Start ups.

I bought Pegasus Books for about 10K forty-two years ago. That would be about 35K in today's dollars. Looking back, I paid too much for the actual inventory but about the right amount for the opportunity. Something like that.

Anyway, it's astonishing to me that anyone can buy or even start up a business the way I did. I had almost no money, I borrowed the first 5K from the bank with a co-sign from my Dad, which I duly paid back. Then paid the other 5K in monthly installments. 

I calculated that I needed to double sales right away in order to make it work. But I'd been managing the store for a year by that time and I understood that the actual demand for product wasn't being fulfilled. So by spending another 2K on inventory, sales took an immediate jump. 

 Rents were cheap back then, creditors were patient. I could use old collections of comics and cards to pay the bills. Barely.

It was a tough slog for the first couple years. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps ain't easy. I finally went up COCC and talked to a business advisor, who told me that I had a "primitive sophistication" (heh) and that I needed more capital to grow. He went with me to the bank and I secured the loan.

Then it was the roller-coaster ride of one bubble after another for the next 15 years. The first two bubbles almost crushed us (sports cards and comics) the next three bubbles saved our ass (beanie babies, pogs, and Pokemon.) I'd learned how to play that game.

But we still carried that debt from the first two crashes and I was paying it down with 40% of Net profits (!) for several years before we got a bit of money from the family to pay it off. It's been more or less--or rather, in comparison to the first 16 years--smooth sailing since. At least at a "minimum wage" level. 

Then, in the last five years, we hit some tipping point and the store actually became profitable. Gee, it only took 37 years...

I don't think the whole thing would be possible today. The amount of money you need to have a starting inventory is much, much higher. Rents are probably double what they should be to mirror actual startup costs. Competition (the internet alone) is far greater. 

Even twenty years ago I'd probably have warned anyone who had stars in their eyes to think twice about opening a business. Now? I'm not sure you're not better off letting someone else lose their shirt.  I mean, it's probably still possible if you have enough capital to survive your mistakes, or if you already have experience, or if you do everything right. (right?) 

I'm glad I did it. I saw Linda surviving one crappy job after another until we opened The Bookmark which she happily ran for 15 years. That was possible because we had the above experience and capital to pull it off.

It's a tougher world these days.