GIFT or 
 
A Better Day's Profits 
 
.-ST.. ■ -^r 
 
 till 
 
 E. W. Darrell, of Newton Centre, Mass., increased his business 
 400% within 14 months after he began to get a daily analysis of his 
 efforts. He is now doing a business of over |4,000 a week, and gives 
 most of the credit to accounts that account. 
 
A Better Day^s Profits 
 
 For The Retailer 
 
 Who Realizes that He Can Build 
 
 a Big Business Only by Getting 
 
 and Using all the 
 
 Small Facts 
 
 by 
 
 A. M. Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs Adding Machine Company 
 
 Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A. 
 

 Copyright, 1912 by the 
 
 Burroughs Adding Machine Company 
 
 Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A. 
 
To the Reader: 
 
 THE object of this book is to illustrate the necessity 
 of managing the retail store with open eyes. There 
 are several right ways of doing most things, but the 
 only safe way is to know, not merely guess, just what 
 each day's work has produced in profit. 
 
 Before the book was sent to the printer, it was 
 submitted to a recognized retail expert for his exami- 
 nation. We wanted outside criticism before we pub- 
 lished the book. We wanted to know that it was right 
 before we sent it out to retailers. Here is what he said : 
 
 '' Referring to the manuscript sent to this office 
 for criticism, I had several of our people go through 
 it with an endeavor to find some place where we could 
 find fault; but it seems as though we are unable to do 
 so, as the several chapters, as you have them, certainly 
 fit the purpose you have in mind in an elegant manner. 
 
 "In my opinion, you have touched upon many 
 points that are overlooked in the conduct of the 
 average retail store. Also that these points are forcibly 
 analyzed and illustrated. I refer particularly to such 
 chapters as ''Weighing Employees," "What it Costs to 
 Do Business,'' "Fixing Prices to Get a Profit/' and 
 "What a Sales Record Can Teach You." 
 
 "The points you have illustrated by sets of figures 
 will not, in many instances, be new to retailers, but 
 you have undoubtedly presented some of them in a 
 new light. Retailers know a great many of the things 
 you dwell upon; the fault is they don't do them." 
 
 You may know everything we have put in the 
 following pages. We have reason to believe many 
 retailers don't. Even, however, if you do know all 
 
 254©77 
 
we have told you, we have tried to put it in a new 
 way and illustrated it with stories from actual retail 
 life, that may be interesting as well as instructive. 
 
 If any part of the book is obscure — if you do not 
 understand it — ^we may be able to lighten up the dark 
 places. That is a part of our service — for which we 
 make no charge. 
 
 Our main purpose is to help retailers find the most 
 efficient way to run their business, conscious that when 
 they have reached a greater efficiency, we as a Com- 
 pany will come into our share of the reward. 
 
 Burroughs Adding Machine Company 
 Detroit, Michigan 
 
 May 1, 1912 
 
Contents 
 
 Cutting the Guess Work Out of Retailing 9 
 
 Managing with Your Eyes Open 15 
 
 Stretching the Capital 19 
 
 Buying for Profit 23 
 
 Stopping Store Leaks 29 
 
 What it Costs to do Business 39 
 
 Fixing Prices to get a Profit 45 
 
 What a Sales Record Can Teach You 53 
 
 Figuring Stock Turnovers 57 
 
 The Purpose of the Inventory 61 
 
 "Weighing" Employees '. 65 
 
 Cutting the Delivery Cost to One-third 69 
 
 Accounting Good at the Bank 73 
 
 The Boss' Eye 77 
 
 Paying for What You Don't Get 85 
 
 Keeping Books with a Machine 89 
 
 Burroughs Systems Service 93 
 
Richard F. Brune, now only 23 years old, came to this country 
 eleven years ago with only $3 in his pocket. Three years ago he 
 bought a store in Sawtelle, Cal., near Los Angeles. Scientifle methods 
 have enabled him to build up a business of $4,000 a week. 
 
Cutting the Guess-Work out 
 of Retailing 
 
 "Then and there I decided to govern my business 
 from -positive knowledge rather than from guess." 
 
 THE owner of a little drug store in San Francisco 
 decided that there must be a reason for his store 
 remaining small while other stores were getting big. 
 
 He set himself the task of finding the 
 reason; of finding why it wasn't paying 
 him ; of finding what he needed to know 
 to make it pay him the 
 
 " — Instead of one little Drug Store- 
 
 big profits he knew it ought 
 to pay him. 
 
 He found the reason: 
 Now instead of one little 
 drug store he owns seven- 
 teen big drug stores. 
 
 Now he owns a fine automobile and a fine home. 
 His check is good for anything he wants — he is making 
 all kinds of money. 
 
 The United Cigar Stores Company, with its hun- 
 dreds of stores and millions of capital, started from 
 an ''Analysis" of one little cigar store in Syracuse, 
 New York. 
 
 a oo 
 
 000 
 
 □n 
 
 DP 00 
 
 sa 
 
 DO 
 
 ''He now owns seventeen big Drug Stores. 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 If the owner of that little cigar store hadn't looked 
 for and eliminated the weak places, he would never 
 have built up the wonderful chain of stores which he 
 now directs. 
 
 He asked himself what he needed to know about 
 the business to eliminate the blunders; to make every 
 move count for bigger profits. 
 
 By making his records show him what cigars had 
 sold, he was soon able to buy cigars that sold better. 
 
 By making his records show him what cigars had 
 not soldy he cut out the bad buying — the stocking up 
 of cigars that he could not sell. 
 
 He found out how many smokers passed his store 
 every day. Then he moved his store to a corner where 
 ten times as many smokers passed it every day. 
 
 He made his re- 
 cords show which of 
 his clerks sold the 
 most cigars at the 
 best profits-. Then he 
 studied the methods 
 of the best clerk and 
 got more like him and 
 less of the other kind. 
 
 •—studied the methods of his best clerks- 
 
 He studied the 
 attitude of his clerks towards the smokers who came 
 back, and towards those who didn't come back. Then 
 he changed the attitude of the clerks so that nearly all 
 smokers came back. 
 
 He counted the seconds necessary to serve each 
 smoker at the rush hour. Then he cut off half the 
 seconds with little tricks of shortening steps. He ar- 
 ranged his display cases and his boxes so each clerk 
 could reach every box from where he stood. 
 
 10 
 
CUTTING THE GUESS-WORK OUT OF RETAILING 
 
 He counted the steps each smoker had to take 
 inside the store. Then he arranged his display cases 
 to cut out every unnecessary step. 
 
 He made it possible for each smoker to get a cigar 
 while waiting for a car, hurrying to work, or to keep 
 a business engagement. 
 
 The best cigars, the best clerks, the best store, all 
 managed in the best way, laid the foundation for a 
 chain of a thousand stores — for a corporation of many 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 And the man who analyzed himself and his oppor- 
 tunities in that little Syracuse store, now directs that 
 chain of a thousand stores. 
 
