Wow, things have moved so fast since my last post I barely know where to begin. Its 2.30 am here at the house and I've just been putting the finishing touches to our backlog of web sales from the past month.
Why do I have a backlog you ask?
Well we have moved the shop. The whole kit and kaboodle has been moved from the centre of Cardiff to Whitchurch an outlying suburb of Cardiff. Its been probably the most consistantly stressful and hard going periods I've had since I first opened the shop.
Why did you move?
Well to cut a long story short we could not negotiate a reduction with the landlord on our rent despite a 70 percent downturn in traffic to the arcade due to Europes largest construction site being on our doorstep. We also had been waiting for almost 8 months for a hardship reduction to our Business Rates which was being continuously delayed by the Valuers Office. This combined with our lease coming up for renewal and my relationship with the Landlord reaching breaking point over his botched attempt to auction 350 thousand pounds worth of the shops assets to cover a 20 thousand pound bill made only one option feasible. Moving the shop to a cheaper location and then attempting to consolidate my position and hopefully ride through the financial chaos that I think will be evident over the next twelve to eighteen months.
My Landlord gave me the easy option as well and offered to take back the lease amicably without the need for courts, bailiffs and any other costly but heavy handed methods. He gave me the four days to vacate the premises and take all my stuff with me. He also implicity stated that he would then let the matter lie which in the long term means that any debts associated with the landlord are also going to be waived. Probably because of the bungled auction I assumed but that is another entirely different story. LOL.
Still that gave us the slim chance to find a new place and Haydn stepped up to the plate on that one and after a quick call to the council we found a property in Whitchurch that had been vacant for some time and would be substantially cheaper to rent. To put it in context the Wyndham Arcade used to charge us 16 thousand pounds per annum which would then have VAT added and business rates of 11 Thousand pounds per annum.
The new place has a rent of 2 thousand 8 hundred pounds per annum with 488 pounds per annum business rates. A massive drop in overheads which hopefully will consolidate quickly and enable us to grow and continue to prosper despite the Global Economic Downturn.
Anyway back to the main part of the story. The Move.
We only had realistically two days to vacate the shop as our 5th Anniversary Party was on the Saturday and we would have to make announcements at that event whatever happened. Leaving us Sunday to Tuesday to pack up and leave.
With Haydn having located the place and the council granting us a licence to store the stock at the place until the lease could be finalised our plan of action was in place. At the party that night we announced to all in attendance that we were moving and where we would be going. We then managed to get everything packed and moved although the Landlord at that time graciously granted us a few days extra as it was a massive job.
By the time we had moved the last box to the new shop it was completely full from floor to ceiling with boxed goods, tables and shelving. Our licence said that we would not be allowed to re enter the premises until after the lease was signed so Haydn and I took a week off as we were mentally and physically exhausted by the whole process. I can honestly say that I was very ill for the first four days but by the end of the week I was recharged and ready to go. The council then gave us unofficial permission to begin putting all the shelves up and tidying the interior of the shop up. This we started. Literally a month later on the Saturday morning of 8th November we emptied the last box and opened the doors to customers for the first time. In the 3 working days since over 70 of our standing order customers have returned to us and others have rung and told us they'd be visiting us shortly to sort things out. Its been a mixture of terrifying and hopeful over the past month and I am so glad that things look like they are working out. Not just for me but for Haydn who could have lost his job if things hadn't worked out.
Our plan is simple. At this moment we will be consolidating the shop as it stands. My priority is to get the website fully operational over the next month with all products being relisted and to get as much local advertising around the Whitchurch area and spread the word that we've opened.
In six months time we will then begin investigating the possibilities of moving back close to where we were in Cardiff. We have found a place that would be suitable and the rent is only slightly more than it is in Whitchurch but it would require a lot of investment capital to bring it up to spec. I will have to wait until the current recession is over before I'll realistically be able to raise capital for this though so it has to go on the back burner for the moment. I am calling this phase two. Phase One is now fully operational. Yay!!
FUNNY CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK!
7TH November 2008 10.30 am.
I'm on the phone to the Council. ME : Hello could I speak to Spike Lomas please?
THEM : I'm afraid he's no longer with us.
ME : What do you mean? Has he died?
THEM : No, umm he's just no longer with us. He's retired.
ME : But he sent me a letter giving me todays date as the day we sign the lease.
THEM : Oh well someone else has been given his case file.
ME : Thank god for that I've got the grand Re-Opening tomorrow. I've spent a hundred quid on the invites alone. (nervous laughter) You had me worried there for a minute. Could you put me through to him then?
THEM : Unfortunately no. He's not in the office.
ME : What?! I'm Re-Opening tomorrow. What the hell is going on?
THEM : Well obviously you can't open tomorrow and your licence to occupy the premises has actually ended today. Theres nothing I can do. Maybe you could ring the legal department. I'll ring around the different offices and see if I can get someone to help.
After that I had a series of conversations... I spoke to Llandaf North Councillor who basically managed to rattle enough cages to get a licence for me to open until the lease is signed. More importantly they aren't charging me until its sorted. Every cloud really does have a silver lining. Imagine my heart sinking though when I was initially told I wouldn't be able to open. LOL. End of the world stuff...
