Hi guys.  Adam here.  I know it’s been awhile since a post and I apologize, but I’ve got a great post for today and some exciting news!  Summer is upon us and it’s time to start getting out there and finding some books to sell.  I always hated scouting in the winter because of the gloomy weather but the spring and summer time was pretty fun.  Since I started buying in bulk long ago I haven’t been able to get out and enjoy the weather but financially it was the best decision for me.

In any case, for all of you out book scouting hitting up those yard sales, thrift stores and FOL sales I’ve got an important announcement for you.  Also, for anyone that has decided to reel in books by the ton instead of by the title and buy in bulk I’ve also got something important to share.  The inventory sourcing eBook I’ve been promising forever (sorry!) is finally nearing completion!  It will be available via the email list first starting on Friday, May 20th.  You’re already signed up aren’t you?  I’m finally setting a date so you can hold me accountable.  I could give you some lame excuse at how I was too busy and that I was diligently working on it 24/7 for all this time but that would be a lie.  Family, friends, work, books, eBizControl, a new inventory receiving app I’m working on and life simply trumped the project for awhile.  I have, however, managed to spill my brain into this thing and literally take dozens of hours dumping every source I’ve ever used or have known to be used in this eBook.

I’m very proud of this eBook because it’s not conventional in any way.  I don’t simply give you a spreadsheet and say “Here’s your list of sources now give me your money.”  However you can just give me your money if you really want to.  In all seriousness, I attempt to give you the tools and show you HOW to source books not just WHERE to source books.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to include what I call a ‘”cheat sheet” at the end for all of you to devour if simply want to take it and run.  More importantly though, it’s all about how you should be thinking so you can come out with your own local sources on the fly.  It will spark ideas in your head that you’d never even considered.  I have a unique mind (ask my wife) and I tend to come up with very unconventional methods to accomplish conventional goals.  I share this thinking with you in the eBook.

Enough with the shameless self promotion and whetting your appetite.  I wonder if this whole lack of supply idea really increases demand.  Eh, we’ll see. Just so that you haven’t read this entire post so far without some good information to go on I’ve decided to share a piece of of the eBook with you today.  It’s a section from the beginning basically introducing the topic of sourcing and why it’s important.  I hope you enjoy it.

Sourcing Introduction

Sourcing.  It sounds like such a professional word, doesn’t it?  To me, sourcing goes hand in hand with other business terms like strategy, innovation, logistics and procurement.  However, when you break it down, it’s actually a very easy concept to understand.  At its most basic level, sourcing is simply a process by where you find things.  Forget selling for moment.  The word sourcing simply means where you find people, products, supplies, etc.  It’s a very basic concept and one that I truly want you to understand.

We can take it a step further and explain the term in a more useful manner to define it as “where to find products to sell not even specifically related to our niche of book selling”.  The number of different businesses is about how many types of sourcing you’ll find in the business world.  Manufacturers need to source raw materials to create products.   Distributors need to source manufacturers to find products to sell to large wholesalers.  Wholesalers need to find distributors to get access to products.  Finally, retailers need to find wholesalers to sell products to people like you and me.  It’s a huge chain in which the original raw materials come out of the earth, get morphed into a product, get exchanged hands a few times with an ever-increasing price and finally make it to you and me in the form of our new iPhone, kitchen cleaner or car part.  I’m sure sourcing isn’t a foreign concept to you; after all, you bought this book.  If you didn’t have an idea on what sourcing meant, I doubt you would have given the title a second look.  Let’s take a deeper look into book sourcing now to give you a sense of its importance.

The Importance of Sourcing

As an online bookseller or a merchant in general, if you don’t have a product to sell, what do you have?  I doubt that customers are going to throw money at you because of your good looks.  You have to provide some kind of value for them and for us booksellers, that value is quality books at a competitive cost.  To be a successful online bookseller there are essentially 4 different processes you need to master: sourcing, listing, order fulfillment and customer service.  Each is necessary to the health of your business, but without sourcing, you have nothing to list and the cycle continues on down the line.

If you ever run into a situation where you have limited time to perform more duties that can possibly get done, you’ll need to prioritize.  To give you an idea of the importance of sourcing, picture the following scenario.  Realize that this doesn’t happen every day, but this is a real world example that I personally have had to overcome.  It is critical to know how to prioritize.

<insert eBook content spoiling personal example here>

I don’t want to tell you that this happens everyday because it does not, so don’t get scared about the potential pressure.  I only tell you this story from experience and what you must do to seize an opportunity to grow your business.  It is critical that you understand that sourcing is the #1 most important arrow in your quiver for more sales.

