All College bookstore management companies, here's your recipe for destroying your business and creating market failure;
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Allowing colleges to take advantage of your duopoly by pitting one company against another in a bid situation. If no one bids then changes will occur.
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Bidding 13% in commission to schools that were making 3-5% on their own.
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Convincing yourselves that you will discover a way to turn a profit in a shrinking margin business by paying 12-15%. You are just kicking an empty can down the street.
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Not having the business sense to no bid a deal when the college issues an RFP that makes absolutely no business sense and asking for the moon.
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Looking at a competitor as the enemy instead of an friend that helps you maintain logical pricing in the market place. Study how Visa and MasterCard created the rates not the card holders.
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Paying such a high commission and then being stupid enough to finance a renovation of a property you don't own that will put you out to bid as the contract is expiring just as you are about to make a profit.
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Forgetting that happy employees create happy customers.
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Not being willing to play hard ball with publishers who need you to sell their products.
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Allowing faculty to place adoptions so late that it places financial risk on you but no penalty to the school.
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And last but not least- not realizing that the industry is changing and therefore you must diversity to survive.
Good luck and God bless.