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book business. Own business: opening a bookstore

Books are our first teachers. Remember how in early childhood you fell asleep reading fairy tales, and in your school and university years, scientific literature was your constant companion. And even now, many are not averse to relaxing by reading the famous works of their favorite authors.

Even despite technological progress and the ability to use e-books and tablets, printed publications do not lose their relevance. No tablet can replace the rustle and smell of fresh pages. Therefore, in today's article, I want to talk about how to open a bookstore. How profitable is this business in modern times.

Business registration

Any type of activity is subject to mandatory registration with the relevant authorities. If you are the sole owner of a bookstore, then it will be easier and more profitable to register as a sole trader. If there are several owners, then a legal entity should be registered, the best option is a limited liability company (LLC).

After registration, you need to select OKVED codes, in your case it is 52.47 “Retail trade in books, magazines, newspapers, stationery and stationery”. Stores up to 150 sq. m. pay a single tax on imputed income.

The rented premises must meet all the requirements. To do this, you should obtain the appropriate permits for activities from the sanitary and fire services.

Is the book business profitable or not?

The demand for books is definitely growing every year. Even modern e-books and tablets are not an alternative for print lovers. Therefore, to the question of whether the book business is profitable, one can definitely answer yes. But as they say, any way of earning is associated with risks, so, of course, no one will give you 100% guarantees of success.

bookstore business plan

Before you start implementing a business idea for opening a bookstore, you should draw up a detailed business plan with calculations. This is necessary in order to analyze the chosen idea of earning.

Profitability is the ratio of the cost of implementing an idea to profit. You can determine the relevance of an idea by analyzing concepts such as demand and competition.

Business payback periods. A bookstore is a fairly promising idea for making money. The payback of such a project directly depends on your entrepreneurial qualities. With a competent approach, a bookstore can pay off in 1-2 years, and in the future, such a business will provide you with a stable income and high profits.

Space rental

A well-chosen store location will provide you with good attendance, and, accordingly, high profits. Therefore, the issue of rented premises, treat responsibly.

Where is the bookstore profitable?

Of course, in crowded places of the city, for example, in large shopping centers, supermarkets. If possible, a bookstore can be opened in the central part of the city by renting a separate room. But as a rule, it makes no sense to open a bookstore in the center, because there is already quite a lot of competition and its regular customers. It is much more profitable to rent a small area in a supermarket or shopping center. Thus, you do not even need to develop a complex advertising campaign to attract the attention of customers, a bright sign with the name of the store will be enough.

Store Format

The most popular among the population are small book stalls with a large assortment of literature, from novels to children's fairy tales. Therefore, as a rule, entrepreneurs opt for a diverse store format, but sometimes, if there is no competition and there is demand, it is possible to open a specialized narrow-profile bookstore. Alternatively, you can open a children's, non-fiction, antique bookstore, second-hand bookstore, or a small bookstore with light entertainment topics.

Range

A well-formed assortment and a successful store location are the main criteria for success in the book business. You need to keep up to date with new products, navigate the preferences of today's readers, and also have up-to-date information about demand and competition in the book business. Only then will your business be successful.

Naturally, there are genres that are always popular, for example, the works of famous classics. There is also a great demand for novels, detective stories, and children's literature.

In addition to books, you can sell related products, such as calendars, newspapers, magazines, themed paintings, and stationery.

Bookstore equipment

For a convenient location of goods, you will need racks, cabinets, showcases. It is very important to correctly arrange the equipment, which should perform several functions, be roomy and at the same time convenient for the comfortable movement of customers around the store.

It is best to give customers free access to literature like a supermarket. This will attract additional customers, because buyers want to consider it in more detail before purchasing a book.

Staff

Experienced and qualified staff in a bookstore is a must. The profit from the book business will directly depend on the work of employees.

Depending on the size of the store, select the number of employees. For a small shop, it is enough to hire two sales assistants to work in shifts. When choosing a candidate for a position, take into account his education, it is advisable to give preference to teachers, or librarians, in general, people who know a lot about literature.

How to open a bookstore from scratch?

How much does it cost to open a bookstore? This question interests many aspiring entrepreneurs. But you won’t get an exact answer, because the cost of a store is determined by many important nuances, such as the price of rent and goods, as well as the level of competition and demand for services.

