Image by dannysullivan via FlickrI have been saying for the last six months that starting a company now is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself in 2009. I am going to eat my own dog food on that one, and see what happens. For the last year and a half, I have been selling comic books and books on Amazon.com, but over the Christmas holidays, I have been installing a shopping system on my bookstore web site. There is still a long way to go with this, but the initial software has been installed, Google check out has been set up, and now it is time to build out the categories, then off to start marketing it. I am also going to put some social networking wrapped around it, allow book reviews, and a host of other changes throughout the year.

Last year, 2008, we did almost 7000 dollars worth of sales, the goal for 2009 is to see if I can double that or triple that amount in 2009. The way I am going to do this, and just to see how it works.

Right now, the entire shopping system is sand boxed while I await Google to verify all my banking information. In addition, there are some 2000 comic books waiting for me to input them into the online catalog.

Social networking subsystem – having software that allows the stumbling, digging, and other social bookmarks to be used on a per page basis. The more that people digg or stumble the page, the more traffic the site should be able to get organically.

Use of Facebook – we are going to make a Facebook group and tie into existing Facebook groups that discuss or otherwise have information about comic books.

There will be a way for users to comment on the books that they are reading, purchased or wanting to purchase in general.

The main site is still a blog where we talk about books, but rather than pointing to Amazon, we will be pointing to our own store system, using the blog to talk more in-depth about the book that we are selling, and what we thought of it. The blog will be tied into as many social systems as possible.

We will use an RSS Feed to tie the store into Friend Feed (we will make a separate account just for the store) and discuss the comic books that we are selling.

We are only going to use open source software, nothing that cannot be downloaded free as a way to keep costs under control.

We are not going to sell ads on the site at all; I will need to make at least 200 dollars in profit in the year to pay for the hosting costs of the site.

Integrate into discount systems like Shopzilla and others to make sure that I am getting tagged and compared, as well as integrating the store deeper into Google as a way to popup the product when someone searches on it.

Tie into systems like Ingram as a single book system supplier, so that I can offer the active Ingram titles without having to carry a huge warehouse space. This reduces costs, but allows for a greater selection of titles for potential customers.

I have enjoyed having a bookstore for the past year and a half, and using 2009 to expand the system, and grow the business is a true test of what I think is one of the best times to start or build up a company. Most of the shake down time has been done already, so we know and understand a number of pitfalls when dealing with books. The kindle has not made a dent in the types of books we are selling, if e-book readers ever go color then we might be in trouble later on. Nevertheless, in order to see if 2009 is really going to be the best time to start a business, or expand, there is nothing better than trying it yourself.

Not as glamorous as a technical startup, but with all the systems integration, social networking systems to tie into, support and delivery systems, and then maintaining the main database of books, this is not going to be a small project. While I will not be able to take on Amazon this year, let us see what happens when I try to eat my own dog food on this one.

Tags: startup, business, 2009, best time ever, humor, dog food, book store