I said about trying to scale through subcontractors and agencies? You don't build a film translation business without convincing directors and producers you have a love of the craft, won't kibosh their projects, and can keep up with the grueling production schedule. That takes years. No matter who you recommend, they don't trust you if it's not you. Same goes for agencies and subcontractors. My reputation was the glue that bound those things together, and my reputation was never as a manager. If it was, those projects would never have happened in the first place. I didn't get burned, and hopefully didn't burn anyone. As far as I know I didn't? Anyway, it wasn't for me.

Maybe I could build with a different model? But...why? What I do is needed and it's something I love. I learned the lesson about managing other people the easy way. An artist space/indie bookstore and many other businesses exist somewhere between easily scaleable and personal. There is a personal element to these businesses, and as a society we do not have good mechanisms to accommodate the personal element. Translators, accountants, public notaries etc. aren't required to have an office or expensive hardware or massive liability and exposure. If I needed those things, I'd be doomed. At the same time, if I screw over my clients on something vital, I'm pretty much legally immune, especially since I'm usually based in another country, I'm underpaid for the responsibilities I handle, there's no insurance I can buy, and you can't sue for malpractice. You can't even get me kicked off a platform or disqualify me. If I mistranslate medical records, or am even too slow with something like that, I could get someone killed, but people hire translators to do that every day, based purely on the honor system.

The system is NOT perfect and we shouldn't pretend it is.
posted by saysthis at 12:46 AM on October 21, 2018 [20 favorites]


But, if you are a nice person who knows the ins and outs of the product you want to move (books, poetry, records, whatever), and you have basic business sense, there is no time in history when it's been easier to make that dream happen.

Yeah, but he didn’t want to “move product.” He wanted a collaborative art-space. He was sort-of willing to move some product to make that happen. But he didn’t seem like retail was what he wanted to do at all. Yeah, he sounds pretty bitter. But I think a lot of that was because he was doing a job he hated. He maybe didn’t know he hated it until he was doing it, but, well... that’s a learning experience.
posted by greermahoney at 12:52 AM on October 21, 2018 [9 favorites]


A "small press bookstore" doesn't sound like an easy business to run anywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love going to small press fairs and zine festivals and spending too much on chapbooks and experimental novels, but I'm not sure there's enough demand anywhere to pay the rent on that alone.
posted by smelendez at 2:09 AM on October 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


Running a shop or any small business is hard work... this sounds even harder. If you are going to run a place on donations or from other sources and not from the profits of selling books or whatever then you better have a real good idea where those donations and other sources are gonna come from in the first place and how to shill for more... by, as people have suggested, working or at least researching similar orgs not just have enjoy doing back yard readings.

At least it didn't get me as angry as the complete idiot who tried to open a restaurant story that was on the blue.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:18 AM on October 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


To me, this article didn't read as bitter - but then I've got years of experience in the arts and in retail, my family will chat accountancy over the dinner table, and I know, I fucking know, exactly how hard it is for a small arty business.

And no, copying a larger business is not an option; any indie retailer is looking at a completely different supply chain. You're not going to get credit, you're not going to get the deal that the chain store gets, because you don't have the backing of a chain. You can't leverage, in other words. You can't leverage the rents down. You're going to pay more.

But where this article really scores is for people who have worked for the arts in a small city, and then found themselves the named person on a legal document, which leads to the named person being in the shit. I've seen this a number of times, in church groups as well, and it's an unfortunate side effect of legal best practice.

But think about who that best practice is for: as saythis points out, not all businesses are extendable. But this is the line that we are encouraged to take. I couldn't apply for funding at one point until I wrote a business plan that stated how I would expand my business. Who am I, Thomas Kincaid?
posted by The River Ivel at 3:03 AM on October 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


To me, the moral of the story is to think twice before turning a hobby into a business. Especially if you’re not interested/educated in business. If you can’t think of a way to make it profitable enough that you won’t have to work a second full-time job indefinitely, you’re not ready to leave hobby-land. If you do plunge ahead, find yourself a new hobby, to give yourself an outlet that doesn’t feel like work.

And don’t try to go it alone. Most successful start-ups that I can think of were started by a pair of cofounders, with one person having more business interest/sense, and one person having more domain interest/sense. And typically, the businessperson is at the top of the pyramid. Why? If you have an emotional attachment to your company’s domain, that will cloud your decision-making. There are hints of this problem all over TFA. I would like to hear the friends’ point-of-view here.