Money to open a store can be taken from the bank, borrowed from friends, or you can use the gratuitous financial assistance that the state allocates to young entrepreneurs.

Costs and Profits of the Book Business

First of all, it is worth talking about the amount of necessary investments for the implementation of a business idea.

Room rental. Its cost depends on the location of the bookstore, the area and the external condition of the premises. As a rule, you will have to make at least minimal repairs in order to comply with the requirements of the SES and the fire service.
Purchase of goods. Having decided on the assortment, proceed to the purchase of goods. To get started, you need to purchase about 2-5 thousand books. It is most profitable to buy goods directly from publishers, it is much cheaper, especially if you purchase large quantities.
Payment for the work of employees. Salary depends on the region, the cost of work in similar points of sale. If you want to save money, you can at the initial stage work in the store yourself as a sales assistant.

Profit

Your profit will depend on competition and demand. We have already mentioned the relevance and popularity of printed publications above. Despite the advent of e-books, people still willingly buy printed editions in the old fashioned way. As for competition, this factor must be carefully studied here, the successful location of the store is everything.

A bookstore is a very troublesome and, as many believe, irrelevant occupation for doing business. But in vain! Right now, the paper book is taking on a new meaning, and more and more people are drawn to this source of emotions and knowledge. A competent construction of a book business will help make it profitable and exciting.

Originality is the foundation of the modern bookstore

When starting a bookstore, remember in today's flow of information and social networks, you must be original:

Do not rule out that there are libraries for reading in the dark where you can borrow a book absolutely free of charge for your own needs, therefore - you should have more interesting things than just reading rooms filled with books.
The product range should be diverse: fantasy, classics, comics, educational materials, and psychology - everything that is interesting and necessary for readers.
It is good if there is an organized place to get acquainted with books. In the world of e-books, you need to create a particularly attractive and cozy place that you want to visit more than once.
The sale of “near-book” products is also not excluded: notebooks, magazines, souvenirs, holiday layouts and postcards.

Documents required to open a bookstore

First you need to register as an individual entrepreneur or, if a group of people is involved in opening a store, then it is better to make a limited liability company. Taxation with a quadrature of up to 150 meters is best to choose UTII (), calculated from the area of \u200b\u200bthe trading place. But you can use and - it all depends on personal preferences and the calculation of the estimated budget.

If you want to open a store that is not related to a shopping center or department store - a separate one, then you will need permission from the sanitary and epidemiological station and the fire inspectorate.

It is also worth noting that subsidies are allocated for business development in many cities, programs for young start-up entrepreneurs are especially relevant. Find out about such a program at the administration or employment center, and prepare a well-thought-out business plan that should distinguish your idea from the usual type of warehouse bookstores.

This question is very sensitive for any "bookish" businessman. High traffic is the key to the success of the store, since books are not bought every day, and cash desks are especially needed here.

Unfortunately, rent "eats up" catastrophic amounts for book circulation, so ideally - try to "reserve" a place when building a large residential building in a densely populated block "under the foundation" or when building a shopping center:

You save yourself from paying huge amounts of rent (the average area for a bookstore is 50 square meters) and thereby leave room for a good one, and the monthly payment will drop to the level of utility bills.
Store location: Best in the city center, next to the university or any major educational institutions, on the corner of the main streets.
Do not skimp not only on the interior design of the institution, but also on the outside. Here it will be great to pay attention to European or Asian design options. They attract people at first sight and differ from our stores - in taste, a personal "zest", which is visible from the other end of the street.

The sale of books in our country almost completely disappeared in the early 2000s, and at the moment there is no sharp rise. But the development of this direction is now beginning to revive, because, as it turned out, people in our country love to read, and not everyone can read e-books. Statistics show that every fifth inhabitant of an average Russian city likes to read paper books and buys them regularly.

Therefore, to open a book business, one must live and work in a city with a population of at least 250,000 people. It is in this case that the business will develop and bring a stable income. If there are fewer residents in your city, then try to cover nearby settlements, that is, you will have to create a chain of stores. It is more difficult, but guarantees you a profit.

Starting to create a book business should only be for those entrepreneurs who know literature, understand works, authors, can beautifully tell a summary of the book, can understand what interests a person and advise him something. For those who are fond of reading and collecting books, this activity is very suitable. A business based on what you love always develops easier. But to this knowledge we must add commitment, internal consistency and commercial literacy. These qualities can be developed in oneself, acquired in the process of work. Therefore, after writing a business plan, you can get down to business and actively learn and consult.

