The Story

This week, I’m going to change the style up a little bit to teach an important lesson.  I’m tired of the dry how to do this, how to do that, don’t do this instructional posts on how in succeed in your online book-selling business.  Let’s immerse ourselves in the life of an ordinary American consumer for a few minutes and see how the decisions that are made in this fictious story can be a strong lesson for building a successful book-selling business or any successful business for that matter.

Meet Alice.  Alice represents your run-of-the-mill, ordinary working a 9-5 job Monday through Friday kind of girl.  She’s an administrative assistant in a successful lawyer firm, single, 28, living in a one bedroom apartment and, for the most part, is happy with her life and her dog Sparky.  She’s content with her ordinary life, but always has a nagging feeling that she wants something more, something bigger, something sustaining that will allow her to have fulfillment in life, work hard (on her own terms), take modest vacations and to build a life that will sustain her until she decides to “retire”.

On her lunch hour, she’s always dreaming up new business ideas that may allow her the freedom to work her own hours, envision new products that will help others and ultimately build a highly successful business all on her own.  Alice is an aspiring entrepreneur and dreamer and hopes one day she can get the courage to fulfill her dreams of owning her own business and running the show.

It’s a Friday when Alice hops in her car and starts the half hour drive home.  This route is ingrained in her head since she’s been driving it religiously for over 5 years now, but today she feels the sudden urge to stop by a local gas station to pick up a lottery ticket.  “It’s pay day today and I just went by the bank so I actually have cash.”, thinks Alice while slowly pulling into the lot.  “I know the chances are slim to none but what the hell, it’s only a buck.  I’ll just choose a combination mine and Sparky’s birthdays. 23, 4, 30, 10 and 18″  She knows that the numbers are going to be picked Monday so she better get a ticket  while she can.

Alice buys the ticket gripping it tightly in her hand as she leaves the store. “I never buy lottery tickets and I’m not about to drop this into the dirt!”, she thinks as she gets into her car.

The weekend was great time because she got to spend some time with her mom and dad and play with Sparky but Monday rears it’s ugly head again and she’s back on the usual commute to hear about Joe’s wild weekend with the ladies over coffee or how Mary couldn’t believe what happened on the latest episode of Lost.  The day finally comes to an end after an almost endless supply of paperwork.  She’s beat.

She heads home again to quickly turn on the TV.  “Shit, I forgot the lottery show was on!  I almost forgot I got that ticket!”, she exclaims.  She barely catches the little balls coming out of the chute….23…4….30…10..18.  “What the?”, she ponders.  “Is this really happening?”  She looks at the ticket again and the numbers on the TV and it finally sinks in.  “OH MY GOD!  I WON!  I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! WOOOOOO!”, she shouts as the neighbors peek through their window at her.  Alice has won the $1 million jackpot.

After calling everyone she knows and telling them the news she then heads down to the lottery office and presents the ticket.  She’s ecstatic when they finally come out with one of those huge checks and pose for a picture on the local news.  Alice is flying high.

After all the fanfare is over, the lottery commissioner gets down to business with Alice.  “Alice”, the commissioner says. “How do you want this money disbursed to you?  We have a lump sum option to where we can give you the full $1 million today less any taxes but, since you would be choosing to get it all right now, we will also withhold an additional 30% which would make the total around $525,000…”  Alice interrupts the commission mid-sentence, “YES!  I want that.”  “But you haven’t heard the other 20 year disbursement plan that allows you to forego the 30% reduction and a little cheaper taxes”, the commissioner explains with concern.  “I don’t need to hear it, commissioner, I want my money now, please”, pleads Alice.  The decision has been made.

The commissioner shakes his head and writes out a check for $525,000 to Alice and shakes her hand.  “I hope this was a wise move for you, Alice”, states the commissioner.  “Oh, it is, trust me.”, gushes Alice as she winks at the commissioner.

Alice, barely able to contain herself, furiously accelerates to her bank to present the check.  After a few minutes and some congratulatory comments from the bank tellers that saw her on the news earlier, she gathers her deposit receipt and with that, Alice is $525,000 richer.

As she skips out of the bank flying high as a kite and gets into her car it hits her. “I JUST DEPOSITED $525,000 IN MY ACCOUNT!  I’m rich!”, she yells as neighbor car passengers stare.  “That’s it, I’m going to the mall RIGHT NOW and grabbing that purse, those shoes and OH..MY..GOD, wait a minute I can actually afford those diamond earrings I’ve been drooling over for a year now!  YEEEEEEE!”, she yelps.