Also, focus. If you try to be all things to all people, you will end up serving no-one particulary well. In this case, they probably should have started off as a coffee shop and slowly introduced the artsy/events stuff once there was enough traction to not have to rely on friends to constantly volunteer.
posted by mantecol at 3:41 AM on October 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


I'm not sure why they went the non-profit route instead of just running it as a small business. Being a non-profit organization sounds great but it adds so much extra overhead and potential drama that I'm not sure that it's worth it for a small endeavor like this.
posted by octothorpe at 4:00 AM on October 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


There's a gaping jigsaw piece missing from this article. The author goes on and on about artistic direction, attribution, and local scuttlebutt, but aside from a brief mention in passing never talks about revenue. A business needs more revenues than outlays, period, or it's unsustainable, and unless you have a big recurring donation model being a non-profit can't paper that over. It is so weird to me that they focus on all these details just kind of ignore the biggest element of running a space.
posted by phooky at 5:44 AM on October 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


Mountain Fold! This was here in town. It was a very neat, very small, very well-intentioned space but the second you went inside it made you constantly wonder how they were possibly going to pay the bills. It's a wonder they made it two years.

I'm baffled by why they went through all that. Colorado Springs is not the market for a small-press bookstore, and Noel Black should have known that. Like smelendez mentioned, that's a tough business in any part of the world. But here? No chance.

Was it a viable performance space? Not really. It was teensy with no permanent seating, and if you got a cover you'd maybe make $200. Maybe. We have maybe 25 local poets and authors who typically read around here, and once you've cycled through those, and if you're into local poets and authors you've certainly seen them read several times already, what do you do? There's music, but it never had the setup to properly support music.

Was it a viable bookstore? Not really. The books were all small-press, which would make for a very nice display shelf in a larger bookstore but it's not a big enough draw to float an entire space economically. We have a dwindling number of bookstores here -- the two big B&Ns and a scattered set of used bookstores, and most of those stores get by selling Tom Clancy and Nora Roberts. The popular little bookstore downtown has ceded about 1/3 of their space to gifts and stationery as it is, and it does more sales in wine and coffee than retail anyway.

Was it a viable coffee shop? Not really. The spot was on a fringy bit of downtown, with no signage and not much else nearby, and it never the full offering of a real coffee shop. The menu was limited. The coffee shop hours were positively nomadic and seemed to change frequently.

This sort of thing never needed a dedicated public space. We have some events like a Moth-style storytelling event that just move from venue to venue, and that model seems to work OK here. It would have been lovely to have some sort of gallery-based monthly indie series that used their full energies and network.
posted by mochapickle at 6:11 AM on October 21, 2018 [22 favorites]


It’s not lost on them that you’ve taken a significant personal financial risk to make this happen (or is it?). They see your vision (or do they?)

This part stood out to me. A huge part of running a business is communication. When you’re making art, it’s fine to leave it in the eye of the beholder, but if you want to run a successful business, you don’t leave this kind of thing to chance. You communicate early and often. And communication should be a two-way street, i.e. take time to listen to everyone else and understand where they’re coming from. Sounds like he went a little MIA when things got rough, which is not the best idea when you’re trying to maintain the trust of the people who work for you (whether paid or for free.)
posted by mantecol at 6:59 AM on October 21, 2018


This made me realize I hadn't heard how the Ghost Ship tragedy ended up in court. It hasn't; the proprietors made a plea deal, but in August, a judge threw it out, saying that one of them was not remorseful. Since the deal was for both of them, he could not keep it for just the one that he thought was sincere, it seems.
posted by thelonius at 7:11 AM on October 21, 2018


mantecol: I think this is one of the huge pitfalls of going into business with friends. It's easy to think that you're all on the same page, because you're friends and in this case, probably artistic collaborators. But the there is a difference between communicating as friends and communicating in business, in the same way there is a difference between building an art installation and building a bridge. There are going to be way more stresses, constraints, and potential consequences for failure with the latter.