 A grocer in one of the suburbs of Boston was having 
 a pretty hard fight with competition. The big Boston 
 stores and two or three other live stores in his own town 
 were getting the lion's share of the business. 
 
 "—he floated along — " - 
 
 For eleven years he floated along, "wondering' ' 
 how he could make more money. 
 
 At last things began to get so warm that he began 
 to wake up and do more than just * 'wonder." 
 
 He decided he had to find out why those big Boston 
 stores were coming out into his territory and taking away 
 his business, while he was rapidly sliding down hill into 
 the waiting arms of the sheriff. 
 
 These investigations were a revelation to him. 
 He found that he was not the only Retailer in danger 
 
 11 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 -reaching out into liis territory- 
 
 of bankruptcy. -, 
 He found that 
 96% of all Re- . 
 tailers were just 
 barely existing 
 and being grad- 
 ually forced out 
 of business, 
 while a bare 5% were really succeeding. 
 
 Then he began to study the methods of the 5% 
 who were succeeding. He found that those stores 
 didn't use the hit and miss guess-work methods used 
 by unsuccessful Retailers. 
 
 They were running their business from positive 
 knowledge. 
 
 'Then and there/' he says, "1 decided that I would 
 govern my business from positive knowledge rather 
 than from accepted customs. 
 
 "1 first asked myself what I wanted to know and 
 decided as follows: 
 
 Which lines show a profit and how much ? 
 
 What does it cost to obtain that profit ? 
 
 Are my clerks earning more or less than I am 
 paying them ? 
 
 Are there any leaks and, if so, where ? 
 
 ''My bookkeeping system, which I thought was 
 the real thing, didn't answer these questions, so I 
 resolved to have one that would." 
 
 He got a system which gave him, is now giving 
 him, the information he needed. 
 
 Then he found out how his business really stood. 
 He learned what he needed to know to make himself 
 a big manager. 
 
 He was able to bolster up the weak places, cut out 
 the lines which were showing a loss, increase the lines 
 
 12 
 
CUTTING THE GUESS-WORK OUT OF RETAILING 
 
 which produced a profit, drop the clerks which were 
 no good — to do the things which paid. 
 
 This was the business policy on which he made 
 his appeal to the trade : 
 
 ''1st. We know how to buy. The buying is di- 
 vided among four from whom we expect, not theory 
 but actual results. They must make good. 
 
 2nd. Our accounting system is simple but accu- 
 rate and with a positive mechanical audit. It gives us 
 the information which, combined with our skilled 
 judgment, enables us to stop leaks and losses and 
 handle a large volume of business at an exceptionally 
 small expense. And we have no slow accounts or bad 
 bills. 
 
 3d. We send no clerks out for orders. Do you 
 realize what that saves? Telephone service is better 
 and decidedly cheaper. We are glad to call you at 
 your convenience. 
 
 4th. Our delivery system is so arranged as to 
 eliminate idle or half filled teams. Deliveries made on 
 regular schedule with full loads — not empty baskets 
 but real sales. 
 
 All this means a saving of several thousands of 
 dollars yearly. This saving we deduct from our selling 
 price. We do not ask you to pay for bad bills, un- 
 necessary and expensive methods or false motions. 
 Why should you?'' 
 
 Why, indeed? 
 
 Right business methods always appeal to Ameri- 
 cans: this grocer has made his method of doing busi- 
 ness pay for itself by advertising him. 
 
 13 
 
p. A. Meyer & Sons of Erie, Pa., says the policy of "getting ttie 
 facts" is "an eye-opener." "We know the exact condition of each de- 
 partment, and are able to act accordingly. There is no gruesg-work 
 about it." 
 
 14 
 
Managing With Your Eyes 
 Open 
 
 Mere hard work will not bring success There 
 must be behind the work a "know-how" 
 that will make it accomplish something. 
 
 A RETAIL hardware man kept himself so busy with 
 the little things of his business that he had no 
 time to make money. 
 
 But when he analyzed his methods, himself, his 
 business, to find the reason he wasn't making money, 
 he found he could unload half the petty work he was 
 doing onto a $3-a-week boy. 
 
 Then he began to understand that it was his 
 business, to manage, to think, to plan to find out why 
 things should be done, and how they could be done in 
 the best way. 
 
 He found that anybody could do the things that 
 had to be done if he told them how. 
 
 He quit using the brains, the enthusiasm, the 
 energy of his business for the office-boy duties. He 
 devoted himself to the management of his business. 
 
 Now he is a merchant prince, the head of a great 
 hardware concern with an income several times bigger 
 than his gross business used to be. 
 
 A young German came to this country twelve 
 years ago at the age of 11, with but $3 in his pocket 
 and not a word of English in his vocabulary. 
 
 He obtained employment in a grocery store in 
 the German quarter of a New England city. Here he 
 learned the grocery business. 
 
 15 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 Before he was 20 he was made manager of the 
 store. When he was 21 he was appointed manager of 
 a bigger Jersey City store. Now, at 23, he is manager 
 of a $250,000 store in Illinois, with 75 employees. 
 
 If you would ask him how he succeeded, he would 
 tell you that he always made it a point to know the 
 results of his efforts. 
 
 . When he went into a new store, he wanted to know 
 which lines of goods paid a profit and how much. 
 And he wanted the information all the time, not 
 merely for a few days. 
 
 He wanted to know whether one of the lines 
 which wasn't moving, began to produce a profit when 
 it was put ''up front," and whether it continued to 
 show a profit after it was put back to give some other 
 slow line a chance. 
 
 He demanded records that showed him whether 
 clerk No. 1 was producing a profit. When he found 
 out which of the clerks produced the most profit, he 
 used him as a standard for the other clerks — or their 
 successors — to work up to. 
 
 A certain hardware dealer appealed to his jobber 
 for a solution of a problem which he was wise enough 
 to know was gradually pulling him down. 
 
 His business was increasing, much faster than his 
 expenses, but at the end of the year he couldn't find the 
 profit he thought he should have. 
 He had a good business. He 
 was working hard, trying to plan 
 and manage his business. He was 
 a resourceful, industrious, clever 
 merchant. Yet he wasn't making 
 money. 
 
 When his jobber sent an ac- 
 countant to go over his books, it 
 
 -books didn't tell him- 
 
 16 
 
MANAGING WITH YOUR EYES OPEN 
 
 was found that his books didn't really tell him any- 
 thing about his business. He kept accounts that 
 didn't account. 
 
 He couldn't find out, for instance, whether it paid 
 him to make a big window display of pipe wrenches, 
 at a big discount off the marked price, to attract 
 plumbers and gas fitters to his store. 
 
 He didn't know, for sure, whether his big assort- 
 ment of knives was paying him. 
 
 In fact he didn't know anything for certain. 
 
 He was wasting his energies, his enthusiasm and 
 his brains by planning and doing things that never 
 got him anywhere. 
 
