How to Start a Company Selling & Bartering College Textbooks
College students spend thousands of dollars each year to purchase textbooks for their classes. Starting a company selling and bartering college textbooks can tap into this lucrative market by offering the texts students need to excel in school. Because students can already buy college textbooks at their campus bookstore or online, you will need to devise ways to make frequenting your business more attractive than going the traditional book-buying route.
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Things You'll Need
- Business license
- Liability insurance
- Tax identification number
- College textbooks
- Table
- Donation box
- Online retail account
- Website
- Copiers
- Printers
- Couches
- Coffee bar
- Marketing materials
Instructions
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Starting Up
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1
Visit bookstores and libraries for local college campuses to learn what courses are traditionally offered each semester, including lists of required reading. Drive around town to identify bookstores that may already be serving the college student population. Browse their shelves, observing their book presentation and interaction with customers.
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Apply for business licenses and permits. At the minimum, you will need a business license, tax identification number, liability insurance and a retail license. If you plan to sell and barter college textbooks online with out-of-state customers, you will need to apply for appropriate licensing.
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3
Contact nearby colleges and ask to set up a temporary table for bartering and selling college textbooks during the beginning and end of the semester. Make the deal sound more attractive by offering to hire college students to staff the booth, and donate a portion of proceeds to the college's student fund. Your table can also include a donation box, where college students can donate old textbooks for needy students. This doesn't require much organization; students can browse through offerings and remove the free books at their leisure.
Expanding
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Set up accounts with major online retail sites such as eBay. This expands your college textbook sales and bartering opportunities to include students not living in the area. Establishing relationships with online buyers through existing retail sites helps transition them to your business website as they grow to trust your product and customer service.
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Hire a web designer to build your college textbook website, equipped with shopping capabilities so that students can purchase or barter directly from you. Include customer testimonials so that students can see that you've built a reliable track record. Publish a list of colleges from which students have successfully sold or bartered their textbooks.
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Rent or buy a storefront location near college campuses in your area. The closer the better, so location is important -- students may come to consider your textbook bookstore an extension of their campus. Offer high-power copy machines and printers so students can (legally) access and download online text resources required from professors. Free wireless Internet, comfortable couches and a coffee bar make the place an enticing college hangout.
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Tips & Warnings
Market your business by distributing bookmarks, guitar picks and stickers printed with your physical address and web address. Choose a funny, catchy or ironic logo and slogan; college kids appreciate a sense of humor.
Be honest with descriptions of book condition for online sales; if books unexpectedly arrive in poor condition without prior notification to students, then you'll lose credibility fast.
References
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