In our last article, we showed you how Tony Cicalese of Wegotthebeats first took his business across country and then settled into a happy life as the owner of a brick-and-mortar music store back home in Florida.
Cicalese learned a lot about music and business, especially e-commerce, through those travels, but back at home he still had quite a lot of learning in his future.
Now that he's just opened his second—and much larger—location, he generously shared his lessons and wisdom, all to our benefit. As you'll see, a veteran e-preneur and an experienced retailer can always learn new tricks.
The first policy Cicalese applied for all staff was 'no music snobbery.' He wanted a place where everyone's taste in music was respected
A unique store
Cicalese finds his store to be unique among music shops.
"I had the benefit of visiting nearly every record store in the country before creating my own," he says. "I remembered everything I liked or disliked about all those stores and built mine accordingly."
Always on a budget, Cicalese filled his store with thrift-store items and Craigslist finds, all painted in funky retro colors.
"It's bright, colorful, clean and, most importantly, friendly," he says.
Actually, the first policy Cicalese applied for all staff (and that includes the boss) was "no music snobbery!" Having spent many hours in other stores shopping for the items that others may not have been clamoring for, Cicalese knew that he wanted a place where everyone's taste in music was respected, even if it wasn't shared.
First years are hard years
That is in keeping with the person Cicalese is, and it didn't surprise us at all to learn of this first and fully enforced policy. He was honest about the difficulties he first faced as he was trying to build a following for his first store and all the while keep his online business churning along and profitable.
Cicalese opened his first store in 2010.
"It was a small starter store and the price was right, so I gave it a shot," he tells us.
Cicalese was too experienced in the retail industry to believe that his little store would become an instant sensation, but the realities of that first year were challenging.
The seller admits there were many days he went in to open the store, only to close shop and leave a note on the door directing customers to call him if they wanted to shop
"No, I didn't expect to flip a switch and have steady business," he recalls. "But I thought a grand-opening party, a small local print ad campaign and social media would at least make it self-sustaining."
They didn't. Cicalese found himself struggling to keep the store open and still take care of everything his e-commerce business demanded.
The seller admits there were many days when he went in on time to open the store, only to close shop and leave a note on the door directing potential customers to call him on his cell if they wanted to shop.
"I lived just a few blocks away," he says. "Hardly anyone ever called. That was completely unprofessional and wrong, but at the same time, I could be much more productive at home tending to the e-business. I couldn't afford to spend that much time in the store if nobody was coming in. I certainly couldn't afford to pay someone to stay there for me. It looked pretty grim."
Help arrives
One afternoon, a man who had come to Cicalese's opening party caught him in the store after a few unsuccessful attempts.
"David gave me the 'what for' about not being open regularly and then promptly volunteered to watch the store during the day, so I could do my other work."
It seemed Cicalese's new helper had worked in record stores before. He was also a DJ.
"At first I wasn't sure if he was trying to steal from me or hit on me," Cicalese recalls.
At first I wasn't sure if he was trying to steal from me or hit on me …He genuinely wanted the store to succeed. Without him, we may well have closed
It turns out that David just loved Cicalese's music as much as Cicalese did.
"He genuinely wanted the store to succeed," the merchant says. "So he kept volunteering, and occasionally I'd compensate him with records or CDs until I could afford to pay him properly. Without him, we may well have closed when the first year lease was up and gone back to selling online only."
As you saw in Part 1 of this series, Cicalese's settling down to life in one spot came along as he found a wholesaler to provide the steady inventory that would stock his store. What he found once the store was up and running was that his customers and his community would also be integral to his product sourcing.
The store lent a local credibility to his business that placing ads in the newspaper never brought.
"Those prizes for which I once had to travel all over the country were now walking in off the street, and at better pricing," he notes. "This was also the point at which we began to shift from a CD-oriented store to a vinyl-oriented store, as our customers dictated."
Once again, he found himself learning a new type of product and a new way to serve his customers.
Synergy builds momentum
Once the store began to gain momentum, Cicalese found a way to make his online business work synergistically with his brick-and-mortar store.
"Things that are common on the Internet and aren't worth selling are what local folks love to buy for a few dollars," he explains. "After all, the reason they are common is because they were once popular."
Cicalese's customers began bringing their collections to him to sell.
"The collections people bring in for me to buy often have hard-to-find items best suited to sell on the Internet," he says. "I can often sell those few items at a premium to recoup what I paid for the whole collection and then sell the rest—still great stuff—to my customers at great low prices."
Once again, Cicalese started to look toward his next big step.
Those prizes for which I once had to travel all over the country were now walking in off the street, and at better pricing
Now he's moved his store to a much larger location and seems to be hitting his stride.
"I knew the height of efficiency would be to have a clerk [in the store] who could also perform the daily tasks to maintain the Internet side of the business, so I could do more 'big picture' things," he notes.
With the right employee in place, Cicalese doesn't have to worry if he'll ring up enough sales in the store to justify the day's salary he pays his clerk. There are things his employees can do online that will make their time cost effective even if few customers come into the shop during a particular day.
"This allows the new store to be open longer hours than the old store, which naturally generates more business," he explains.
In the last part of his series, we'll explore how Cicalese has put his many years of varied experience into action in his new store location. Not only does he still focus on great music, but he's built a vibrant and supportive community of music devotees both online and in person.
Yes, Cicalese is a smart businessman with a heart as big as his dreams, but with all that he takes on, his focus is still on providing his customers with great products and service at great prices, all the while making time to share the wealth of his wisdom and knowledge with the rest of us.