 With the aid of an accountant he put in a bookkeep- 
 ing system which enabled him to get accurate reports 
 on the results of each day's effort. 
 
 Then he was able to know, pretty quick, which line 
 of effort produced the best results, the most profits. 
 
 Now the difference shows in his bank balance, and 
 the fine home he owns — his business 
 has more than quadrupled in two years. 
 
 Yet he is the same manager, in the 
 same store, selling the same goods. He 
 has just cut out the unprofitable 
 methods. 
 
 He wasn't incompetent before. He 
 is no better manager now. He is just 
 managing with his eyes open. 
 
 -with his eyes open — ' 
 
 17 
 
Wm. M. Brady, of Madison, Wis., conducts a store with hlg eyes 
 open. He provides himself with accounts that account. You can see 
 the difference in his bank balance. 
 
 18 
 
' — stock 40 years old — " 
 
 Stretching the Capital 
 
 Study the methods of the banana man and the 
 peanut vender, who make a living on $10 capital. 
 
 A NORTHERN Indiana Furnishing Goods concern 
 went out of business a few months ago. When the 
 stock was inventoried 
 some caps were found 
 which were made es- 
 pecially for the Grant- 
 Colfax Presidential 
 Campaign in 1872. 
 
 Think of that! 
 Stock forty years old. 
 
 The caps cost about 25c each and there were three 
 dozen of them, costing $9 in all, wholesale. 
 
 Charge up a percentage equal to the cost of doing 
 business against that $9 worth of dead stock for forty 
 years, and see what it cost the merchant to kee'p it 
 on his shelves. 
 
 Ask the banana man who stands at the comer of 
 Seventh Street and Franklin Avenue in St. Louis, 
 how much he could make on that $9 in forty years in 
 his business. Then you will know what it would 
 have profited this clothing concern had it not kept that 
 stock on the shelves — if it had used the capital right. 
 
 This banana man buys a cart load of bananas 
 every morning, costing him about $9, and sells them 
 before night for S20. 
 
 Since he works every day, holidays and Sundays, 
 he turns his capital every day, 30 times a month. 
 
 On a capital of $9 he does a gross business of more 
 than $5000 in the nine months he is able to work. 
 
 19 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
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 mrt 
 
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 BANK 
 
 cnn 
 
 iMOi 
 
 iiapp^n^Ti 
 
 (£^)® 
 
 In forty years he could do a gross business of $292,- 
 000 on that little capital — without increasing his 
 capital a single penny over that original $9. 
 
 What would he make if he had $9,000 capital and 
 applied the same principles? 
 
 Any wonder the chain 
 store fellows can keep buy- 
 ing more stores and under- 
 sell the ''good-enough -for- 
 me" one-man store? 
 
 The owner of a chain of 
 six stores has never put a 
 single dollar of his own money 
 into the last four stores he 
 opened. 
 
 When he opened his sec- 
 ond store, he began buying 
 in small quantities, stocking 
 up every day and selling the 
 goods before the bills came 
 due. 
 
 In a short time he opened 
 his third store, without put- 
 ting any of his own money 
 into it. Soon he increased 
 his chain to six stores. 
 
 Now he is doing business 
 almost entirely on the other 
 man's capital. He buys in 
 very small quantities and 
 discounts his bills with the 
 proceeds from the sales of 
 the goods. 
 
 If the retailer provides 
 himself with accurate and 
 
 20 
 
STRETCHING THE CAPITAL 
 
 complete detail information about his sales and his 
 stock on hand, he can practically do business entirely 
 on the capital of the houses from which he buys — and 
 make those houses glad to let him do it. 
 
 Of course this is possible only by keeping such close 
 tab on sales and purchases that the merchant can buy 
 in very small quantities. 
 
 But isn't it better to stand the Expense of adequate 
 records and do a big profitable business on little 
 capital, than to worry along without records and do a 
 S7nall 2mprofitable business on the most capital you 
 can rake and scrape? ' 
 
 'Small Capital rightly used iray outweigh big Capital on the scale of profit" 
 
 21 
 
George I. Kelly & Co.. Clothiers. Hatters, and Furnishers, of Wal- 
 tham, Mass.. is a believer in modern 
 making It pay. 
 
 accounting methods. They are 
 
 22 
 
Buying for Profit 
 
 The goods it pays to handle 
 are the goods which go fast. 
 
 A HABERDASHER in Chicago has built his business 
 to the point where he averages a thousand sales a 
 day in a little store 40 feet square — a gross business of 
 more than $200,000 a year. 
 
 In this little store he keeps a wider variety of goods, 
 and makes more real net profit, than most stores with 
 five times his space and ten to fifteen times his capital 
 and expense. 
 
 The secret of his suc- 
 cess is in the small amount 
 of stock which he carries 
 and the frequency with 
 which he turns his capital. 
 
 He plans to keep just 
 one day's supply of stock 
 on the shelves and in the 
 show cases. Every night his stock is replenished just 
 enough to replace the goods removed by the day's sales. 
 
 Accurate records for several years have enabled this 
 merchant to know almost exactly how much he will 
 sell of every line each day, and to make arrangements 
 in advance for this sale. 
 
 He keeps a two weeks' supply of each line in his 
 stock room on the fourth floor, where rents cost him 
 very much less than he pays on the first floor. 
 
 Each night he sends down to the store just enough 
 of each kind of stock for one day's business. 
 
 By knowing almost exactly how much goods he 
 will be able to sell of each line, he is able to make quan- 
 
 -turning his Capital — " 
 
 28 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 tity contracts with his jobbers on many lines, at quantity 
 prices, with semi-monthly deliveries and monthly 
 bills. He pays after he sells. 
 
 If his records show, for instance, that he will need 
 1,000 shirts of a certain size, his order to the jobber or 
 manufacturer will be for 1,000 shirts, delivered in 
 quantities of three dozen every other week. 
 
 Every month he gets a bill from the manufacturer 
 or jobber for six dozen shirts. But, he has probably 
 sold five dozen of them before the bill comes, so he 
 can take the discount with money he has already re- 
 ceived from the sale of the goods. 
 
 He invests $10 a week in salary for a young woman 
 who gives her whole time to tabulating sales and 
 expense figures. 
 
 The report this young woman gives him every day 
 shows not only the number of sales for that day of 
 every line of goods carried, but it shows also a compari- 
 son with the preceding day, the same day of the pre- 
 ceding week and the same day of the preceding year. 
 
 If you ask him, ''How's business," he can tell you, 
 for he knows. He doesn't guess at his figures. 
 
 It costs him $10 a week, a sum which would scare 
 some retailers, but it enables him to do a gross business 
 of $-^500 a week on a capital that is less than some re- 
 tailers use to do a business of $100 a iveek. 
 
 The Maypole Dairy Company, with 742 stores 
 scattered all over England, handles its vast business 
 in exactly the same way. 
 
 Every night each of the 742 stores telegraphs or 
 telephones the exact amount of sales of each line to 
 the home office in London. 
 
