For What It's Worth: Business Wisdom from a Pawnbroker

Businesses these days talk a lot about figuring out what the customer wants. Well heres your first lesson: the customer doesnt know what he wants. This book is going to show you how to convince him he wants the thing youre selling. Les Gold has been in business since age twelve when he started selling used golf clubs from his dads basement. Now he owns Detroits biggest pawnshop American Jewelry and Loan and is the star of the hit reality TV show Hardcore Pawn. As a third-generation pawnbroker Gold grew up in the business dealing with customers who could be unruly and violent as often as they were friendly. He became good at selling just about anything and at buying items for what they were worth. Although he started at his familys small pawnshop he has now expanded into a fifty-thousand-square-foot former bowling alley making a thousand deals a day. On any given day he could be taking a vintage car in to pawn or chasing down a thief whos just stolen a gold chain from the store. No business school in the world can teach you as much about buying selling negotiating managing employees dealing with customers advertising tracking trends and predicting the economys ups and downs. In this entertaining honest book Gold takes you inside some of his weirdest wackiest deals and steals. From the monkey his dad once took in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole he has no boundaries for what he considers to be part of his businessand neither should you. You will learn: How to tell an emotional story when youre sellingand take emotion out of the transaction when youre buying Why judging your customers before you know them can kill a potential deal How to deal with risk both mental and physical How to communicate with employees (even if theyre your own kids) Why investing in relationships with your community is time well spent Why your business should never be limited by what others tell you it should be No place in the world prepares you better for the working world than a pawnshop and Les Gold takes you inside his shop to share what hes learned from fifty-five years in the most interesting job in the world.