This is Kristian Barry Last Survivor Of The Comic Guru Signing Off.
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Saturday 13 September 2008
The Road To Movie Making Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Style!
Hi guys,
We took delivery this week of a consignment of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus which is a complete reprint of Gilbert Sheltons underground classic comics of yesteryear.
Why is that significant I hear you ask? (Well you may not have but I'll tell you anyway. LOL.
Obviously the book is exactly as it says on the tin. A complete set of these classic and very funny strips drawn with some flair by Gilbert Shelton and others. But its also an advert for an upcoming animated Movie which has been in development for the last few years. I remember seeing 15 minutes of the project a couple of years ago at a Bristol Comic Con and it looked wonderful.
If it echoes the comics strips it will be Anarchic, Ribald, Surreal and above all Very Funny!
The film is being produced by Grass Roots Films and in order to celebrate and make the greatest underground comic ever made into a 3d animated style they have come up with some rather unusual ways of financing the film to completion. Go to www.grassrootsthemovie.com and that should take you to a section detailing how they are trying.
I'll boil it down for you though, as I think its a really clever way of seeking funding. This is a worthy project without a doubt. There are three choices. To Donate, to invest or individually name that frame.
They are giving people the opportunity to have their name printed onto 12 individual frames. I myself with be doing that as I think unusual ideas should be celebrated and it is fitting that such a remarkable comic should get such remarkable and inovative in terms of seeking funding. I think films like this will always make their money back. They already have a huge underground following and lets face it if films like American Pie and Epic Movie can be constantly churned out for a profit then this film is a cast iron profit maker.
So go on support this film in any way you can. You can view a section of the completed film here.
We took delivery this week of a consignment of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus which is a complete reprint of Gilbert Sheltons underground classic comics of yesteryear.
Why is that significant I hear you ask? (Well you may not have but I'll tell you anyway. LOL.
Obviously the book is exactly as it says on the tin. A complete set of these classic and very funny strips drawn with some flair by Gilbert Shelton and others. But its also an advert for an upcoming animated Movie which has been in development for the last few years. I remember seeing 15 minutes of the project a couple of years ago at a Bristol Comic Con and it looked wonderful.
If it echoes the comics strips it will be Anarchic, Ribald, Surreal and above all Very Funny!
The film is being produced by Grass Roots Films and in order to celebrate and make the greatest underground comic ever made into a 3d animated style they have come up with some rather unusual ways of financing the film to completion. Go to www.grassrootsthemovie.com and that should take you to a section detailing how they are trying.
I'll boil it down for you though, as I think its a really clever way of seeking funding. This is a worthy project without a doubt. There are three choices. To Donate, to invest or individually name that frame.
They are giving people the opportunity to have their name printed onto 12 individual frames. I myself with be doing that as I think unusual ideas should be celebrated and it is fitting that such a remarkable comic should get such remarkable and inovative in terms of seeking funding. I think films like this will always make their money back. They already have a huge underground following and lets face it if films like American Pie and Epic Movie can be constantly churned out for a profit then this film is a cast iron profit maker.
So go on support this film in any way you can. You can view a section of the completed film here.
Thursday 11 September 2008
My first Comic Guru Blog!
Hello!
This is the first time I've managed to find time to actually put a blog into my profile here. Its also the first time I've ever attempted to write up something like this. Please bear with me.
What I'd like to do here is showcase the comings and goings of my comic shop and let you in on some of the secrets of the trade as well as log things of note. It could be visits from debt collectors or BBC news teams and it should give people reading an accurate portrayal of my business how it runs and the thought processes of myself and Haydn who works here with me.
Names will be changed to protect their privacy or my lack of anything resembling short term memory. It will also protect the innocent. Lets face it what I write here will be subjective but hopefully balanced. If you recognise yourself on here then I'm glad as I hope I'll be accurate and truthful with anything I write. Only you will know who you are however. If anyone has any questions just ask and when I have the time I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability.
First off a little bit of my history. I was born on October 4Th 1971. My earliest encounter with comics was during my first eighteen months of life. I believe my father had been found out in a lie. Possibly involving a local barmaid at which point I was placed in my fathers box of rare comics and proceeded to eat his copy of X Men issue 1. All I can remember with any clarity was the cover picture and the awful flavour of the paper.
I suppose you could say that was my first full TASTE of comics. LOL. Still lots of note happened after that and my parents divorced during the following year in a rather bitter and acrimonious way.
Lets leave out the intervening years for the sake of brevity and move on to 1999 where I was asked by a friend of mine to take over the running of his little market stall comic shop where I got my weekly fix of four colour action.
Steve was a good guy but we had different ideas about where the business should go and ended up with a bitter parting of the ways. I was supposed to have only worked there as a favour for a few weeks while he found someone else but ended up working there for almost three years. I used to be a successful Balloon Modeller and Children's Entertainer which is what I was doing to make money at the time so I worked for Steve for free but I did have my comics and other things off him in lieu of wages. At the time I didn't mind but with hindsight it wasn't the worlds cleverest idea and inevitably led to our eventual falling out.