 The home office immediately ships to each store 
 just enough goods to put the stock back where it was 
 before the previous day's business. 
 
 24 
 
BUYING FOR PROFIT 
 
 When this Company opens a new store it puts 
 $1,000 into carefully assorted stock, limited to the 
 lines which experience has shown will sell readily. 
 Then an amount is added each day to keep the total 
 up to the original stock. 
 
 If, at the end of the day, the Manager wires that he 
 has sold $500 worth of goods, his message giving the 
 amount sold in each line, the home office will immediate- 
 ly ship him $500 worth of goods, bringing his total 
 back to $1,000. 
 
 This wonderful chain of stores turns its capital 
 more times in a week than the average retailer turns 
 his capital in a year. 
 
 Starting with an original investment of $1,000, 
 some of these stores do a business aggregating $200,000 
 a year — one hundred and thirty or more complete turns of 
 the original capital in a year. 
 
 Every one of these stores is required to keep exact 
 records of the sales of every kind of goods carried. 
 
 They are very simple records — just a number for 
 each kind of goods and another number for the amount 
 of each sale — but they are a wonder of completeness. 
 
 A certain cigar store in New York has one custo- 
 mer who likes a particular kind of cigar, the retail 
 price of which is $4.75 a box. 
 
 This store keeps only two boxes of those cigars 
 in stock. When this customer goes in and buys one 
 of the boxes, which he does regularly every two weeks, 
 another box is ordered. This keeps the stock always 
 at two boxes. 
 
 On- this one customer this one store does a gross 
 business of $123.50, in one brand of cigars, with an 
 investment of $6.50 — supposing each box of cigars 
 to cost $3.25 wholesale. This is about 13 complete 
 turns of the capital invested. 
 
 25 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 If this store didn't keep records so that it could al- 
 ways know where it stood, it would likely buy a dozen 
 boxes at a time — increasing the investment, reducing 
 the number of times the capital could be turned, and 
 letting the cigars get stale. 
 
 There is a chain of furnishing goods stores in St. 
 Louis which, through careful buying, succeeded last 
 year in turning its entire capital fifteen times. 
 
 This is an impossibility except under scientific 
 management — which means simply the keeping and 
 using of facts instead of theories. 
 
 " — where it can get quick delivery — " 
 
 This chain of stores buys all of its goods in St. 
 Louis where it can get quick delivery and can buy in 
 small quantities. 
 
 Some of the lines are turned every week; several 
 more every month, and the entire capital at least 
 fifteen times a year. 
 
 A big wholesale house in St. Louis estimates that 
 fully 95% of all retailers overbuy. This wholesale 
 house, unlike many others, urges its customers to buy 
 in small quantities and buy often. 
 
 A bright salesman with his eye only on the orders^ 
 urges the retailer to stock up in anticipation of a raise 
 in prices, or to get an extra 5% discount. 
 
 The overhead charge against the 11 dozen cans of 
 tomatoes on the shelves which don't move, quickly 
 eats up the 5% extra discount on the 11 dozen, 
 
 26 
 
BUYING FOR PROFIT 
 
 and the 10% which the merchant makes on the one 
 dozen he succeeds in selling. 
 
 If a merchant buys in very small quantities, he 
 can't lose much if the goods don't move. If they do 
 move, he has the money in hand with which to dis- 
 count the bills when they come due. 
 
 The man who started in business with $5,000 and 
 buried half of it in the ground, was better off than the 
 man who buries half his capital in dead stock which 
 don't move. 
 
 The man who buried his money in the ground 
 didn't pay the profits he made on the other half to 
 keep it in the ground; the man with half his capital 
 in dead stock has to pay rent and all of his cost of 
 doing business to keep this dead stock on the shelves. 
 
 27 
 
Louis Meyer, meat and provisions, in Brooklyn, N. Y. Meyer now 
 employs several butchers and operates a wholesale department. Every 
 day he gets a statement of the business done and keeps in remarkably 
 close touch with his extensive business. 
 
 28 
 
Stopping Store Leaks 
 
 "If you had a barrel of molasses out in the warehouse 
 which was leaking, when would you want to know 
 about it, the first day, or at the end of the year?" 
 
 Over-weight and Over-measure 
 
 FOOD Inspector Ottesen of Iowa, while checking 
 weights and measures at Waterloo, Iowa, found 
 five grocers whose scales gave over-weight. 
 
 These five pairs of scales, 
 Ottesen said, ''long weighted" 
 each of these grocers out of 
 hundreds of dollars every 
 year. 
 
 One grocer was selling 
 about 50 lbs. of lard a day, 
 at 14. ounce over-weight. 
 This one leak, on one kind 
 of goods, aggregated about $40 a year. 
 
 Bad Buying 
 
 The average retailer is a poor buyer. Ninety 
 percent of all retail stores over-buy. The biggest 
 store leak is in the failure of the retailer to turn his 
 capital often. 
 
 He should keep accurate records, through the use 
 of duplicate sales slips, or other means, of all sales. 
 Then he will not be likely to duplicate the mistake, 
 even if he doesn't prevent it the first time. 
 
 29 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 A jobber's discount of 50% from list price is a 
 loss if the goods will not sell. The retailer must not 
 buy for the extra discount, but for the profit. 
 
 Incompetent Help 
 
 Every employee in the retail store should be put 
 on a merit basis. The clerk who isn't able to sell 
 goods at a profit is incompetent and unprofitable to 
 the store. Keeping him is like letting the faucet 
 remain open in the vinegar barrel — only it is profits and 
 not vinegar which are leaking. 
 
 Loss of Goods from Stock 
 
 A big New York store, 
 doing a business of $10,000,- 
 000 a year, estimates that 
 2% of its sales, or $200,000, 
 is stolen from the store every 
 year. If this same propor- 
 tion of goods is stolen from 
 the average retail store, 
 A Shop Lifter theu the store doing a busi- 
 
 ness of $50,000 a year would lose $1,000 through theft 
 of goods from stock. 
 
 Failure to Charge Goods Sold on Credit 
 
 When a sale is made on credit and no record is 
 made of it, the retailer stands to lose the profit he should 
 make on the sale; the time which has been invested in 
 the buying; the time invested in the selling of the goods; 
 the cost of the labor of handling the goods; the cost 
 of keeping them on the shelves, and several other 
 losses, including the big loss which the carelessness 
 will cause in other work. 
 
 so 
 
STOPPING STORE LEAKS 
 
 Wasteful Bookkeeping 
 
 It costs more money 
 sometimes to keep in- 
 complete records in an 
 unsystematic way, than 
 it would cost to keep 
 complete records in the- 
 right way. 
 
 The bookkeeping 
 system should be up-to-date. It should be carefully 
 worked out by experts. It should be especially 
 designed for the store. It should give the exact in- 
 formation needed, as economically as possible. 
 
 Errors in Adding Figures 
 
 The amount of money lost in the average store 
 
 every year through mistakes in figures is enormous. 
 
