Eat In
It is a fact of life that people need to eat. And when you own
your own business, you work late hours. So you have a few choices for
eating. You can order delivery food, you can get takeout or you can bring
your own lunch. And if you are a new comic store or one on a budget (which
should be any store), then you need to think about how much money you spend on
eating out or delivery.
In the early days of the comic store, I was bad about bringing food. I would close the store for a half hour and go get some lunch. The problem with this is there were potential customers lost as well as alot of money being spent on take out food. And the damage it does to your health is a whole other story. So after doing this for a few years, I decided it was time to save time and money. I went out and bought a mini fridge and a microwave. I put them in the back of the store, where customers didn't see them and brought my lunch. I found it was alot cheaper and healthier to bring food as well as drinks. If you go to a convenience store and buy a bottle of water or pop, you will pay a buck or more. Go to a whole sale club and you can get water for less than twenty cents a bottle (I buy 36 count cases of water at BJ's for under $6.00). Factor this over a year and you have some serious savings.
And if you work alone or only have one employee, you can keep the store open and both of you at the store. The time you spend driving there, waiting in line at a fast food restaurant and then driving back is wasted time. It can be spent helping customers, putting comics away or other jobs. So you save time, money, gas and wear and tear on your vehicle. And you will be healthier as well! Not bad for a few hundred dollar investment!