Now that I hope I’ve given you a sense of the importance of sourcing, I would like for you to get a good understanding of how we use sourcing.  To do this, it’s a great idea to paint a picture of where a book comes from and how it ends up in the hands of your lucky Amazon customer.  <insert one of my only sources I get my inventory from here> Unless I’m buying direct from the publisher or from a large retailer like Borders, Barnes and Noble or Amazon where the book is still “fresh”, I’m probably only seeing a small piece of a book’s life…

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It’s great to finally write a post again.  You’ll notice that I’ve had many more guest posts than usual lately.  This is because I’ve been so busy with new book-selling ventures I’ve rarely had time to work on writing posts, continuing to write my inventory sourcing eBook or look into new ways to present great content about selling books online.  I apologize for my lack of presence as of late but unfortunately it looks like the break will be short-lived.

If anyone has a desire to write some guest posts for this blog please send a post my way at questions@sellyourbooksonline.com.  I’d be happy to include a link to your book store or another site you’d like to promote.  Also, I’ve begun casually thinking of bringing on a blog manager to write posts and add content.  This would be a PAID position in a portion of monthly revenue.  If you’re interested in more information about this position, please email me as well.

For this week’s post I wanted to first give an update on me and my business as well as share a few tips that I’ve seen prove to be very beneficial here as of late.  For the huge majority of my inventory I have a source (soon to be revealed in the inventory sourcing eBook) that I’ve depended on for almost 2 years now.  This source provided me with huge quantities of books every month or so and was very dependable.  Due to the regularity that I was receiving books I never looked into other sources.

I got an email a few weeks ago from my main contact that they they’re source for a large chunk of the books had dried up and they no longer had near the quantity that they had.  This news couldn’t have come at a worse time for me.  This was the time when I hadn’t received many books at all and was coming down to the last few gaylords.  It was pretty disheartening to get this email since I had absolutely zero other sources lined up.

Tip #1 – Diversify your sources

If I would have been out scouting for other potential sources this email wouldn’t have been such a blow.  If you put all your eggs in one basket what happens when the basket falls?  Needless to say I was stuck and was forced to begin scouring for another source.  The only good aspect of this situation was that I finally had both garages empty and was able to clean in places that hadn’t been cleaned in years!

Tip #2 – Write all your ideas down immediately

Once I got over the initial shock of a nearly 60% cut in incoming inventory I began looking back through all of the ideas I had recorded in Toodledo.  For anyone not familiar with this product it has been a life-saver for me to keep all my projects, notes and tasks straight.  I’ve gotten into the habit of immediately recording all my thoughts about improving my businesses immediately into my phone.  This has helped me tremendously especially in times like this when I know I had recorded some ideas I had for other book sources.

As I was browsing through all my ideas I immediately set out to contact a few places.  I got a few responses back but nothing of any major interest.  This was until I decided to follow up on an idea that I had acted upon nearly 6 months earlier; a large local thrift store.

Tip #3 – Always get to know people.

When I first started my business I met with a small business advisor at my local Chamber of Commerce for help in what it takes to start a business.  The meeting went pretty well and thought that was the last time I would probably ever see the gentleman that I had met with again.  However, once I got to searching on this thrift store’s local site I immediately found that he was on the board of directors!  Woohoo!  I now have a potential “warm” contact for him to introduce me to whoever is in charge of the books at Goodwill.  To make a long story short, he directed me to the director of operations.  I was then told by this lady that they were actually starting to sell the books themselves.  Doh!  Would you consider this a huge setback or an opportunity?

Tip #4 – Karma is real.  Give and you shall receive.

Since I always like to help other online booksellers I asked a little bit about how they’re processing all those books.  During the conversation she mentioned they were using Monsoon and luck be it this is the application I use as well that I’ve become very accustomed to.  I offered to help in any way that I could since they were just starting and she gladly accepted.  A few emails later I was discussing selling books in a large thrift store warehouse in front of a few computers running Monsoon.  This obviously was not benefiting me at all because she had told me they were pre-scanning all the books.  However, I still enjoyed sharing lessons learned along the way and was expecting nothing in return.

