I'm serious. I know all those forms inside and out, including how to start and finish your balances correctly for the year in the form 1065, how to divide the assets properly (including setting up the "capital accounts") for the W-4's, and how to incorporate those figures both into the 1065 and your 1040, then there's the schedule C.... and where to put the amortization figures correctly so in your "real" job 1040 form you can get some earned income credit instead of adding a royalty tax to your overall total.

Its about 20 pages of forms and takes about an evening, but he holay a la verga we'll have a good time ese.

UPDATE!

Thought you guys would be interested in this:

A guy over at FanboyRadio's Message board provided me with a VERY interesting link to a couple of articles about ordering and the results of his order. I printed them out for future reference:

It looks like you're going ahead, and that you're excited, and that's great. But...
trying to have someone else run your new store is probably going to be a problem. No one has motivation like the owner, no one can fix problems or make changes or react to bad decisions like the owner. Absentee ownership can be a problem even with established shops, I think it might be well-nigh impossible for a brand new one. You are really going to need to be there alot, so that you can really see what's going on and what needs to be done.

I've run my shop now for 25 years, and the only time I've run into problems is when I tried to hire someone to run the store FOR me...I called it my 'lord of the manor' phase. I really wanted to check in when I felt like it, say, "How we doing?" Count the money, hang out and chat, read a few comics and leave. Didn't work out that way. Trying to keep your day job and establish a store at the same time is going to be tough. Can you take a break from your job for a few months?

As long as I'm here...I think you're being incredibly optimistic to think you'll establish a new store, (even if it's an old store, you still will need to make changes to fit you and that will cost), pay someone else to run it, AND pay back borrowed money. It will cost you more than you think...add 20% to you estimates, expect your sales to be 20% less, and get ready to possibly LOSE money for awhile...after all, many stores do. The previous owner may have legitimate reasons for selling out, but I've always operated under the assumption that no one closes a truly profitable store (couldn't he just do what you're planning and hire someone to run it? He could if he was making lots of money.)

Try to avoid advertising too much (or at all) at first. Don't go out and get fancy stationary, or new POS computers, or whatever. Get the lay of the land first, and spend as little on extra's as possible. You're going to need that money for bills and, I'm betting, you are going to want to improve your inventory. Don't make the mistake of thinking that back issues are where the money is...in fact, I think you are almost always better off buying trade paperbacks instead. Underestimate your comic orders at first; you can always reorder, but Diamond doesn't let you cancel orders.

Buy Brian Hibbes' TILTING AT WINDMILLS. Also, the best book I've read on small business, GROWING A BUSINESS, by Hawkins. (sic?)

You are going to be a very small shop at first. I'm relatively small, and I'm a bigger than what you're saying. I think it's going to be hard for you to actually earn a profit for awhile. If I'm wrong, great. I don't want to discourage you, but no one was giving you a reality check, so here's a mild one.

I completely understand what you are saying and believe me, that is probably my biggest worry. I'm taking off 2 weeks to be there every day for the first 2 weeks after we "take over", but I know that's probably not NEAR enough time. The best I'm going to probably be able to do is 2 days out of the week.

I've actually considered going to 4 day work weeks at my regular job, so I can be there 3 days. I'll just have to see how it works out.


And I am grateful for the time you took to throw that out there, Duncan. I'll take any other advice you have to offer, man.

Do you have a back-up plan if your main employee falls tru? I know you don't think he will, but what if? In a month? In six months? Staffing is to me the BIGGEST problem with running an absentee store or a second store, for that matter.

Again, you are going to be a really small store. Comic stores CAN be profitale, but at the size you're outlining, almost all the gross profits after overhead is going to the employee.
Are you going to want to grow? Add inventory? Well, you can't add inventory without it being an investment. If you try to grow through cash-flow, there won't be much left over.

What I've noticed time after time with other stores is that they seem to be able to do 2 out of 3 things. 1) Overhead and upkeep, 2) buying new inventory, 3) replacing sold inventory. You can tell what 2 of those they chose by the look of the store. Does it look like the store is getting run down? Then they chose 2 and 3. Does is seem like they never get anything new? Then they chose 1 and 3? Does it seem like they never replace the good stuff? Then they chose 1 and 2.

Trying to squeeze all 3 things out of at best a 50% (with your size of store) margin is pretty difficult. Those 3 options leave out things like growing new inventory, buying new fixtures and equipment, or putting money aside for a rainy day.

But even if you buy at 50%, chances your overall operating margin, including things like unsold material, discounts and sales, mistakes, theft and damage, inventory growth within cash-flow, etc. will be more like 40% if you're good. (If they previous owner was making 55% margins at your size he was a genius, especially since you are only half the size you need to be to get even 52.5 buying margins.) So your break-even point is probably higher than you are going to make at current sales. I'm going to guess at your expenses, so tell me if I'm way off:

Full-time employee at minimum wage, 40 hrs. with taxes (here in Oregon it's 7.25, I'll guess 6.00?) Say, 1200.00 a month.
Rent, 800.00
Phone 100.00
Electric 50.00
Insur. 75.00
Office 100.00
garbage/heat/etc. 100.00

Lets say 2500.00 in FIXED EXPENSES. This is REALLY lowballing it, it's probably higher with odd expenses, and this doesn't include debt payment, payment to yourself, or voluntary but necessary expenses like advertising. I don't know, your rent may be lower or higher, your employee costs lower or higher etc. FIXED EXPENSES divided by PROFIT MARGIN = BREAK-EVEN.

So, you take your 2500.00 and divide by 40% profit margin, and you need 6250.00 a month to BREAK-EVEN. You've told us that the store is currently doing 6666.66 or so; not a lot of margin for error, or improvement, or paying yourself. Meanwhile, you are probably going to want to IMPROVE your store, it's look, it's inventory, it's equipment, and there will be little or no money left for that unless you invest; any debt payments you must add to your FIXED EXPENSES.

I love being a store owner, and I like the challenge, but believe me, it is a challenge.

Duncan,
you've had me thinking and rethinking about this all night.

Your estimations are damn near balls on. Give or take on Rent, Office, etc., my projected FIXED EXPENSES are just under $2500. But that's also including paying back the loan.

Our main goal is to at least gain back the initial 10k we invested within the first year.

But you're absolutely right, it's going to be a challenge.

I started smaller than you, but it was easier 23 years ago. I bought an existing business after working there for 3 years; when I did the same type figuring, I realized that I would need to do about double what the store was currently doing. But because I'd seen how the (absentee) owners had dropped the ball, I knew the potential was there. And it was. So I'd also be looking at potential; the best case scenario is that the current owners were leaving money on the table, while at the same time not driving away customers. Chances are good that if they are willing to sell that they had lost some of their enthusiasm a while back, so just having a new and enthusiastic owner will sometimes spur sales. Good luck, and keep us informed.

I think you sould buy it.
I thing you will do well.
but the is one thing what are the overheads of the shop.
Ask him about that ok.