This is not just a warning. All bookworms belong to the category of creative people, so it is difficult for them to competently organize themselves and organize others. Focus on the business as a whole, connect your thinking with the business component and your love of literature. Only then will it be possible to conduct a profitable competent business.

Start-up capital

This type of business does not require a lot of start-up capital, but it should be there nonetheless. Let's see what it consists of. The first is the lease of the premises. Choose a place for yourself that will be located in a place with a large human flow, that is, where there is high traffic. Or even inside those places. It can be shopping centers, markets, central streets of the city. It is also good to have bookstores near large educational centers, universities, schools, children's entertainment centers. In a word, you are interested in the places where your potential customers are.

A room is taken for rent, consisting of a large room for books, where clients will watch them. You also need a small warehouse and a service room, it is best if these are internal rooms without windows. But the hall, on the contrary, should have large windows, which will also be showcases. For them, you can order large posters with advertising images, or you can come up with beautiful display shelves and exhibit new items and the most interesting books. Look for several such premises and compare prices. And in this matter, it is far from the cheapest one to choose, the best places in passable areas are always expensive, but the return on the store will be much greater.

The second item of expenditure is the purchase of commercial equipment for the bookroom. You need shelves of different formats, widths, heights. Pick up modular shelves so that you can put them in a room of any size, using all the space. The modules can be installed both against the walls and in the middle of the hall, creating cross-shaped bookcases, square, even in the shape of a star. This will greatly save space and increase usable area. Be sure to display everything first on a scale sketch to have a realistic idea of the number of modules needed and the space that will be left for visitors. For them, you need to create a comfortable atmosphere and they should not push each other near the shelves.

Many bookstores with a large area arrange reading spaces between the shelves. This is great for boosting sales. Each buyer can calmly pick up a book and start reading it at the table. This will help him to navigate correctly and buy the right book.

At first glance, it may seem that such customers may quickly recognize that they do not need this book, and sales will generally decline. This is a completely wrong view. The buyer who buys the book he likes will be most satisfied with it. And the degree of satisfaction will be much higher than if he bought three books, but two of them would be useless to him. This means that he will have high loyalty to your store, and he will come to you again and again. It turns into a regular customer, which, according to the sales funnel, is much more valuable than a “one-time” customer. Consequently, reading areas will significantly increase your profits, so you will need to buy two or three beautiful tables and chairs. After that, you will also need to purchase a reception, where the cash desk will be located.

Next - make a beautiful and noticeable sign. By then, you should have come up with a name for your store that reflects the meaning of your trade. The sign must contain both literal and artistic elements, so hire a designer to make a company logo. This will also be an expense item, add it to the business plan and increase the starting capital by this amount.

Many entrepreneurs decide whether expensive sign lighting is needed or not. See what kind of audience are you waiting for? Are these people free during the day or working? Based on this data, you will determine until what time your store will be open. If up to 17-18 hours, then the backlight in the first stages is not needed. If before 20-21 hours, then you need to install it.

The next stage of expenses is the purchase of books. Plan what assortment you want to sell. We will talk about the choice below, at the moment you need to figure out how much money you are willing to spend on buying books. To do this, you must first find a supplier and find out his prices. You will sell with your trade margin, it is determined in the range from 10 to 30 percent. These are all the expenses that you will face, the sum of them will be your starting capital.

Types of books, assortment

If you conduct a sociological study before determining the assortment, then your business will develop much more actively. Find out the percentage of your future buyers by age, social status and interests. For the elderly, it will be necessary to purchase popular detective stories, classical literature, guides to the garden, garden, cooking, tear-off calendars, and health literature. For middle age - romance novels, collections of humor, educational literature, for example, on business, marketing, psychology, sociology, parenting, etc. Various horoscopes, needlework books, and housekeeping guides also diverge well.

There must be children's literature for all age categories - from 0 to 2 years, from 2 to 5, preparatory to school and children's fiction. For schoolchildren, you should not take books with works on the literature program. It is better to take additional literature and teaching aids. In addition, it is necessary to make a purchase of textbooks for all classes, a variety of notebooks and manuals. Just first go through the schools and ask what programs children are taught in and order these particular textbooks.

