Part One: Mentor Interview (quoted)
How did you acquire the skills you need for your job? Through school? On the job? "While I'll never discount the education of school, because all knowledge will eventually help you and I can't begin to list the countless time some otherwise seemingly random fact I picked up in College or Highschool allowed me to make a wise business choice or sell a product, most of this job was learned on the job. A lot of what I do is really socializing and picking up key information to apply to decisions in this industry from that socialization within the industry. To do this job well you pretty much have to do this job and learn from your mistakes." What does it take to be successful in this organization? "I truly believe socialization is key. You talk with publishers and creators to learn about new project, how good they may be, and your make business decisions such as orders and events based on how you assess that information. Then you socialize with customers to find out what they like and want so you can have it on your shelves for them to purchase. That is really the key of it all, because statistics, your interests, or what others shops are doing don't work like a cookie cutter Starbucks store front. Each shop in this rather small industry has a surprisingly unique community and you need to cater to those customers and potential customers with what you know and they want." How important is getting along with other people in your career? "Incredibly. Once again, socialization is key. And if comic/gaming creators or publishers like you? They'll give you more information, better deals, greater access to distribution, and all things you'll need to move forward or make more contacts. On the consumer end it is very key. People don't want to shop at a place where the employees aren't nice or interactive. If they wanted that? They'd stay at home and shop on Amazon. So sometimes, no matter how bad your day is going, you have to put on your upbeat retail or socializing personality and act like the world is wonderful and all you want to do is help everyone around you." Is there anything else you’d like to add or share about your current job or career path? "There is an old adage of 'It's not what you know, but who you know'. It's not wrong, and it is surprisingly more important than you'd think. But the key to it is who you know and what you CAN know by learning from them. Socializing is the key of this industry, and many others, so your network and make connections so that you can always be informed with your finger on the pulse of what is happening. In such a small industry/community that is somehow responsible for billions of dollars annually, you cannot upset the wrong people, and those that survive will always be the ones making the right deals with the right people." Part Two: Internship Journal What questions do you have about your internship? There are a couple of things that I would still love to learn about the industry. I have already learned a lot but would like to sit down with my mentor to get a better idea of the industry. My project focuses more on the business and logistical aspect, how these companies become successful, and I would like to explore that topic a little more. Has anything happened that's worth telling us about? Something that I learned about recently was their system of selling back the comics that they couldn’t sell. My mentor and a couple other comic store owners got together and confronted the distributing companies for the comics. They told the distributors that if they bought back the comics that they couldn’t sell that they would order more initially, taking a greater risk on their part but also getting back a portion of the money that they paid to get the comics. It benefited both sides and now they buy a larger amount and only sell back the ones that are leftover for a fair amount. What new skills are you developing (or will you need to develop) for this internship? I’m hoping to learn a lot about running a business and the logistical/tactical side of things. Since I’m going into marketing in college I would love to learn more about how things are run and what tactics they use to get there. More specifically, what has worked for them marketing and business-wise and what hasn’t; what they have seen in other successful companies and maybe used a similar tactic themselves. How would you compare your experience thus far to what you experienced last year? One of the main differences between this year and last years internship is my project. I wanted to look at a different side of the industry and look at it on a larger scale. Rather than last year when I looked at the smaller side of the industry, how specifically my mentors business worked. This year I plan on studying his business along with tactics he uses that have worked and ones that haven’t, studying the success of business tactics within these companies.
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February 2020
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