Today is the 2 year anniversary of the opening of Secret Headquarters.

It's been a long journey, and, God willing, it will be much, much longer.

I started a long meandering post about the way the store, customers, and the world has changed in the past 2 years, but I deleted it in favor of this message:

Thank you.

To all of the family and friends who have supported and encouraged me to get this business off the ground and financially viable, thank you.

To all of the customers that have and still do patronize this store, thank you.

To the Henchmen and Minions who have worked here, thank you.

To all of the suppliers, publishers, delivery people, and distributors, (even Diamond!), thank you.

To all of the writers, artists, designers, playtesters, inkers, letterers, and other folks creating the stuff we sell here, thank you.

To my wife, who has put up with more crap about the store than even I can believe, thank you.

To God, without whom none of this would be possible, thank you.

Now, what can I help you find today?

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Now playing: The Clash - The Guns Of Brixton (WOXY Vintage [32k aac+])
via FoxyTunes   

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Now playing: Built To Spill - Untrustable (WOXY Vintage [32k aac+])
via FoxyTunes    

Here's the skinny.

Upside:

Sales are going up steadily.
Our customer base grows weekly.
I've got billing terms with Diamond and Alliance now, so our cash flow has freed up a bit.
We're dangerously close to being profitable!
(And that includes taking home a paycheck for myself!)

Downside:

I am falling behind on some of my basic paperwork, and my overall workload is high enough that it looks like I won't be able to continue posting on this blog very much longer. I do still spend some time over at the Captain Comics message boards, posting occasionally about the store (but mostly just making bad jokes). There are a few posts over there that I'll probably repost over here on the ol' blog from time to time.

Once we get to the point that I can have some additional help in the store more often, I'll take a look at blogging regularly again.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading all along! I hope that the few of you out there who are considering opening your own store have gotten some insight into the process.

Check back every so often, though. You never know when I might show up with some interesting tidbit...

WOW! I was totally blown away by FCBD! The turnout was better than I had expected back in February when I ordered the comics, but not as big and unmanageable as I feared after seeing the article in the paper. It was our best day ever for sales, by almost 20%, and the number of new customers was huge! If only a fraction of these people return, I'll be happy.

I'll post more later this week (or next...); I've still got a ton of post-FCBD stuff to do!

I don't have a lot of time to post this week, but here's the FCBD article in the Tallahassee Democrat. The person in the corner is me! (The picture in the print edition is bigger, better, and features me and a little Spider-Man on my shoulders (Fiona Grace in costume), and takes up most of the page! Stop by the store Saturday if you can!

Now with more smiley action!*

So, the Anime convention on the 7th was awesome! I did a ton of business, just short of the store's best day ever. The store itself had a slow day compared to a normal Saturday, but combined it was a huge day for us. I also had a lot of fun at the con. I got to talk to a lot of weirdos, I mean, um, nice people. The con organizers have told me that there were more than 200 visitors on Saturday. That may not seem like a lot, but this was a tiny convention, and attendance was higher than they expected. Next year they are going to need a bigger space to fit everyone. I'll be there!

The Monday afterward had 2 major things happen. First, about a dozen new people came into the store because they saw us at the con. Second, our back issue sale started. Thanks to the con sales being entered into the register last week, the back issue sale, and a really good new comics day on Wednesday, we had our best week ever. By a lot. Last week we did nearly double our previous best week! We actually did more business last week (even not including the convention sales) than we did in December!



This week has been fairly slow, but I'm no longer worried about sales. I was even able to write myself a check earlier in the week! Woo-hoo! Income at last!

Yesterday I had an odd set of circumstances. First, UPS lost one of my Diamond boxes. I waited around for about 15 minutes to see if it turned up, but it was a no-show. Interestingly, the box missing was the one with the COD tag on it, so I don't have to pay for this week's shipment until the box is delivered. I got to the store and set up the table for processing the shipment, and Terrell (my one employee) called and told me he was sick and couldn't come in to help with the shipment. I did all of the work myself, including pulling comics for the subscribers. Thankfully, the only regular comic book that was (presumably) in the missing box was Battlestar Galactica, which has no subscribers in my store currently. I got it all out, and pulled for subscribers, before opening, so everything was okay.