And do not forget about entertaining books, these are scanwords, crosswords, children's coloring books, gift booklets, postcards. You can also offer customers stationery, notebooks, pens, pencils and much more.

Additional services

In the bookstore, you can hold various events that will become an element of promoting your books. These are children's holidays with quizzes on the knowledge of literary characters, theatrical competitions with scenes from books that will tell about the plot of the work, and children can read the denouement on their own by buying a book in a store.

You can arrange a musical and literary salon for adult art lovers in your bookstore. Invite local actors to read scenes from books, musicians to showcase the best works of famous classical authors, poets to read their own poetry and poems from famous poets to help sell their books.

It is very good if you manage to organize a table of orders and delivery of books to order. People will be able to get the coveted book, and you will not have to spend your money on pre-purchasing a whole lot. If you have the opportunity to create an electronic version of your store, then you should definitely do it. Place there photos of books and brief annotations to them. You can also specify a cost. With an electronic order, you can deliver books to the customer's home. It all depends on your investments in the creation of the site model and its implementation, on the power of the platform and many technical factors. You personally only need to create a detailed description of what you want to see on it, and transfer this document to the executing programmer.

Recruitment

At first, you will work with clients on your own, meet them, send them to the right shelves, talk about what else they would be good to buy, to complete the study of the topic. Hire two or three students who will later stand in the hall as consultants. Let them first look, then start helping you, and then start working on their own. It is good for such sellers to assign a percentage of the books they sold, if you figure out how to record who bought what and on the advice of which consultant. All employees in your store should love books, understand them, and read a lot. Only in this case they will be able to convince customers of the need to buy a particular book.

E.Shchugoreva

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Many predict that soon printed publications will simply become unnecessary. But despite the constant and rapid development of technology, books are still in demand.

And today, many are interested in questions about how to open a bookstore? What documents will be needed? How profitable can such trading become?

How to open a bookstore? Advantages and disadvantages

Books, especially when it comes to teaching aids, are a fairly popular commodity. Therefore, the book business, with the right approach, can become a truly profitable business. But in order to bring it to a decent level, you have to work hard.

Naturally, such trade has its advantages. To begin with, it should be noted that books are a commodity that has practically no expiration date (at least, fiction). On the other hand, textbooks with today's frequent changes in curricula may simply become unclaimed. Therefore, the store owner will have to follow the constant changes and news in education.

Some publishers offer a deferred payment service - the owner orders a batch of books and pays for them only after the sale. This is beneficial because it does not require additional costs for the purchase of goods. Take an interest in the scheme of work of popular publishing houses.

A bookstore business plan should take into account all possible nuances, from the choice of premises to the assortment and customer service.

What documents are needed?

Naturally, your own business needs to be properly designed. And if you are interested in the question of how to open a bookstore, then you should know that in most cases such enterprises are registered with the tax service as an LLC (Limited Liability Company).

In addition, you will need permits from the inspection of the sanitary and epidemiological service and the fire service. You can get a license to trade in the city administration. This is what the main package of documents looks like, which will allow you to become the owner of your own bookstore.

Where is the best place to place?

Of course, the question of where is the best place to open a bookstore is extremely important, since the location of the enterprise will largely determine its attendance.

Connoisseurs and experienced businessmen say that the most profitable will be a crowded shopping center, a lively area of the city with a vibrant social life. You can also consider opening a store near large educational institutions, such as universities. But in such cases, the main emphasis should be on scientific and educational literature.

Optimal bookstore design

Yes, the interior decoration and decoration of the place where various publications are sold is also of considerable importance. After all, there are probably at least a few similar establishments in your city, and you need to stand out with something, to be better.

Therefore, pay special attention to repairs - it is advisable to decorate the premises in soothing pastel colors. And don't forget about good lighting, because many clients will want to at least read the content or read the abstract.

The bookstore business plan should also include the cost of the necessary furniture. The cash desk is best positioned so that it does not interfere with customers moving and looking around.

Shelves should be comfortable and not too high - the buyer should easily get a book even from the top shelf. And don't forget decorations such as baskets, antique decorations and other little things that will give your place the right style and mood.

Be sure to arrange books by genre (for example, textbooks and fiction should be placed separately). For greater convenience, arrange special plates, indicating the genre of publications located on a particular shelf, so it will be much easier for customers to navigate.