 A Customer gets his bill. It is a little less than 
 
 he expected, but he thinks possibly he made a mistake. 
 
 He pays on your figures. 
 
 If it happens to be a little more than he expected he 
 asks you about it, and you spend 
 some valuable time finding the 
 error and correcting it. 
 
 If you make a mistake in 
 your figures you are sure to lose, 
 whether it is against you or against 
 the other fellow. 
 
 Figuring Profits Wrong 
 
 A recent investigation conducted by the Burroughs 
 Adding Machine Company, showed that fully 75% 
 of all retailers figure profits on a basis which gives them 
 3% to 8% less than they think they are getting, often 
 figuring themselves out of any profit. 
 
 31 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 This is the vital end of a business. What is the 
 use to sell goods, if profit, the whole purpose of selling, 
 is lost in bad methods of figuring prices. 
 
 Failure to Charge All Expenses 
 
 All expenses are going to come out of the gross 
 profits whether they are put down as a part of the cost 
 of doing business or not. 
 
 If a man pays out $20 a month for rent, he will 
 not find it to his credit in the bank at the end of the 
 year, even if he doesn't charge it into the expense of 
 doing business. 
 
 The same applies to every kind of expense in the 
 business. Every one of the leaks mentioned in this 
 chapter is an expense, whether you charge it as such 
 or not. 
 
 It is better to err on the side of too liberal charging 
 of expenses and find an unaccounted for balance in the 
 bank, than to find a puzzling deficit caused by not 
 charging all your expenses . The deficit may disable you 
 just when failure to pay a big bill means bankruptcy. 
 
 Failure to Discount Bills 
 
 If a retailer turns his capital every week and 
 discounts all his bills at 2%, the clean profit from this 
 source alone amounts in a year to a sum greater than 
 his capital — 52 times 2% is 104%. If he doesn't 
 take the discount, he loses it, of course. 
 
 Unsystematic Delivery 
 
 A grocer in a New England town was maintaining 
 nine delivery wagons at a cost of about $200 a week. 
 
 By applying better methods to his delivery, he 
 was able to cut the number of wagons from nine to 
 three, stopping a leak of $125 a week— $6500 a year. 
 
 t 32 
 
STOPPING STORE LEAKS 
 
 Wrong Deliveries 
 
 It costs from five to ten cents to deliver every order 
 sold. If from ten to fifty mistakes are made every day 
 in deliveries, a leak of from $200 to $1,000 a year will 
 result. The loss in customers may increase this sum 
 enormously. 
 
 Presents, Donations, Etc. 
 
 Possibly some of this is necessary. Some retailers 
 make it a matter of considerable expense. It is a 
 leak which should be carefully watched. 
 
 If a retailer gives away an amount equal to only 
 1% of his gross sales in that way, he stands to lose 
 $500 a year on every $50,000 a year of gross business. 
 
 Wasted Time 
 
 A grocer hired a man cap- 
 able of selling $200 worth of 
 goods a week. Bad manage- 
 ment wasted half his time and 
 he only sold $100 worth a week. 
 The grocer lost the profits on 
 a gross annual business of $5,200 
 —$100 a week. 
 When you hire a clerk, you simply buy a certain 
 amount of his time, to be used as you direct. If you 
 direct wrong, or he wastes part of his time, you lose. 
 Time can be wasted in a thousand ways. Most 
 of these are under the control of the employer. 
 
 Most of the waste of time is caused by bad methods 
 controlled by the owner of the store. 
 
 The Reduced-Price Leak 
 
 When goods are marked to sell at $1.00 and it is 
 necessary for any reason to cut off 10%, the reduc- 
 tion from the marked price represents a loss. 
 
 33 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 If the cut is necessary to make 
 the goods sell, it is a loss due to 
 bad buying. It also produces 
 another loss by giving cus- 
 tomers the impression that the 
 original price allowed an enormous 
 profit. 
 
 Wasteful Advertising 
 
 One retailer used space two columns, ten inches 
 deep, in his weekly paper to run a poorly worded and 
 poorly arranged announcement. It cost him $200 a 
 year and produced almost nothing. 
 
 A competitor used half as much space and changed 
 his advertisement every week, using strong selling 
 arguments. He doubled his business in two years. 
 
 Advertising, properly directed, is one of the most 
 productive expenditures of the modern retail store, 
 but misdirected advertising can be very wasteful, or 
 even harmful. 
 
 Extravagance in Lighting 
 
 One retailer cut the cost of his lighting in half and 
 at least doubled the efficiency of his lighting system by 
 studying the arrangement of his lights. The proper 
 lighting system puts just the right amount of light 
 where it is needed. 
 
 Arrangement of Store 
 
 In a certain store each clerk had to wa;lk all over 
 the store to wait on customers. A re-arrangement of 
 the store stopped this and cut out about two hours 
 wasted efforts for each clerk each day — about $600 
 worth of time in a year, considering the several clerks. 
 This time, which cost money, was profitably used. 
 
 34 
 
STOPPING STORE LEAKS 
 
 Arrangement of Goods 
 
 A stationer was making a big display of scratch 
 pads for school children the day before school opened. 
 When he came in from lunch he stopped to look int^ 
 the window, and noticed the absence of pencils. Im- 
 mediately he went in and caused a pencil to be placed 
 alongside each pad. 
 
 This suggested the connection between other goods. 
 On investigation he found that scores of items were not 
 in their proper place in the store. He had them placed 
 where the customer who bought one item would see 
 many others that he might need in the same line. This 
 saved much walking for the clerks and helped each 
 kind of goods to sell others. 
 
 Store Alterations 
 
 Special sales, special displays of goods, the re- 
 arrangement of departments and offices, repairs, etc., 
 cause numerous little carpenter jobs in the store. . 
 
 These little jobs are the source of a considerable 
 leak. 
 
 Some carpenters can put a lot of time on a little 
 job, and, if the changes are not properly timed, em- 
 ployees of the store are often compelled to waste much 
 of their time, paid for by the store. 
 
 Extravagant Use of Supplies 
 
 Sales books, report blanks, office stationery, state- 
 ment forms, blank books and pens, ink, pencils, etc., 
 cost a neat little sum in a year. A big saving can be 
 effected by proper care and a leak is pretty apt to 
 follow lax methods. 
 
 85 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 Careless Packing of Goods 
 
 Goods which have to be delivered to customers 
 require care in packing. Much merchandise is dam- 
 aged or entirely spoiled 
 by poor packing. Some 
 money is wasted in the 
 course of a year through 
 the use of bigger boxes 
 than is necessary and 
 through the waste of 
 time in packing — time 
 which is paid for with 
 if saved, could be used for 
 
 Wasteful Packing 
 
 good money and which, 
 other work. 
 
 Lost Containers 
 
 Baskets, boxes, egg crates, etc., used in delivering 
 goods, cost money. The number lost during the year 
 usually amount to a serious leak. 
 
