Starting from scratch... How to organize and keep records?

[oldiebutagoodie]

This summer I sold out all inventory because of a big move. I’m resettled and now have access to an amazing building to startover selling books and do it right this time. 

My last book store took up my entire upstairs and consisted of about 3,000 books.  It was a disorganized mess and nightmare as I grew too fast and didn’t really know how to do it right. 

I didn’t use SKU numbers and kept poor records. But I was full time and seemed to manage it all somehow. 

This time I’d like to organize the inventory as it comes in and do things right from the start. 

Id like to find a software that will help keep track of inventory and free up some wasted time. Any recommendations? 

I’m confused where to start. 

How do I organize my books on the shelves? 

I prefer to go by genre. But then what?  Do I number them and just place them on the shelves in the order listed? 

What does your stock room look like and how do you use SKU as a bookseller? 

I’ll have an area for books unlisted, then a separate area for listed. 

This building is a dream come true for me, however I don’t want it to turn into a nightmare because of my poor organizational skills. 

Any advice on starting out right from the start? If you had to do it over again how would you begin? 

Thanks for for any advice. 

As stated before I’m not a newbie as a bookseller.. just not very business savvy I guess. Before I just jumped in with both feet and realized I was in over my head a bit.   I’m considering taking a small business entrepreneur class if I can find one. 

[taylor_memorial]

The only thing I will TELL you what to do is this: DON'T PUT STICKERS ON YOUR BOOKS. They will deface them in time. Bad habit to get into.

How you organize them? 

Bookthink organizes them by SKU and his system is based on chronology. Today is 11/16/18 so his first book listed today will be 1116180001. This will work if your shelves are large enough to shelve oversized books next to MMPB.
Or you can use that and have segregated shelves for books of a similar size.
That way to pick you go to the right place and find the book.
And you have a built in head start on culls and price drops because everything is in chronological order.

Alphabetical by author is another way that offers organization and ease of discovery.  This can be modified by segregating fiction and non fiction if you choose to do so.

The trick is maintenance. If I were organized, I'd spend an hour a day re-working the books to keep them maintained in the manner I use. Because as you sell stuff, holes open up and you need to keep space for new stock.

You don't mention if you sell on multiple venues and if you do, if you've chosen an inventory control program.

I think if I did that, NOW, I'd use the SKU method, with shelf tags to tell me where I'm at on any given shelf, and let the inventory control program generate the SKU.

How I do it? Chaos, sheer chaos. With box lots, small lots and single books grouped as I offer them. I tend to get books in a lump because much of my inventory is donations from estates and readers. We'll get a couple hundred Star Trek novels, for example. So those are all shelved together as they get pictured, because pictures come first.

So I have a pile of 3 Investigators in one place.

Of course, right now, I'm selling with two newly replaced hips (June and October) so moving around too much is not in the cards. I have plans. Maybe I'll follow through.


Hope this helps.

[taylor_memorial]

One other thing: if you haven't considered an inventory control program, please do.

Biblio has one which will broadcast and cull over up to 5 sites, I think. This will keep you in SKU numbers, and somewhat under control with books on multiple venues. You don't mention whether your building will be open to the public: if so, you need to decide if your online inventory will be offered to the public.

And if so, you will need to integrate cash sales with your inventory control program.

[oldiebutagoodie]

Wow, thank you so much for your help.  

Yes, although I have not sold on multiple venues in the past I am looking into it at this time.  

I think I might go with the chronological order with SKU to keep it organized.  So far that does seem to be the most sensible to me.  I have not built shelves yet so I’m still considering on what sizes I want.  Likely I’ll have shelves for paperbacks and oversized books with the majority for regular sized books. 

This building is too remote for a brick and mortar store. 

Im still looking into how to keep track of all this inventory on my computer as I never tried that before. I know it will ease the pains of tax time and give me the ability to make better business decisions. A discipline I’ll have to integrate into my routine I guess. 

Lots to get done yet but I’m anxious to get it all up and going soon.  Very excited. 