Tip #5 – Take the risk if you’ve done your homework

A few months passed and I thought nothing of the meeting but lo and behold I found out that they were now up and running.  They had gone through 41 gaylords of books already and were looking for a buyer.  The big guys, of course, were chomping at the bit to get them ala Better World Books and Thrift Books but I was being given the opportunity to purchase them as well.  Sweet!  It was cool that the time I had taken to offer a little help was coming back as good karma.  The bad news was that I had to lay down $3,000 for this load.  Whoa!  This would be, by far, the biggest up front investment at once I had ever made in inventory.  However, this load ended up being around 40,000 books.   Knowing that they had been pre-scanned led me to believe I wasn’t going to make big money off of singles but the quantity outweighed the negatives here so I jumped at it.

I ended up shelling out 3,000 big ones in cash and making 4 trips back and forth with a large truck.  I was able to fit them all in my garages and my helpers and I got to work immediately.  I’m now $3,000 poorer but am busting at the seams with books.  To be a successful business owner you have to take risks.  If I refused to spend that kind of money I’d still be struggling to find more books and also know one less person to be able to supply me more books in the future.  Don’t let potential risks set you back.

I am going to try to share more real-world posts like this relating to my business in the future.  Whenever I was first starting out I loved to read personal stories from other like-minded booksellers (and still do).  I think it’s very important to hear different viewpoints on topics and to hear what works and what doesn’t.  If you have any ideas for further topics please let me know in the comments section.  Also, if you’ve liked this post please “Like” this post via the Facebook button.

How I Overcame my Shortage of Inventory [ 8:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (140)

Think to yourself what would be the most lucrative source of inventory you can think of………….are you done yet?    OK, time’s up.  What did you come up with?  Publishers?  Dirt-cheap wholesaler book distributors?  Having Goodwill knock on your door and offer all their donated books to you?  Sounds cool, right?  Imagine how much more productive you’d be if you had those major sources of inventory already in the bag.  You could then concentrate on pricing, streamlining order fulfillment, inventory management and all the other pieces of the process pie that makes up an online book-selling business.

Now come back down from your dream and snap out of it!  A multi-million dollar company such as Goodwill isn’t just going to come to you on their own free will and beg you to buy their books for super-cheap.  American Book Company doesn’t care who you are if you take the huge “risk” by buying 50 copies of an Amazon best seller. Nope.  However, what steps do you think it would take for you to even begin imagining situations like this?

We all have to start somewhere and that somewhere is right now.  Depending on what your goals are for your book business are you taking steps to achieve them?  Sourcing inventory is probably the #1 goal for most booksellers.  Without valuable books to sell your business may soon become a hobby.  It is my goal with this post to show you a real world strategy that I have used successfully in order to find more sources of inventory.

I hate doing tasks in which there may be a faster, more efficient way to get the task done.  I’m a huge fan of David Allen’s GTD methodology and am really into the whole productivity thing.  This attitude was with me about a year ago when I wanted to get a hold of FOL (Friends of the Library) directors in my area.  I had good success with buying the leftovers at a sale in my town and I wanted to replicate that to other libraries around me.  I knew it may be difficult getting email addresses for libraries around me and even if I did no telling how many emails these people get.  I figured my email would just get tossed aside or forgotten.  How was I supposed to stand out?  Remember this old way of communicating called snail mail and using a letter?  Yep, it’s still around and could probably be called a rarity.  That’s an awesome idea to get their attention!

OK, I know how I’m going to contact them to get their attention but I’ve got a few obstacles to overcome here.

1. Where do I find library contact information?
2. How do I find libraries close to me?
3. Do I really have to type up or even write (gasp!) all these letters?
4. How much is this going to cost me?

Not to be deterred I set out to find a way to do this in the easiest, most efficient way possible.  The first task was to find out how to contact these libraries.  I did some research and came across the site publiclibraries.com.  This site was perfect!  It allowed me to click on a state and get every one of the public libraries with the name and address.  Step #1 was complete.  ..on to step #2.

OK, I’ve got a list of all libraries in my state but I’m not driving 10 hours to get some books.  There’s got to be a way to map all these locations to see how close they are to me.  A few clicks and keystrokes later out pops a little site at gmaps.kaeding.name.  Thank you, Google!  Apparently this is some guy’s project and I’m really glad he had decided to succeed.  This little site allows you to put in however many addresses you want and it will automatically plot them with Google maps.  Cool!  Step #2 is in the books..now what?

Step #3 really scared me.  Imagine someone that hasn’t written more than a sticky note in the last few years.  That’s me!  Email, Facebook, IM and texting is the language I speak.  Pen to paper writing is like Latin to me now (a dead language).  However, with my powerful Google Fu I managed to uncover an excellent service that extinguished my fear completely.  Introducing automatic email to snail mail conversion from a company called Postful!