Anyway after Steve and I parted I spent a year generally moping around with a sense of intense loss. I was also getting less enamoured with entertainment work now that my favourite pastime of Comic Shop geekery was ended. I blamed Steve and with good reason but in the end it didn't work out.
A few of my customers and friends came to me and asked me whether I'd be interested in opening up my own shop. Some even offered support both financially and metaphorically. After discussing it with my brother we decided to go into business together. Him as a silent partner and myself as general manager due to my expertise. Basically I'd taken a small market stall with a turnover of around £100 pounds per week and turned it into a thriving business turning over more than eighty thousand pounds per year in the space of three years. I figured if I could do it for someone else I could do it for myself.
Sadly things didn't work out so well with my brother and he and I parted company when six hundred pounds of initial funding went missing after my father had passed it to him for me. I did receive the two thousand four hundred however and began the process of finding a property making an offer on that property and borrowing Ten Thousand pounds from two very good and very special friends. All that remained for me was to open the shop which I did on October 4Th 2003 which coincidentally was also my 32ND Birthday.
On that day http://www.thecomicguru.co.uk/ went live and the rest is History. Tumultuous and deeply terrifying but definitely history.
Now I sit here on 11Th September 2008 only a month before I celebrate my 37Th Birthday and the shop celebrates its 5Th Anniversary trying to condense what happened over my life into a few brief paragraphs.
I hope I've managed to do just that and I've whetted your appetite about what will happen next. The truth is I don't know what will happen but I promise I'll try and be truthful when I describe things when they happen.
Happy times and places. Comic Guru.
This is the first time I've managed to find time to actually put a blog into my profile here. Its also the first time I've ever attempted to write up something like this. Please bear with me.
What I'd like to do here is showcase the comings and goings of my comic shop and let you in on some of the secrets of the trade as well as log things of note. It could be visits from debt collectors or BBC news teams and it should give people reading an accurate portrayal of my business how it runs and the thought processes of myself and Haydn who works here with me.
Names will be changed to protect their privacy or my lack of anything resembling short term memory. It will also protect the innocent. Lets face it what I write here will be subjective but hopefully balanced. If you recognise yourself on here then I'm glad as I hope I'll be accurate and truthful with anything I write. Only you will know who you are however. If anyone has any questions just ask and when I have the time I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability.
First off a little bit of my history. I was born on October 4Th 1971. My earliest encounter with comics was during my first eighteen months of life. I believe my father had been found out in a lie. Possibly involving a local barmaid at which point I was placed in my fathers box of rare comics and proceeded to eat his copy of X Men issue 1. All I can remember with any clarity was the cover picture and the awful flavour of the paper.
I suppose you could say that was my first full TASTE of comics. LOL. Still lots of note happened after that and my parents divorced during the following year in a rather bitter and acrimonious way.
Lets leave out the intervening years for the sake of brevity and move on to 1999 where I was asked by a friend of mine to take over the running of his little market stall comic shop where I got my weekly fix of four colour action.
Steve was a good guy but we had different ideas about where the business should go and ended up with a bitter parting of the ways. I was supposed to have only worked there as a favour for a few weeks while he found someone else but ended up working there for almost three years. I used to be a successful Balloon Modeller and Children's Entertainer which is what I was doing to make money at the time so I worked for Steve for free but I did have my comics and other things off him in lieu of wages. At the time I didn't mind but with hindsight it wasn't the worlds cleverest idea and inevitably led to our eventual falling out.
Anyway after Steve and I parted I spent a year generally moping around with a sense of intense loss. I was also getting less enamoured with entertainment work now that my favourite pastime of Comic Shop geekery was ended. I blamed Steve and with good reason but in the end it didn't work out.
A few of my customers and friends came to me and asked me whether I'd be interested in opening up my own shop. Some even offered support both financially and metaphorically. After discussing it with my brother we decided to go into business together. Him as a silent partner and myself as general manager due to my expertise. Basically I'd taken a small market stall with a turnover of around £100 pounds per week and turned it into a thriving business turning over more than eighty thousand pounds per year in the space of three years. I figured if I could do it for someone else I could do it for myself.
Sadly things didn't work out so well with my brother and he and I parted company when six hundred pounds of initial funding went missing after my father had passed it to him for me. I did receive the two thousand four hundred however and began the process of finding a property making an offer on that property and borrowing Ten Thousand pounds from two very good and very special friends. All that remained for me was to open the shop which I did on October 4Th 2003 which coincidentally was also my 32ND Birthday.
On that day http://www.thecomicguru.co.uk/ went live and the rest is History. Tumultuous and deeply terrifying but definitely history.
Now I sit here on 11Th September 2008 only a month before I celebrate my 37Th Birthday and the shop celebrates its 5Th Anniversary trying to condense what happened over my life into a few brief paragraphs.
I hope I've managed to do just that and I've whetted your appetite about what will happen next. The truth is I don't know what will happen but I promise I'll try and be truthful when I describe things when they happen.
Happy times and places. Comic Guru.
Monday 25 August 2008
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