One Month

OK, so I have been really open for a month now.  If you are reading this then I guess you are wondering how it's going.  Here are some fun stats.  No particular order I'll type as I think of them.

17K in purchases
9k from vendors
"retail" value 66K

We had 225 transactions mostly buys but it is changing.  Now many of our days have more pawn than buys.  Our eBay store is up and we made over 500 this week alone.  We had over 4k in pawns and currently have 100% redemption but that will go down next month.  Our income from these pawn is at 1k per month already I hope to be at 3k next month.  Our busiest day of the week is Mondays and we are busiest from 12-2 and from 4-6. 

No major mishaps yet and only one call from the PD about tickets with not enough information.  We only had two buys where I know I paid too much but we are not making the same mistakes so I chalk that up to education costs.

I've learned that employees are not as interested in being a pawnbroker as I am.  When I come across something that I don't know about I go on a research expedition.  It bothers me to not "know" what something is worth.  The questions:

• Why is it rare?
• What is the market for it?
• Can I sell it?

This stuff actually bothers me, and not many others.  Maybe we (pawnbrokers) are a rare breed.  After only a month I know that there are tons of more experienced brokers than me, but not many. 

I try and educate every single customer that comes in why I offer them what I do.  The reaction to it is surprising.  Seems that other Pawn Shops are not nearly as user friendly, that is too bad.  We have many repeat customers already, and our referral program is starting to work very well.

The business plan is still working and the goals of 30 transactions and 50 visitors per day needed are still realistic.  Our record is 28 unique customers in one day. 

The newspaper ad was a complete and total, nuclear winter, bust.  When the saleslady from the paper showed up again I actually laughed her out of the store.  More tuition towards my PHD in Pawnbrokering.  We have an ad coming out soon that will be on the table of the local hot-rod hangout Biff-Burger.  Next week also starts the door hanger campaign.  Reports on those very soon.

Having almost every single customer ask "do you watch Pawn Stars" is getting old.  My boss (the wife) says I should tell them I have a show coming up soon called "porn stars".  I told her to stick with the day job.

I have written in detail about some of the unusual things that come through but I have some winners that I am saving for slow days. 

All in all it has been one of the best months of my life and hope it's the worst one ever.  I have always tried to live my life exactly how I wanted, sometimes I feel good about it, this is one of those times.

I still haven't received any feedback about my ramblings if you have a question let me know.  The website and blog are surprisingly popular.  They will undergo a complete overhaul this month by my longtime fiend Jim Hundley.  We are going to try and make it fun and we hope to include a live video feed from the Pawn Shop.  If you have any ideas now is the time.

I wake up every day wanting to go to work, how about you?

Posted via email from Bigtimspawn's posterous