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How to start a store with no money


00:00:08hi I’m Emma Carmichael and welcome to

00:00:11another edition of ask Evan in today’s

00:00:13video I’m going to answer question from

00:00:15one my reader Santosh who was asking

00:00:17about how to start a book store without

00:00:19any money

00:00:19and one of my advice so he wrote in

00:00:21asking dear M and I want to start my own

00:00:23book shop but I don’t have any capital

00:00:25how should I approach and generate the

00:00:27amount please guide me Santosh so

00:00:29Santosh you can potentially go and get

00:00:31investors for this I think it’s going to

00:00:33be really challenging for a bookshop you

00:00:36know if you have really good personal

00:00:37line of credit you can’t talk to the

00:00:38banks otherwise it’s not going to be an

00:00:40opportunity they would look at and for

00:00:42angel investors you might find the right

00:00:44person to invest but usually angels are

00:00:47looking for opportunities where they can

00:00:49earn a much higher return on their

00:00:51capital than a bookshop they want to see

00:00:54higher growth type of companies and it’s

00:00:56a lot harder because you don’t have

00:00:58anything set up right it’s just an idea

00:01:00at this point so where a lot of

00:01:02entrepreneurs make a mistake especially

00:01:03not getting into retail operations that

00:01:05they’re setting up stores or cafes or

00:01:07restaurants you burn through a lot of

00:01:10money and setting up that operation and

00:01:12a lot of times it doesn’t work out and

00:01:14you’ve maybe eliminated your life

00:01:16savings you’ve upset your investors and

00:01:19so what I always encourage entrepreneurs

00:01:21to do is you can think big but start

00:01:24small and try not to start spending too

00:01:27much money until you’re earning money

00:01:29coming in so it’s a couple ways to do it

00:01:30for your idea and hopefully these can

00:01:33help you guide that business forward so

00:01:35the first thing I would do is instead of

00:01:36launching your own book store to start

00:01:38partner up with other retailers and see

00:01:40if you could have a little book rack

00:01:42within their business and what that does

00:01:45is helps them drive new people into the

00:01:47store you give them a little bit of the

00:01:48profit and you can also see what type of

00:01:51books sell and what types of books don’t

00:01:53sell right so instead of setting up your

00:01:54own book store buying the wrong books

00:01:56and spending all this money you can

00:01:58quickly test with pretty low cost way

00:02:01and it’s a plus for the retailer because

00:02:03they can get new people coming into

00:02:04their store it works better when it’s a

00:02:07smaller retailer small output that

00:02:09you’re working with

00:02:10and hopefully you can set up these types

00:02:12of profit or relationships to test your

00:02:14concept the second thing I would do is

00:02:16try to partner up with other

00:02:17organizations that may not be retail

00:02:19operations but also serve your same

00:02:22target market so if you’re selling

00:02:24religious books partner up with

00:02:26different churches if you’re selling

00:02:28books about coffee partner up with

00:02:30different cafes and again offered to

00:02:32sell books within their establishment

00:02:35give them a little bit of the profit and

00:02:37you’re going to help drive people to

00:02:39learn more about their organization I

00:02:40get how lets you test to see if the

00:02:43model works or not and you not you’re

00:02:45not out a lot of money to set up that

00:02:47type of business the last thing I would

00:02:49do is with retail operations it’s really

00:02:52important to get the location right

00:02:53right you can spend a lot of money

00:02:55sitting up your bookstore but it’s in

00:02:56the wrong location even if you have the

00:02:58right books you’re not going to be able

00:02:59to turn a profit so it’s really good to

00:03:01be able to test different locations to

00:03:03see which one works before you commit a

00:03:06lot of money to set up your bookstore so

00:03:08what I would try to do is set up

00:03:09partnerships with different retailers

00:03:11and different locations to see what

00:03:13works and what doesn’t work you can also

00:03:15have book sale days and set up you know

00:03:18outside different stores just for one

00:03:21time and see if it works see if you’re

00:03:22able to draw people see if it’s the

00:03:24right type of demographic that you want

00:03:25to target or not and it’s a quick way

00:03:27again the test to see if you’re

00:03:29attracting the right people are not

00:03:30before you go out and invest all that

00:03:32money into creating the bookstore but by

00:03:35doing all these little things I partner

00:03:37with different organizations you’re able

00:03:38to test see what works what books people

00:03:40like what location works start building

00:03:42up a list of customers people who like

00:03:45you know you want to buy more from you

00:03:46and you have money that starts to come

00:03:49in which then you can use to go on

00:03:51actually create your book store and if

00:03:53you do decide to go and try to get

00:03:55investment at this point you have some

00:03:57traction you have some momentum you have

00:03:58something behind you more than just an

00:04:01idea and it’ll be a lot easier to go

00:04:03upgrades that happily looking for so I

00:04:05hope that helps Santosh if you guys

00:04:07liked the video please give it a thumbs

00:04:08up below and I’d also love to hear your

00:04:10thoughts and feedback if you want to

00:04:11leave a comment under the video and stay

00:04:13tuned for the next episode

00:04:27you