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THE
MUJIC TIRADE
SINGLE
COPIES, 10 CENTS
$ 2E o!T PERVEAR
VOL. LVIII. N o . 18 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, May 2, 1914 M
T
HE primary cause of insolvency and business failure in many instances is lack of knowl-
edge of the real cost of selling. In truth, there are many business men who strike on the
shoals of disaster simply because they have not analyzed selling costs in a minute degree.
They have not acquainted themselves sufficiently with the fundamentals of the business
so that they have determined with accuracy just what it cost them to conduct a particular depart-
ment or to sell particular brands of merchandise.
There are many men who are engaged in business w r ho, to-day, are deluding themselves with"
the idea that simply because they are doing a large bulk business they are making money. Bulk
business is not always profitable.
It is not always bulk business that counts in the final analysis, because many men may be
conducting a large bulk enterprise and yet their net profits may be absolutely lacking.
There is no business in the world where the merchants should be closer to the actual selling
costs than in the vending of pianos.
I affirm that it is largely through ignorance in this one particular that there are not more
wealthy piano merchants than there are to-day.
In the retailing of pianos many merchants seem to think that if they can get out a large
number of pianos they are on the unobstructed highway to business success. They do not use
ordinary judgment in estimating the character and resources of those to whom they sell pianos.
They simply seem to think that the name on the piano lease marks a sale and forces out another
piano, and that that is the prime object for which they are in business.
The fact that thousands of upright pianos are to be traded-in as part payment on player-pianos
brings about a new condition which should be most carefully analyzed by piano merchants.
The valuation on traded-in instruments should be boiled down to the low r est possible point.
Many men seem to feel that it is easy enough for a man to conduct business, and that making
sales and getting out goods constitute the real purpose for which retail establishments are con-
ducted. That kind of reasoning constitutes an absurdity.
Quality sales in any enterprise, and particularly in the piano business, mean business stability
and business success.
When the pinch comes, then the quality sales show their strength. Some houses realize this
and govern their acts with reasonable caution.
There is the reverse side to the medal, and it may be truthfully said as well that many of the
large houses have exhibited commendable judgment in cautioning their salesmen as to just what
kind of people pianos should be sold to upon the deferred payment plan. They have taken pains
to investigate the standing and resources of every individual purchaser, so that they knew that
the men to whom sales were made were in a position to meet their obligations as they matured.
An instance showing the stability of a large piano business: A great Western house found itself
facing certain financial difficulties brought about somewhat through over-expansion. This house
controlled an enormous business, extending over a wide expanse of territory, and while the total
of its obligations was very large its assets were correspondingly great. Sensational reports con-
cerning the solvency of the house were widely circulated.
Some of the creditors believed that an analysis of the company's assets would reveal a condi- ,
(Continued on page 5.)
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