As she’s leaving the mall, booty in hand and feeling fabulous she thinks to herself, “I am set for life!  I can just live off the interest and take a little out every month.  Come to think of it..screw my job!  I can’t believe I’m saying that!  SCREW MY JOB!”, she rejoices.

The next day, she promptly walks into her boss’s office and he’s expecting it.  Alice has been all over the news lately.  With a one page resignation notice that was it, Alice is free as a bird and on her own.

Days go by and turn into weeks with Alice meeting young, handsome men that are suddenly interested in her for some reason, traveling with one special man to Thailand, Brazil and the Carribean all in that first jobless year.

Alice’s debit card is her best friend as she swipes, swipes and swipes again until you can’t even read the numbers on her card.  Alice is officially out of control and has totally lost touch with her finances and her previous dream of starting a successful, fulfilling business.  “Oh, yea, that would be so great to start my own business, but I just have so many things I want to do right now.”, Alice thinks.

The downward financial spiral continues until Alice checks her account online one day and notices she only has $1,500.  “This can’t be!”, Alice questions.  “I had $525,000 earning interest for over a year!”  What she didn’t realize was all of her excessive spending habits totally ate any interest that tried to rear it’s head.  Alice wasn’t thinking, she was just spending.

After many tear-filled nights and sulking alone (her vacation traveling boy toy suddenly had broken up with her), Alice came to the realization that she was flat broke, had completely lost her chance of ever starting her dream business and had to ask for her old job back, which, luckily, her boss accepted.

The Business Lesson that Saved My Business

What in the world does this story have to do about business or, in particular, online book-selling?  The strong desire for instant gratification sometimes can cloud our judgement and prevent us from truly succeeding.

Relating to book-selling, in my first few months of selling books on Amazon I had my first $50 sale.  I had paid a nickel for this book at a local GoodWill thrift store and I couldn’t believe it. “I’m rich!”, I instinctively thought to myself.  How did I celebrate with my new-found 40-something dollars after Amazon commission and the disbursement to my checking account?  I took my wife out to dinner and a movie and *poof* no more $50.  I actually continued to do that for a few months thinking that I just need to try to keep selling these $40, $50, $70 books and I could buy that new bigscreen, plasma TV I had been wanting.  I got there and I bought the TV for about $2,500 all with book money.

Do you know what I now have to show for those first few months?  A dusty TV mounted on the wall in my wife and I’s bedroom which rarely ever gets watched, about 15 lbs heavier and a smaller bank account.  In other words..diddly.

It wasn’t until I began to realize that selling books can actually be a business vs. just a hobby that makes some money to buy neat stuff.  I soon realized that even though all my family and friends would scoff, “Books?  How in the world are you going to create a business from books?  We just donate ours.  They’re not worth anything.  You’re crazy.”, that I had sold hundreds of books already and my checking account WAS growing slowly.

I decided I would only take as much money as I needed just to supplement my full-time job and nothing more.  No more “celebration dinners” or TVs.  This is a business and I’m going to run it like one.

A sole proprietorship, paying an accountant $350 for business taxes last year, averaging almost $9,000/month in sales and currently having 4 people work for me while I write this, I believe the business is supporting itself and it’s only been a little over 2 years!

I still have struggles from time to time when sales are down because of the expenses that are needed to support these kinds of sales numbers but I work mostly just on the weekends listing books and the occasional FBA shipment.  No more rifling through books at FOL sales, no more scanning thousands of books at a time, no more constant worry where I’m getting more books.  It’s all becoming automatic.

To finally finish this record-long post, I believe one of the most important lessons that I learned in this business was the ability to delay gratification for the greater good.  Alice never got to start her business because she was too busy gratifying herself with stuff.  I didn’t start actually putting money back into the business until I stopped frivously spending.

I now believe, even after my post discussing quitting book-selling awhile back that illustrates the down times in business, that things are turning around and the fact that I was able to delay gratification is finally coming back around.

If you sell a book, save the profits.  If you’re goal is to create a business, put it back into postage, mailers, a computer of whatever you believe will help your business grow.  You will not be sorry.

- Adam