I also suspect the author is getting into something that's been brought up on MeFi a lot. If you own/run a small business, particularly a public facing one, it's going to take a huge amount of your time and you are going to be super invested in it. It's very easy to see the people working for you as slacking because they're not as committed. Though the flip side is, it's easy to dismiss a lot of the back end work in a business as "paperwork" which is an equally blinkered perspective (if paperwork were easy, a good accountant couldn't pull down six figures a year) and get the idea that "we're doing all the actual, physical work, all the owner does is go to meetings and fill out forms. Which sounds a lot like how you get to a place where the owner is desperate to get rid of a massive time consuming headache at the same time as the employees feel like they're exploited.
posted by Grimgrin at 7:41 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


This was better when it was called Black's Books.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:01 AM on October 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


This sort of thing never needed a dedicated public space

I think this was one of the points of the piece. They had a great backyard series going, and one mistake was in thinking it would be even cooler to have a permanent public space for that kind of thing.

What sounds bitter about this piece, maybe, is that he undertook something with community encouragement for a community that supposedly wanted it, and faced the reality of people's unwillingness to consistently do the work to make it happen, while being perfectly willing to kibitz and critique. This is a really common thing in small communities.

Years ago, a friend of mine opened a gay and lesbian bookstore in a developing artsy district of our midwestern town. She did a lot of research leading up to it and managed to be well-capitalized enough to have solid stock on-hand when she opened. Her logo, sign, and other materials were professionally designed. It looked and felt like it had a chance.

One problem, as I recall, is that people were well-intentioned but inaccurate in the research phase. They'd answer on a survey that if such a place existed, they'd go there twice a month and spend $20 each time, say. And they probably believed they would. But when the place did exist, they didn't go there twice a month and spend $20 each time. So, even though she did market research ahead of time, the results were overly optimistic.

Another was that, from the moment she opened, people were critical. It wasn't the gay and lesbian bookstore they wanted. People didn't like it that she devoted so much floorspace to things that weren't books—bumper stickers, coffee mugs, t-shirts, all that kind of stuff. Other people didn't care for her book selection—I was one of these. With all the goodwill in the world, I couldn't find much in the store I was interested in spending my limited money on.

A problem with doing things for a small community-within-a-community is that people feel a sense of ownership that is also a sense of entitlement. They take it personally when what you put together isn't exactly what suits them, they hate it if they perceive you're making money (exploitation!), and so on. It's different from opening a more generic kind of business, which will still probably fail but which people won't hate you for.
posted by Orlop at 9:14 AM on October 21, 2018 [18 favorites]


I used to provide services to spaces like this and almost inevitably they'd go under, usually right around the two year mark as donor, community, and operator enthusiasm would go over a cliff. As Orlap noted, both supporters and owners would tend to overestimate the amount of money people would spend in spaces like that, and at the end of the day, consumers would often either not buy the amount of local/indy stuff they thought they would or would buy it cheaper online and some coffee sales isn't enough to pay the rent.

Very often they'd be opened by people that felt intuitively that certain things were true (this town *should* be able to have a bookstore) that didn't necessarily reflect reality or young and very idealistic people (like the Cairo, Illinois coop people).

Public spaces like this generally need to be truly public spaces (e.g. public libraries) because they're not viable businesses at this point.

As ever, nonprofit is a tax status, not a business plan.
posted by Candleman at 9:40 AM on October 21, 2018 [9 favorites]


What sounds bitter about this piece, maybe, is that he undertook something with community encouragement for a community that supposedly wanted it, and faced the reality of people's unwillingness to consistently do the work to make it happen, while being perfectly willing to kibitz and critique. This is a really common thing in small communities.

Having had a (very) modest role in the early days of a nonprofit whose main project ended up being very popular, I agree. I mean, I knew it was a thing going in. But not so very much of a thing!

You don't just get the kibitzers these days, too--now you get the goddamned amateur sleuths who, when they're not happy with the service for whatever reason, decide that that must reflect some underlying terminal dysfunction or malfeasance and are happy to circulate some bizarre conspiracy about it based on a mixture of half-assed research and weird models of how the world works. There are enough stupid, ignorant, credulous people in the world that such a dramatic story can gain traction even if it's based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how businesses operate ("OMG, this nonprofit is not spending every dime it raises in the year it raises it! It has a bank account with a meaningful sum of money in it! THEY ARE STEALING OUR MONEY!").
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on October 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


praemunire: Where do you think the toxic people on the internet come from?
posted by aleph at 11:43 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


My friends just started a bookstore, art space and community space and it's just gorgeous and glorious. The book/zine curation is just ridiculously good, the space is amazing to be in and the community response has been pretty enthusiastic.