The service is very simple and the price can’t be beat.  For around 98 cents/page I could send out one email and not have to write, pack and mail dozens of letters.  The process couldn’t have been easier.  Postful gives you an email address to send to.  They then convert that into a document, you review it, upload the names and addresses of everyone you want to send to and they then send it out via a snail mail letter.

Here’s my order screen on Postful.  As you can see I emailed out 83 libraries at a cost of $81.18.  I recall I received 8-10 responses back from these libraries and picked up books from 3 of them.  3 out of 83 doesn’t sound too good but at 82 bucks and a relationship with more FOL directors it was well worth the minor cost.

With some out-of-the-box thinking and getting the word out to as many people as possible this is just one of the strategies that you can use to bring in more books and increase sales.

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How to Get the Attention of Major Sources of Inventory [ 5:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (262)

One thing I have learned in my bookselling career is the important of finding new inventory.  I know that this topic is also as important or even more important to other booksellers from the results that I got back from a recent survey of the biggest problems people face.

Many people think that finding new inventory is the toughest part of their business.  I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be.  This was a major concern of mine for the longest time.  I never had a reliable source for the first year that I was in business.

I was thankful for a dozen books here and there that could net me a few hundred bucks.  It was a struggle sometime to go book scouting, driving farther for new stock and frankly just busting my ass.

I had the concept of sourcing all wrong!  That’s right.  I was going to a yard sale and being ecstatic I found a $50 book that I bought for a quarter.  Bad idea.  I would drive 20 miles from a Craigslist wanted ad I’d put up a week earlier to find a lot of books worth a few hundred bucks that I had bought for $25.  Enthusiastic!

Again, what the hell was I thinking?  Does this sound counterintuitive to you?  At the time, I saw nothing wrong with getting books this way.  I was putting in the effort, buying low and selling high.  Whenever an opportunity came up I jumped at the chance to buy cheap books to sell.  What’s wrong with that?

Have you ever heard the saying “you can’t see the forest over the trees”?  Yep, I was an ant in the rain forest staring at the base of a tree and all I could see was bark.  You mean there are OTHER trees like this around me?

I was so busy hitting up yard sales, heading to a dozen different thrift stores, putting up Craigslist want ads and scouring eBay for deals it’s like I was firmly planted on the ground with my nose planted right against the base of a huge oak tree in a national park.

I’ll tell you the big secret to sourcing book inventory. Can you handle the truth? (in my best Jack Nicholson impression)  The truth to finding inventory is not about where it comes from.  It’s about how often you’re able to get it.  Was this the “secret sauce” you were looking for?  Doubtful.

“I mean, everyone knows the more often you get valuable books to sell the more sales you’ll make.  Duh!”  This is true but have you stopped to think about the future?  So you’re planning on relying on bookselling for a living, huh?  Tell me, where are you going to source books from next month or next year?  Uhh. The keyword for this entire post is recurring.

Recurring and reliable sources of inventory is what’s going to separate you from your Grandma figuring out how to turn on the computer and listing her Guideposts collection.  Are you beginning to get the picture yet?  The forest is your business 2 years from now.  It’s 2AM do you know where your books are coming from tomorrow?

Planning on hitting up yard sales every weekend isn’t going to cut it to make it to the next level.  Ever seen a yard sale in the winter?  Do you head over to a local library sale every year?  That’s recurring, right?  Yes and no.  You forgot the reliable part.  Do you have exclusive bookseller access to the books?  You never know, I may just come in there and clean up right from under your nose!  Lack of competition is never guaranteed.  Not reliable.

Here are a few tips to help you find and buy from these inventory sources.

1. Brainstorm some ideas of where potential sources may lie.  Whip up a mindmap or take out a good ol’ sheet of paper and get to writing.   Keep the word “recurring” in your head.  Where can you find books now, wait a few weeks or a few months and find even more books at the same place again?
2. If you do come across an awesome source can you keep up the pace?  Judge your time and storage space before committing to anything.
3. Do you really want recurring inventory?  Sure, you’ll make your business make more money but at what cost?  Weigh your time vs. benefit and decide for yourself just how far you’re willing to go to make more sales.
4. Become people-friendly.  As I’ve harped on in my eBook make friends in the book business or even think wider and make friends with industries that intersect with books.

Don’t think that I’m putting down any source of books.  Some are better than others and sometimes it’s a miracle just to find anything let alone thinking 2 years from now.  If anything, keep this post in the back of your head as you’re out and about.

TAKE ACTION!

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Sit Back, Relax and Watch the Books Roll In [ 4:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (174)