 Wasted Twine, Paper Bags, Etc. 
 
 Even in little stores the cost of wrapping paper, 
 twine, paper bags, boxes, etc., amounts in a year to 
 a neat sum. A careless employee can easily cut a big 
 slice off the profits by a wasteful use of these 
 supplies. 
 
 Clerk's Mistakes 
 
 Clerks, working at small salaries, are usually care- 
 less, inefficient and thoughtless. They make enough 
 mistakes any time, but when tired they make more. 
 
 Unless they work under the direction of a system 
 which makes their work pretty near mechanical, and 
 a close check is kept on their mistakes, they will likely 
 do as much harm as good. 
 
 36 
 
STOPPING STORE LEAKS 
 
 Dissatisfied Customers 
 
 A regular customer is 
 worth from $10 to $50 a 
 year to the average retail 
 store. Some customers are 
 worth a great deal more, 
 some a great deal less. 
 
 It is very easy to drive 
 customers away. Some- 
 times it is hard to get them. It is easy to lose a big 
 amount of money through the careless handling of 
 customers. 
 
 Breakage and Spoilage of Merchandise 
 
 A careless employee will spoil a very large amount of 
 merchandise in a year, cutting deep into the profits. 
 Even a careful employee is pretty sure to spoil some. 
 
 Depreciation of Merchandise 
 
 Certain goods shrink in weight; others in size. 
 These facts must be taken into consideration both in 
 buying and in selling. Don't buy too much. Be sure 
 the selling price covers the loss of shrinkage. 
 
 Bad Accounts 
 
 To be sure of collections, the merchant must have 
 accurate and complete records. The slow-pay cus- 
 tomer may not remind you if you forget his bill. 
 
 If he asks you for a statement some day, when he 
 has the money, and you can't give him the exact 
 figures at once, then its your loss if he spends the money 
 for a vacation trip. 
 
 Leaks in Your Business 
 
 The leaks suggested here, apply to your business. 
 Some of them may cause you only a little loss. Some 
 may be swallowing about all your profits. 
 
 37 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 A retailer, who is not now in business (we'll call 
 him Smith) fooled himself, for a time, into thinking 
 that he wasn't losing anything through leaks in his 
 store. He refused to see the leaks. 
 
 "I watch things pretty close," he said, ''and I know 
 just what it costs me to run my business. Jones, down 
 the street, is a crank on digging out expenses to charge 
 up against his business. Not for me!" 
 
 Jones has the exclusive 
 business for his section now, 
 and is a very prosperous retailer. 
 The sheriff closed out Smith's 
 business over a year ago. 
 Remember this: All leaks 
 ynn^SI 1 ^ L. ^^^ other expenses in your 
 
 business have to be paid at their 
 full face value, whether you see them or not. 
 
 If the sheriff gets your business, don't let it be 
 said that he got you because you guessed at your 
 expenses. 
 
 38 
 
What it Costs to Do Business 
 
 A retailer may fool himself by failing to 
 charge all of his expenses into his cost of 
 doing business, but his expenses will come 
 out of his gross profits just the same. 
 
 UNTIL recently retail grocers in a certain Western 
 city were paying $1 .40 for a 50-pound sack of flour, 
 which they were selling for $1.55. This allowed them 
 a gross profit of only fifteen cents per sack. 
 
 The Retailer Grocers' Association in this Western 
 city took up this problem in a special convention. 
 Most of the grocers agreed that this fifteen cents did 
 not allow a profit, though a few were of the opinion 
 that they were making a little on it. 
 
 The result of the dis- ^q fat 
 
 cussion was an investigation 
 into the cost of doing busi- 
 ness in that city. When the 
 different grocers began pro- 
 ducing their books to show 
 their expenses, a very wide 
 range of costs were shown. 
 
 Some of them had cost "-average cost 15 per centl-- 
 
 systems and declared it cost them 22% to 25% to 
 do business. A few, while admitting that their systems 
 were not very complete, estimated their costs at 10% 
 to 12%. 
 
 The final result of the investigation was an agree- 
 ment (Those who knew didn't ''agree.") upon the 
 average of 15% as the proper and correct cost of 
 doing business. 
 
 89 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 But this average was plainly incorrect because the 
 low figures ranging around eleven and twelve and 
 thirteen percent were from the stores of grocers who 
 did not figure to make anything over a reasonable 
 salary for themselves ; who did not figure to make any- 
 thing on the investment in the store buildings they 
 happened to own; who did not figure for interest on 
 their investments, and who overlooked a score or more 
 important items that should be included in the expenses. 
 The high percentages, ranging around twenty to 
 twenty-five percent, were from the stores of retailers 
 who had applied a searching cost system to their 
 business. These merchants were charging up to 
 their business every item that could be considered as 
 expense and it made their expenses seem high. 
 
 The investigators took these high percentages, 
 which were about correct, and the low percentages, 
 which were eight or ten to fifteen percent too low, and 
 combined the whole list to arrive at the average of 
 fifteen percent. Now a good many retailers who 
 think they are fixing prices right, are puzzling over 
 their failure to find the profit they expected last year. 
 The cost of doing business is, of course, just the 
 same whether a merchant includes all of the items or 
 only a few of them in his expense account. 
 
 The only difference is that he deludes himself into 
 thinking that the cost of doing 
 business is only 15% when in 
 reality it probably is 20% 
 to 25%. 
 
 If he fools himself in this 
 way, and figures for a 10% pro- 
 fit, the chances are that the 
 expenses and the extra cost of 
 -holding the sack— • doiug busiucss, which he hasn't 
 
 40 
 
WHAT IT COSTS TO DO BUSINESS 
 
 figured into his percentages, will eat up that profit, and 
 leave him holding the sack at the end of the year. 
 
 A Cleveland grocer thought he was clearing $100 a 
 month, $1200 a year, over and above his expenses. 
 
 But the $100 a month included his own salary, the 
 interest on his investment, the salary of his wife who 
 spent most of her time in the store, and a number of 
 other items. 
 
 If the grocer had allowed himself interest on his 
 investment, that alone would have produced $50 a 
 month without risk or worry. 
 
 Another $25 a month of his ''profits" rightly came 
 out as expenses incurred in running the store. He had 
 charged several expense items as "investment." 
 
 Instead of making $100 a month clear, he was not 
 only failing to make anything, but he and his wife were 
 both working for almost nothing. 
 
 If they had both worked in some other store they 
 might have earned $100; so instead of making $100 they 
 were losing $100 a month. 
 
 A grocer in Pittsburg was interested in politics. 
 Last year he succeeded in landing a city job, paying 
 him $2,500 a year. 
 
 When he got this job he decided to sell his store. 
 He placed the store in the hands of a broker, and had 
 an accountant go 
 over the books to D( 
 place a value on the 
 stock and to see what 
 the business was 
 worth. 
 