But they have a plan, and they started with publishing first before the physical space. Their travel-lit mag is all DIY, really well designed and written and is apparently selling enough copies to keep things going.

They are also well aware of the online markets for very well curated books and art - and that this is how a lot of these boutique sort of art spaces actually pay the bills for a physical location.

I also have pretty clearly stated "You know this is an absolutely horrible business model, yeah?" and the response is basically "Yep. Fuck business, make art. And maybe a little business. Mostly art."

I'm rooting for them, have been supporting them voraciously through word of mouth and networking, and I've been even supporting them by playing/DJing there for free. I'm at the head of the line when they're ready to hire staff. I've already offered to volunteer as a very cheap contractor. They're that good.
posted by loquacious at 1:50 PM on October 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


Good on you for doing what you can. Lost causes can still be worth it if the damage isn't too bad. And who knows?
posted by aleph at 1:56 PM on October 21, 2018


Before opening the books/cafe/performance space of your dreams, reading and meditating on Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop should be mandatory because if you think that won't be you...
posted by betweenthebars at 2:40 PM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think this is one of the huge pitfalls of going into business with friends.

Maybe I’m a huge cynic but I would NEVER go into business with a friend. The one time I even talked about it with my bff I could feel the relationship start to strain. It just seems like a very solid plan to end a friendship. Everyone has different work ethics and priorities and energy levels and commitment levels and abilities... and when the food on your table is a direct result of your friend deciding to show up that day and give it their all, and vice versa. I just can’t imagine most friendships withstanding that stress. I’m sure people figure out ways to make it work. But I’d do just about anything to avoid that situation.
posted by greermahoney at 7:26 PM on October 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


So help me God; I biked by this place a hundred+ times; and on the front sidewalk every time.
Something about his storefront window must not have been right. There must have been nothing even in the windows - nothing about coffee inside; tea inside; or again; nothing at all about books art works comics or anything inside. Coffee smells. I can not remember even a whiff of coffee as much as I can not remember this place ever being there, nor can I remember any sidewalk art decorations or 'lookee here; coffee books and have a nice sit for a while and Art too!' stuff that makes for doors being opened.
Pikes Peak Community Foundation grant funded? Rent in COS was low until the last few years; I am sadly picturing this place as a hang out zone for him and his buddies; not as any sort of a business. I mean, a $10,000 grant; and still no traction?
Bar-K across the street is an extremely hip and new cocktail and beer bar. Packed and full; weird blend of old new modern hip local and aged beyond its mere two or three years. Three young men made this place out of nothing.
The frame shop in the same strip mall has been around for ages, the Kings Chef diner has been across the street for decades, the Baby Cotton Bottoms specialty baby store seems to have been a permanent fixture too. The ever dirty appearing and having *nowhere* and *nothing* to lock a bike to forever there Oscar's bar is on the same street too. Local Wells Fargo is at the end of the block. There is zero absence of walk and drive traffic. How this place couldn't even tread water in what was (then) a pretty low rent period of time - mystery abounds.

Sad for the authors experience; but something about his place, IDK. He must have near worked hard to not make it happen.

Comparing it to the "Ghost Ship" is another strange item. I'm trying to picture Newt Gingrich and Obama having a blunt and an espresso. Not happening. Delusional.
Nobody here likes the negative; but this guy somehow managed to miss; and seems to be blaming everybody else; up to and including a $10,000 grant (which very likely paid the lease for the first 12 - 15 months in 2014-15) for his place not happening.
posted by Afghan Stan at 10:36 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Maybe there’s a community foundation that will be your fiscal sponsor for a 5-10% fee on all your donations.

...I co-founded and help run a 501(c)(3) that has happily been a fiscal sponsor for several groups. We've never charged a fee, and have helped get other nonprofits off the ground. I know several other nonprofits who do the same. Ask around more. Network with administrators of other nonprofits.

If you’re smart, and can afford it, you should avoid this trap and hire a lawyer right away to file your 501c3 application with the IRS before you get started.