[shakhammer8u4s]

Bookseller databases:

Homebase is free from ABE

Art of Books:  http://www.theartofbooks.com//

Booktrakker:  https://www.booktrakker.com/

Bookhound:  https://www.bibliopolis.com/bookhound

They all get the job done, each has a slightly different way of doing it.  I chose Booktrakker b/c the developer will walk you through how to use it over the phone and I wanted that, whereas Art of Books will do it via email.  Bookhound is free with a bibliopolis site (my site is hosted there) and I intend to move there eventually.  I have friends who use each of the above, and each is happy with their choice.

[taylor_memorial]

I think the decision of what software to use will have something to do with where you decide to sell. Amazon is often ignored by some of the software outfits--at least it was when I did that.  We moved, I downsized. Maybe I'll upsize again, but realistically I'm getting old enough where I'd rather not work that hard.

I used the Art of Books, and paid for it. One of the things it allowed me to do was create a pallette of buttons that would be descriptive phrases so I could create a solid description in little more than the same time the penny sellers inserted the standard language.  FPN = First printing (Numberline). with the space after the period, Just an example.

I built shelves here: I decided one shelf at the bottom would have an 11 3/4" space and the rest would be 9" for HC books and trade paperbacks. I handle MMPB by putting them in plastic fruit trays. They fold up flat when unused, have handles for stacking, and spaces for labels. I bought them from a local grocer who deals in "day old" exclusively.  They are everywhere, and usually returned for deposit by the stores.

The cardboard trays that berry boxes are shipped in work equally well and hold up pretty well but after a while the glue dries out.

Plan your space well. If you are opening to the public, you need room in the aisles for two big people to pass without dancing cheek to check. Our FOL has 42" aisles and on sale days it is very tightly packed with bodies.  Of course lighting will have some control over the placement of shelving.  Anchor them to the walls and freestanders need to be securely anchored to the floor so they don't fall over.

I think I'd segregate mm paperbacks from the rest of the trade in a public space as well.

[taylor_memorial]

As for tax records and such, I'm a minimalist. 

I don't obsess with the monthly statement from eBay.

Every venue I used allowed me to download the year's history on January 1 of the next year, into a spread sheet that had more information than I could ever want; but they all had a column for State in the shipping group of data and sorting the spread sheet pages by State got me everything in Ohio. Hiding all the useless (to me at that time) columns got me total cost and fees--the only pertinent information to tax filings.

Since Ohio has differing sales tax by county, I transfer the few Ohio purchases to another page that I built to calculate the taxes and separate the total into State and County (because I have to file that way). And then I transfer that to the online form (the only way I can comply).

For acquisitions, I save pdf's of all checks, and my bank sends me credit card statements with a year end synopsis broken down by group and alphabetized by vendor.

Because I consign, I take those items which are consignments on a monthly basis and enter a small item descriptor and a few numbers (selling price and shipping add on if applicable)  into a calculator spread sheet which deducts all fees and costs and spits out the consignor's share.

I'm still pretty good with spread sheets and can help you build one or maybe do the work for you on a paid basis.

[bionicear]

Back in I think it was 2002 when I first started I purchased a prgram call Auction Wizard 2000. This program does quite a lot including allowing you to create listings on your computer and upload them all at once, downloads your sales and fees, automates sending feedback, uploads your pictures, creates sales records, inventory records, and also will act as a database for your stock. If you're interested I suggest you check out their website (you can Google Auction Wizard 2000.) I use this program to create listings instead of the eBay seller template.

As for actually keeping track of the physical books, I have about 1.000 books in inventory at any one time. They fit on five large bookcases in my office. Each bookcase has a letter id (A, B, C, etc) and each shelf has a number so the first shelf on bookcase A is A1 and so on. The Auction Wizard database has a location field so when I list a new book I find an empty spot on a shelf and then enter the number into my database. So the most I have to search for any book is one shelf of the bookcase. I also place a removeable post-it note on the first page of the book with the date I listed the book.  I periodically go through the shelves and based on the book's date either cull or change the price. This system, along with the Auction Wizard 2000 program has worked well for me for 16 years.