It is worth equipping a reading corner in the store with tables, chairs or sofas. So customers will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the selected books in a relaxed atmosphere and understand whether they really need them. Some owners who built a book business from scratch even installed vending machines on the premises.

What books to sell?

Before opening a store, you need to study the market and demand. Naturally, in order to earn the favor of customers, you need to provide them with a large selection. Every bookstore should sell masterpieces of classical literature, modern fiction novels, scientific and teaching aids. Children's fiction and educational literature is especially popular. You can also sell school textbooks, notebooks and stationery.

As already mentioned, the store owner should keep an eye on changes in the education program - have new textbooks appear in your store as soon as possible. In addition, pay attention to new items on the market - books by popular authors are in great demand, so they can bring good income.

The book business may have some other features as well. For example, you can sell comics or some magazines (in particular, scientific ones). You can make a separate showcase for displaying rare editions, old antique books, etc. - there will also be buyers for this product. But of course, you will have to spend some time buying old editions.

Some businessmen order special sociological studies, which make it possible to understand what kind of books the buyer wants to see in the store. If students-sociologists are hired for this purpose, then the cost of monitoring will not be so high.

By the way, you can order special packages with the logo and name of your store. And since printed publications are often bought as a gift, it will be just fine if your establishment offers special gift wrappings and cards.

or how to open a competitive bookstore.

Some newly opened businesses are doomed from their very opening - their days are numbered. Yes, you yourself saw it - going into the newly opened ridiculous beauty salon, coffee shop, boutique, you already understand - these fuckers will close in six months. And these psychos will last a year.

By the way, people have the same thoughts about businesses that are not opened in Russia. Only there it does not entail such sad consequences - well, the business closed, well, it didn’t work out.

Exactly the same wave of skepticism was caused by the following event among the British - the repurchase by a private owner of the old bookstore Harvard Book Store,

This shop, which welcomed "bookworms" and bibliophiles of all types, was breathing its last, as culture is breathing all over the world.

Non-chain bookstores around the world have long been unprofitable, this is archaism. Opening just a bookstore is an example of naive optimism.

However, Jeff Myerson ( Jeff Mayersohn), the new owner of the Harvard Book Store, is not afraid of youngsters with e-readers downloading books and other consumer goods from Amazon.

Yes, the digital format of modern reading, it would seem, killed the good old bookstore “around the corner”. Moreover! Bookshops in Europe also suffer this humiliation. Attention! Customers walk into a bookstore and seem to act like decent, intelligent bookstore “goers”. They walk along the shelves with an important air, sniff and leaf through books, admire, tremblingly pick up one vending book and go ... no, not to the cashier! They take out their smartphone and place an order for the book they just liked online in the online store! No, well, aren't they animals?

This video YouTube shows in a parodic manner - how it happens in modern bookstores.

It looks as if the buyers went into your store, saw a good product they needed and would call your competitors directly from your store to buy from them - what they saw from you.

And then the new owner of the old Harvard Book Store made an intuitive discovery! He thought: why not imagine the situation - on the contrary? Could it be that wide consumer access to digitized books (books in electronic form) will save bookstores? It turned out it could.

In the middle of the Harvard Book Store is now the Espresso Book Machine, an espresso book machine. She creates a book before the eyes of the consumer - pumping out material from digital content - compiles, changes the design, creates collages, and finally, simply prints out the finished text for you.

She can print more than five million titles of books, including Google Books.

Customers can order a book for themselves either directly in the store or online.

You can walk into the Harvard Book Store and ask the bookstore clerk to “find” you a rare edition or a book that hasn't been out of print for a long time. In four minutes, the book downloaded from the Internet will be in your hands - hot!

For those who live nearby, the store delivers books ordered online directly to their homes in a very environmentally friendly transport: a kind of "pedicab" from the Metroped company.

The new owner of the bookstore holds up to 300 various promotions per year on the basis of his store. That is, almost every day there is some kind of master class in the store, a meeting of readers with a writer, a drawing of prizes, and so on ...

Even if a person does not buy a book, he should be interested in just going to a bookstore. This is the policy of the Harvard Book Store. (He'll buy it anyway!) By the way, this is how the Reader is brought up. Yes, this is how not only the reader is brought up - the target audience of the bookstore, this is how a loyal client is brought up in general. Do not come to buy our goods - come - we will entertain you. At least you'll learn the way to our office and understand that people don't bite here!