...Jesus H. Christ I broke out in hives reading this sentence. HIRE a lawyer to file a 501(c)(3)??? We read up on how to do it, did it ourselves, and had a few sets of eyeballs on it to give it a good looking-over. It took awhile, but we didn't blow a substantial portion of our startup money filing paperwork that anyone with a college degree should be able to figure out.

Fun? Not so much.

...Can confirm.

...[Y]ou’re going to have to have a board of some kind. And guess who’s going to want to serve on your board? Most likely: your friends! Your well-meaning poet and artist friends who know as little, or less, than you do about serving on a board or running a non-profit. Guess who’s probably not going to want to serve on your board? People with money!

Once again, if you want to be active in the nonprofit community, network in the nonprofit community. Want to meet people with money who like to serve on boards and fundraise for nonprofits? Go to other nonprofits' fundraisers. Most people who are on a board are on more than one board.

Your fiscal sponsor organization kicks you out with almost no warning, so you have to immediately file for your own 501c3 non-profit status or face closure...The two-year honeymoon is over.

HIVES I AM BREAKING OUT IN! TWO YEARS WENT BY BEFORE THEY FILED??? A fiscal partner isn't supposed to be a permanent solution! You start that fucking (c)(3) paperwork on DAY ONE and finish it up in a few weeks. Jeebus. You want to have a nonprofit? Fill out the nonprofit goddamn paperwork! GAH!

While all this is happening, the bookstore runs out of money, but the employee doesn’t tell anyone for over a month.


BASKETBALL-SIZED HIVES! You, the nonprofit administrator, check the bank account balance like twice a week or more. WTF business owner doesn't know what the money situation is for over a month?

tl;dr Do lots and lots of research on what you're getting into before starting a nonprofit, and network with people in the business and nonprofit community and ask them about best practices and worst practices
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:19 AM on October 22, 2018 [5 favorites]


I thought the article was amazing and brutal, just like the other Metafilter restaurant one.

The combo of crummy volunteers, lack of heavy financial sense/backing, and disinterest in administration kills most creative projects. "How the hell is this actually going to run?" needs to be the focus from day one. This seems like a good hanging out hobby turned into a slow trainwreck.

Most media about starting or running a business focuses on boy wonders in garages using their parents' money to smooth over these issues. I wish journalists would start asking things like how did you pay bills and live indoors during the first 2-4 years of Facebook, Snapchat, etc.

The fact that they don't do this in Forbes, Business Insider, and other media is ridiculous.
posted by Freecola at 9:57 AM on October 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


>. I wish journalists would start asking things like how did you pay bills and live indoors during the first 2-4 years of Facebook, Snapchat, etc.

I very much agree. The articles I hate on “I threw in my corporate job for a million dollar business.” That turns out to be furniture imports or something and the million bucks is revenue over 4 years.
posted by bystander at 1:56 AM on October 23, 2018


Some years ago, before Borders, well before Amazon, I bought a bookstore. I did a month of research on expenses. The rent increase schedule was vicious. But I had lots of bookselling experience, including a bit of bookkeeping, and I did a pro forma profit & loss spreadsheet that was quite useful and it looked like I could make a living. That year, everybody and their cousin opened bookstores in my area. I had a great location. Existing business meant that publishers shipped to me; after a year I gave them my info, but I had what amounted to a line of credit and that was a help. I borrowed the money from my mom and from the seller, who really wanted out.

There was drama - an employee had planned to buy the store and changed her mind, deciding to open a new store. She was one of the cool kids, the art-y crowd liked her store better. That felt unpleasant, but I am good at business and I survived and grew. Her store, with a poor location, closed. I had good books, as many as I could cram in. I had good staff. I worked my tail off. Pre-Internet marketing was a non-trivial task.

I sold the store. The new owner kept it alive and healthy for years until Amazon killed it. I still occasionally hear someone mention it as having been a special place in my town.

The writer had a cool idea but didn't have facts or common sense or the ability to run a business. It's unfortunate. I've watched a nifty, cool business with real potential die because the owner didn't have business sense. It's a shame that the writer didn't look for the positive lessons, along with the ugly lessons. Having employees sucks. They will resent you, many will steal, I'm confident none of my staff stole from me, but I've seen it happen a lot in retail. Dealing with banks and landlords, etc., as a young woman was very difficult. But it was overall a great experience. I feel like I earned an MBA, but I didn't get the framed document.
posted by theora55 at 9:10 AM on October 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


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