 The Accountant's 
 report showed that 
 no charge had been 
 made for salaries. - -The famuy heips- 
 
 41 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 The grocer, his wife and four children run the store. 
 When proper allowance was made for salaries, the 
 store was found to be paying a fraction over one-half 
 of one percent a year on the investment. 
 
 Instead of a fairly profitable business, one salable 
 at a premium for good will, it was found to be a business 
 so nearly unprofitable as to be unsalable. 
 
 Fixtures and stock were finally sold at a loss. 
 Nothing was received for good will, because there was 
 no good will — only a chance to work for nothing and 
 take the ordinary business risks besides. 
 
 In scientifically managed stores it has been found 
 that the salaries of the clerks average around nine per- 
 cent of the gross sales by those clerks. 
 
 The salaries of managers, bookkeepers and other 
 employees, who do not sell, run the average cost for 
 salaries up to about thirteen to thirteen and a half per- 
 cent of the gross sales. 
 
 Rent is likely to average around four percent, 
 delivery around one and a half to two percent, light 
 and heat from one to two percent, and so on down 
 the list of expenses. 
 
 No merchant, as he so frequently does, should 
 assume these percentages to be his costs. He should 
 get his own costs from his business, considering these 
 percentages only as standards by which to judge 
 whether he is higher or lower than the average. 
 
 The merchant 
 who would know his 
 cost of doing business 
 should classify his 
 expenses into such 
 accounts as will give 
 him the information .- ^ ^^ ^fc=r""^ fe^^ e Tpense 
 
 he needs. 
 
 " — searching out expenses — " 
 
 42 
 
WHAT IT COSTS TO DO BUSINESS 
 
 He should install a cost system that will search out 
 all of the expenses and enable him to know, not merely 
 a few of the things which he pays for, but all of the 
 things which enter into his cost of doing business. 
 
 Here is a list of the expenses used by one wide- 
 awake Merchant: 
 
 Rent — If the building is leased; depreciation or 
 upkeep if it is owned. 
 
 Salary — of all employees, and the manager. 
 
 Delivery Expense — including repairs to wagons, 
 harness, shoeing of horses, grease, feed, barn, rent, etc. 
 
 Light — including light in barns, etc. 
 
 Heat — including coal, fireman, etc. 
 
 Ice — for drinking fountains, refrigerators, soda 
 fountains, etc. 
 
 Advertising — in newspapers, circulars, etc. 
 
 Printing — stationery, blank books, bill heads, etc. 
 
 Gifts — ^presents, donations, etc. 
 
 Telephone and telegraph tolls. 
 
 Insurance — stock, fixture, burglar, etc. 
 
 Taxes — on fixtures, stock, etc. ' ■ 
 
 Interest — Paid out. 
 
 Paper Bags — wrapping paper, twine, etc. 
 
 Breakage and spoilage of goods. 
 
 Repairs — on fixtures, etc. 
 
 Depreciation on merchandise. 
 
 Shrinkage of merchandise. 
 
 Depreciation on fixtures, furniture, etc. 
 
 Bad Accounts. 
 
 Goods stolen from stock. 
 
 Depreciation from cost price by change of style and 
 by the purchase of unsalable stock which makes it 
 necessary to reduce prices. 
 
 Some merchants add freight and cartage to this list 
 but it should not be charged as an expense. It is a 
 part of the original cost of the goods and should be 
 charged to goods and not to expense. 
 
 43 
 
The National Association of Credit Men 
 recommended the following rules for figur- 
 ing costs and profits. 
 
 1. Charge interest on the net amount of your total investment 
 at the beginning of your business year, exclusive of real estate. 
 
 2. Charge rental on all real estate or buildings owned by you 
 and used in your business at a rate equal to that which 
 you would receive if renting or leasing it to others. 
 
 3. Charge in addition to what you pay for hired help an amount 
 equal to what your services would be worth to others; also 
 treat in like manner the services of any member of your 
 family employed in the business not on the regular pay roll. 
 
 4. Charge depreciation on all goods carried over on which you 
 may have to make a less price because of change in style, 
 damage, or any other cause. 
 
 5. Charge depreciation on buildings, tools, fixtures, or anything 
 else suffering from age or wear and tear. 
 
 6. Charge amounts donated or subscriptions paid. 
 
 7. Charge all fixed expenses, such as taxes, insurance, water, 
 lights, fuel, etc. 
 
 8. Charge all incidental expenses, such as drayage, postage, 
 office supplies, livery or expenses of horses and wagons, 
 telegrams and telephones, advertising, canvassing, etc. 
 
 9. Charge losses of every character, including goods stolen or 
 sent out and not charged, allowance made customers, bad 
 debts, etc. 
 
 10. Charge collection expense. 
 
 11. Charge any other expense not enumerated above. 
 
 12. When you have ascertained what the sum of all the fore- 
 going items amounts to, prove it by your books, and you 
 will have your total expense for the year; then divide this 
 figure by the total of your sales, and it will show you the 
 per cent which it has cost you to do business. 
 
 13. Take this percent and deduct it from the price of any 
 article you have sold, then subtract from the remainder what 
 it cost you finvoice price and freight), and the result will 
 show your net profit or loss on the article. 
 
 14. Go over the selling prices of the various articles you handle 
 and see where you stand as to profits, then get busy in 
 putting your selling figures on a profitable basis and talk it 
 over with your competitor as well. 
 
 44 
 
Fixing Prices to Get a Profit 
 
 "Nine- tenths of all retailers are making 
 less than they think they are. They are 
 always surprised when they find it out." 
 
 A RETAIL hardware store in a small Wisconsin 
 town, had been dragging along for several years, 
 supposedly making a profit. 
 Three differ- 
 
 CAPITAL 
 SUNK 
 
 ent men had 
 gone into part- 
 nership with the 
 original owner 
 and after a year 
 or so had with- 
 drawn, leaving 
 a part of jtheir 
 capital behind them as ''pay" for the ''experience.." 
 
 The fourth partner was a young accountant who had 
 spent a year in the accounting department, and another 
 year in the selling department, of a city store. 
 
 When he formed the partnership in the Country 
 store, he determined to find out just how things stood — 
 though he didn't know the store had already frozen out 
 three partners. 
 
 He soon learned that most of the hardware man's 
 profits were imaginary. While the sales ran to a nice 
 figure, the profits were mostly on paper. 
 
 His trouble was that while estimating his cost of 
 ^doing business as a certain percentage of the gross 
 business, which is the selling price, he added this same 
 percentage to the cost price when figuring the selling 
 prices of individual items. 
 
 45 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 He knew that the percentage of his expenses was 
 figured on the gross business, but he didn't realize that 
 a percentage of the gross business is more than the 
 same percentage of the invoice cost. 
 
 If you figure your cost of doing business as a per- 
 centage of your gross business, you must, of course, 
 allow that much of your selling price for cost of doing 
 business. 
 
 When you sell $1 worth of goods, you say that a 
 certain percent of that is profit, a certain percent goes 
 for cost of doing business and the balance is for the 
 
 cost of the goods. 
 
