Sharpening the Sword is a regular column by retailer John Riley, who owns Grasshopper's Comics, a 1300-square foot comic and game store in Williston Park, New York.  This week, Riley begins a series on business plans by asking the question, 'Do you really own a business?'

Well, the holiday season is officially underway.  Black Friday is behind us and I hope that yours went well.  Although we're just starting the holiday sales season, I'm going to ask you to jump ahead to January.  In a few weeks this will all be over and we'll be knee-deep in winter and probably have a lot of time on our hands, which is a great opportunity to write, or review and revise your business plan.  The holiday sales season will still be fresh in your memory, and you'll have probably reviewed your 2005 numbers, so you'll have a good vantage point to work from.

As a consultant with the SBA I wrote a lot of business plans for clients.  Starting in January I'll walk you through this process as I review mine again.  There are big changes going on both inside and outside our industry and strategically it's important to determine how we're going to adapt to them over the course of 2006.  For those who haven't noticed, it appears that comic sales are continuing to slide (even taking into account the bolstering effect of the once again ubiquitous variant covers).  The rising cost of housing and fuel alone is going to affect our industry and it's better to plan for it than to react to it.

Between now and January I hope you'll be very busy, but there are a few things we can do to prepare for this planning process.  The first is something that Dave 'Obi Wan' Wallace suggested to me two years ago.  Dave suggested that I spend a good chunk of time just watching my customers before I make decisions on how to change my store.  How do they behave in the store?  Where do they stop and pause?  What do they seem interested in?  What do they just totally ignore?  What direction do they walk in? This is especially true for people who aren't your regular customers.  These are people to whom everything in your store is brand new and a great opportunity to see what is working and what isn't.

The second thing I suggest you do is to ask yourself a relatively simple question: 'Do you own a business?'  I'm sure that sounds like a pretty stupid question to you.  Obviously, we all own our own businesses, right?  But what if we clarify the question a bit?  What if the question were 'Do you own a business or a job?'  Generally speaking, if you have to go to work regularly and can't leave the business running by itself for relatively long periods of time, you actually own a job.   Doctors, lawyers, plumbers, electricians, and many other professionals may own their own business, but obviously their income is directly related to their efforts.  Generally speaking, they make money when they work.  So they actually own their own job, which is perfectly fine as long as that's the goal.

Actually owning a business means the company runs itself independent of you.  You don't have to go to work every day, the company is an entity in and of itself.  Obviously as owner you'll decide the direction the company grows and make most other big decisions, but you don't actually have to go in and work every day.  You've set up a staff that can adequately handle daily operations. 

This concept was really driven home for me when talking to two of my customers after returning from GAMA Trade Show 2003.  I was charged up and had lots of ideas on how to change my store and was asking for their input.  Both were businessmen I respected who owned their own companies.  They both informed me that the main reason they liked shopping at our store was to talk to me, or my manager.  While this was nice to hear on a personal level, I wanted people to come to the store for its own sake, not just for me.  At that point they each said to me, 'Well, basically you own a job'.  And honestly, that's not what I wanted to hear.  But it was definitely true, and is something I've thought about ever since. 

For many of the stores in the country I believe that the store's identity is basically the identity of its owner.  I'm sure your customers have come in and spoken about your competitors.  Think about how many times they start the conversation by saying, 'I went to (store name), and that guy...'  Because they view that guy, as the store, potentially the same way they view you as your store. Now again, this isn't all that horrible if you've got a great reputation.  But what does it say about all the work you put into your business?