Advanced Magic Bakery… Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven… The Magic of the Business
Oh, oh, to show another aspect of the magic of the bakery, I have to talk a few numbers and some pretty easy business terms. So hang on. I promise I will be gentle.
To start a regular store on the corner of any town, it costs a lot before the first customer even walks through the door. Rent, set up of electric, fixtures, money and inventory systems, licenses, often remodeling and then you have to buy your inventory to stock your store. And since it has been 8 years since I started a brick and mortar store, I know I am forgetting a bunch.
Just trust me, it is expensive.
So what does it cost to set up a magic bakery?
Nothing. Zip. Zero. Just nothing.
You need a DBA form in most places for the name of your store (publishing company) and you need to start a banking account so you can then set up free accounts in all the places you will license your books around the world.
And while a local store only has local customers, your magic bakery will have customers from all over the world.
So the basic cost in nothing.
Now, I am going to move into the bakery part where the magic pies are created. In that part of your magic bakery, there you have what are called “set costs” to help you create and bake your pies.
Some set costs are:
- Computers, one for business, one dedicated for writing only.
- Programs (for writing, layout, and design of books and covers)
- Internet
- Misc office expenses
- You might also have some small costs for a web site and/or a Shopify store.
You will also have some small project expenses for each pie, such as art costs.
You bake your own pies, you lay them out with Vellum and do your own covers and the above costs are it.
(Proofing either do yourself by reading it aloud or have a friend read it for typos.)
So compared to any real business opening in a small town on a street corner, your magic bakery has little to no costs. Even the set costs are very low.
It is why writers who start out and learn how to do everything themselves are making a profit (income minus expenses) very quickly, even with only coffee money coming in.
From a person who has started a dozen brick and mortar stores over the years, this really is magic and I am constantly in awe of that.
Coming up, I will talk about how to promote your magic bakery in this new world. And what kinds of upgrades to your magic bakery are worth the time and the money to get even more customers coming in.
Stay tuned…