It was eventually discovered that my missing box had been mis-routed to Colorado, so James, could you pick it up for me? It'll be redelivered next week (allegedly on Monday).

One fun thing that's happened a lot lately is that every time I log onto MySpace, I immediately get hal a dozen or so befriendification requests, all from new profiles with pictures of attractive women. Do a lot of people fall for this friend-spamming? Are people that desperate to get their friend counts up? There's a sociology paper in there somewhere, methinks.


* I've borrowed many of the smilies from the Captain Comics forums.  (Don't worry Legionnaires; I'm hosting them on Photobucket. No bandwidth theft here!)

I just wanted to drop a quick line to let everyone know that the convention on Saturday went really, really well. All my expectations were exceeded!

Also, in case you don't check out the store website every day, we're having:

Secret Headquarters

Comics and Games for Everyone!

 

First-ever

BACK

ISSUE

BLOWOUT

Sale!

April 9-14 2007

 

Back issue purchases of:

$1 to $24.99 gets you 20% off

$25 to $49.99 gets you 25% off

$50 to $99.99 gets you 35% off

$100 or more gets you 45% off!

 

Includes all back issues, except "$.50 each/3 for a dollar" comics.

Just in case you wanted to drop by...


More later in the week!

This weekend (today through Sunday, although I wonder how many people will be there on Easter...) is the Japanese Animation Club of Tallahassee's annual FreeCon at FSU. There will be anime screenings, video and tabletop gaming, some musical performances, panels, and of course, some dealers.

I will be one of those dealers! This is my first-ever foray into a convention as anything other than an attendee. I'm only going to be in the dealer's room tomorrow, so I'm working furiously to get ready today. Much like the festival last December, and actually, the whole "opening a comics and games store" experience, I find it to be both exhilerating and terrifying. I'm expecting to make a couple of hundred dollars tomorrow, but hoping for a couple of thousand!

Ahhhh!

Ha! I'm sure that was one of the least believeable blog April Fool's Day jokes out there, but I felt I had to at least make some kind of token effort.

As to all the people who have asked for my advice, I give you this list of useful links, many of which helped me in formulating my business plan:

ComicsPRO.org -The Comics Professional Retailer Organization is the only national group only open to comics retailers. They have a mentorship program, and a membership fee.

Free Comic Book Day website This year, FCBD is May 5th. There's a lot of info here about past years' events, as well as promotional ideas for this year.

ICV2.com This website has lots of information and analysis about sales of comics and related products.

Tales From the Database Chuck Rozanski is the founder of Mile High Comics. He's generally pessimistic about new stores opening up, IMHO, but there is some good info hidden in his columns, especially his "How to Open  your Own Comics Retail Store", Parts 1-9.

The Comic Book Industry Alliance This organization is open to anyone who makes their living from comics: retailers, artists, writers, journalists, etc.

Tilting At Windmills, the first 30 columns A sometimes brutally honest look at the industry, through the eyes of Brian Hibbs, a long-time comics retailer. He's got a book with these, and the next 70, in it. Also check out his online columns. Some of them have yet to be added to the index, so you'll have to search Newsarama for those.

The comic book database Just that, an online database of comics.

The Comics Spectator A very occasional online collection of essays by  Mel Thompson. There's some other good stuff on his site too.

Retailer Forum at Comicon.com This site isn't too active lately, but there are 14 pages of threads about comics retailing. Make sure to choose "show all topics" and start reading with the oldest.

The Small Business Administration's Business Plan site It's got a lot of tools for writing a, duh, business plan.

SCORE Template Gallery SCORE is the Service Corps of Retired Executives. They have lots of advice, and a business mentor program. This link brings you to their templates for parts of your business plan. These templates were mucho help to me.

Comics in the Classroom This site is more for teachers, to help them use comics as teaching tools, but there's good info for retailers who are looking to do outreach, too.

There ya go! I'll post soon, with some "State of the Store" info later this week. (Hint: It's good news.)

I've had several people who are interested in opening their own comic book stores send me messages asking for advice. These people are all crazy. In fact, all of you are crazy. Leave me alone. All of you should spend your time doing more important things, anyway. Why are you wasting my time? Don't you have friends? Family? Isn't there anyone that can tell you what the date is?