I'm about to restart a desktop publishing business after its owner and only employee (my friend) died suddenly almost 3.5 months ago. The business caters to hobbyists and sells a very unique set of reference books that aren't available from any other source.

When it comes to business practices, I'm not a complete idiot in this subject as I do have a B.A. in Economics. BUT, my marketing knowledge is very poor. For instance, during the first month or two, should I be pushing to sell the existing inventory, or will the inventory sell itself as buyers learn the business has come back to life? I am top-heavy with inventory at the moment and would like to clear out as much as possible...with the increased demand for these items, I don't see any need to reduce prices right away. Unfortunately, I'm battling a decreasing time value in these books since they are published once per year (in March).

In essence what I'm asking is this: If you're the consumer in this situation, what sales pitch would encourage you to buy some books right away? What I'm worried about is people blowing off the current releases and waiting until March 2007 for the next release date, which would leave me with thousands of dollars in unsalable inventory.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Time keeps on slipping into the future. A March annual publication M A M J J A is about halfway thru it's cycle. When did the former ownerr cut prices in the past. Check records or family etc...

How about offering express shipping if it's not too expensive....use the fact that the business has changed hands or untimely death...put a spin on it.
This can be a tough call but getting 50-85% is better than getting zero. You can offer a deal for this publication and next years publication in a package price. This way you get 2 sales maybe at 90% or what ever.

Keep posting and come back--many people post then don't come back and miss good ideas--some are mine. LOL

Since it's hobby related I'd post on the hobby forums that although your friend passed away you have taken over the business. Make it less of a sales pitch and more friendly. See how this does for 30 days then think about discounting the product.

perhaps you should advertise in a magazine that caters
to the particular hobby... or buy a mailing list that does
the same.

sorry to hear about your friend, and best wishes for the
new biz.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions you provided. Your tidbits of information have got me thinking about things I never considered before. I'll try to update you all in a few weeks about what is happening.

The project is pretty simple really, we just need you to call from a list we provide you with (all local businesses, so you should be able to talk to the owners or managers easy). The publication is a local booklet, you might get something like it at your home now. It has some articles and other entertainment pieces in it and ads from local businesses. The commission can ad up to be quite alot being as we are aiming for 20 pages of ads, and the commission is $50 per ad the min you would make if $1000 if you sign up all full page ads. The time frame is pretty lax as we would like to have it done by the end of August or the first weeks of September so you have some time. We ask that you would try to close the deals on the phone but we completely understand if the client wants to meet with someone and we will meet anyone who asks and you will still be paid commission for those sales. Now for the nitty gritty

Commissions scale:

Full page $50 per ad
Half page $40 per ad
Quarter page 30 per ad
Front cover 75
Center fold 100

Target:

Local businesses: shops, restaurants, people of trades (contractors, plumbers.....) real estate agents and so on
you should be able to always get the owner on the phone or get to a decision maker easily

Also we have some other projects we would love to have a company like yours take on where the commission is much higher, between 10k-60k as it is corporate level advertising with multi year long contracts, so i would love to get you on that too. Also we are planning on publishing many more booklets so if you do well on this project there is a future and we will probably need your services atleast every month for this publication. This is really a simple project, we just do not have the time to call as we are busy with another publication that we have to have done by the 20th so that is taking up a large portion of our time and resources