 Take some item in your 
 stock and deduct the two per- 
 centages from the selling 
 price you have established 
 and see if you still have the 
 cost price left. 
 
 Your profits and cost of 
 "-taking part of each dollar-" doing busiucss come out of 
 
 the dollar you take in — not out of the 60 or 70 or 
 80 cents you pay out for the article. 
 
 If you buy a pair of shoes for $2 and sell them for 
 $3, your profit comes out of the $3— not the $2. The 
 profit can only come out of the selling price. 
 
 Get that straight — when the $2 is invested in the 
 pair of shoes, it is gone. There is no $2 anymore. 
 There is no money at all — nothing but a pair of 
 shoes. 
 
 If you don't sell the shoes, there will never be any 
 profit. But if you do sell the shoes, you have $3 or 
 whatever you sell them for — you never see the $2. 
 
 Since you have nothing left but the $3, your 
 profit can only come out of that. Everything comes 
 out of the $3. Nothing can come out of the $2. That 
 
 46 
 
FIXING PRICES TO GET A PROFIT 
 
 goes to pay for the goods. The $1 left after the goods 
 are paid for is a part of the $3. 
 
 In the hardware store referred to goods were 
 marked by adding what was really a percentage of 
 the selling price to the cost price. 
 
 This mixing of methods resulted in a loss, except 
 on a few articles which permitted a very high percent- 
 age of profit. 
 
 Where there was competition on an article, 18% 0/ 
 the cost price was added for cost of doing business, and 
 10% of the cost price, was added for profit. 
 
 This net profit of 10%, looked good ''on paper," 
 but that was the only place it could be found. It 
 wasn't in the cash drawer. It never got into the bank. 
 The manager never saw it in money. 
 
 The real cost of doing business was 22% instead of 
 18%. Part of the expenses had been figured as in- 
 vestment. Other items had not been included at all. 
 
 If you think he 'could make a profit on that basis, 
 try to figure it out. Add 28% to $1 ; then subtract 22% 
 from the selling price it gives you. 
 
 Adding 28% to $1 gives you 
 $1.28. 22% of $1.28 is 28.2 cents. 
 His real cost of doing business, 
 22%, taken from the selling price, 
 amounted to more than his 28% 
 added to the cost price. 
 
 A Michigan grocer did a gross 
 business of $20,000 last year. 
 His cost of doing business, includ- "-'^''^ •'"* *" '^°'*'-" 
 ing spoilage of goods, etc., was $4,600, or 23%, and he 
 figured for 10% net profit. 
 
 His purchases during the year aggregated $15,000. 
 To this he added, in the process of marking each item 
 
 47 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 during the year, the gross profit he wanted to make, 
 33%, making the goods sell at $20,000. 
 
 His banker asked him recently how much profit he 
 made last year. He said $2,000—10% on his $20,000 
 gross business. 
 
 He made the mistake of assuming that 33% added 
 to his cost was the same as 33% of his selling price. 
 
 Let's see how far he was 
 wrong; 33% added to $15,000 
 makes $19,950. (He evi- 
 dently added a little more 
 than 33% to some items.) 
 33% taken from $20,000 
 leaves $13,400. 
 
 If he paid $15,000 for the goods he sold 
 for $20,000, and his cost of doing business 
 was $4,600, his net profit was only $400. $400 is only 
 2% on $20,000. 
 
 If your profit is to come out of the selling price, and 
 not out of the cost price, it is plain that the percentages 
 should be figured on the selling price. 
 
 In the hardware store referred to they handled a 
 certain kind of stove which was also handlecj by a 
 competitor. The wholesale price was $9.25, and the 
 freight and cartage were 75 cents, making the stove 
 cost $10, set down in the store. 
 
 Competition was very keen on this stove and it was 
 decided to cut the profit to 10% net. So 18% of the 
 cost was added for cost of doing business and 10% for 
 profit, making the stove sell at $12.80. 
 
 The hardware man thought he was making a profit 
 of $1 . Let us see what the new partner, an accountant, 
 showed him: 
 
 The real cost of doing business, as already explained. 
 
 48 
 
FIXING PRICES TO GET A PROFIT 
 
 was 22% instead of 18%, but the accountant figured it 
 first on the 18% to illustrate the principle. 
 
 If the article cost $10 and it was desired to make 
 28% gross profit, we must consider the selling price as 
 100%, and the cost price as 72%, or all of that 100% 
 except the gross profit of 28%. 
 
 Now if $10 is 72% of the selling price, the selling 
 price must be $13.89. 
 
 Here is the way to work it out : 
 
 Selling price 100% 
 
 Cost to do business . 18% 
 
 Profit desired 10% 28% 
 
 Wholesale cost 72%^ 
 
 $13.888 Answer 
 Cost price, in percentage, .72)$10.0000 Cost in money. 
 
 -t\ 2 80 
 
 ^16 
 640 
 576 
 
 \^ 640 
 
 >^ 576 • 
 
 astonished Otc 
 
 Selling price, $13.89. 
 
 Reducing the problem back, to prove it, we have : 
 
 $13.89 Selling price. 
 ^ Percentage. 
 
 111.12 
 
 277 8 
 $3.88 92 Gross profit in dollars. 
 
 $13.89 Selling price. 
 3 . 89 Gross profit. 
 
 $10700 Cost price. 
 From this it seems clear that the selling price should 
 have been $1.09 higher than it was, to allow 10% net 
 
 49 
 
 f 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 profit, after allowing 18% for cost of doing business. 
 
 In reality it took $2.30 of the $2.80 gross profits to 
 cover the 18% cost of doing business. 
 
 But his real cost of doing business was 22%, instead 
 of 18%. So the cost price should have been but 68% 
 of the correct selling price. (22% and 10% subtracted 
 from 100% leaves 68%.) 
 
 Figuring the same as before, $10 is 68% of $U.70» 
 which is $1.90 above the price at which the stoves were 
 actually sold. 
 
 Taking 22% out of $14.70 for cost of doing busi- 
 ness and 10% for profit leaves almost exactly $10. 
 
 Practically all merchants figure their cost of doing 
 business as a percentage of the gross sales, the selling 
 price. Yet a large percentage of them figure as if this 
 were a percentage of the cost price. 
 
 Changing the base of figuring is dangerous. It 
 fools Retailers into thinking they are getting more 
 profit than they really are. Here is a case which 
 illustrates that point. 
 
 A certain clothier, who was figuring for 30% net 
 profit, planned a special ''25% off" sale. He thought 
 he would still make 5% net, and could afford to sacrifice 
 part of his profit for advertising purposes. 
 
 Suits marked to sell at $20 were reduced 25%, or 
 chopped down to $15. 
 
 These suits cost $13.50. Twenty percent was added 
 for cost of doing business and 30% for profit, making 
 the selling price a fraction over the $20. 
 
 Twenty percent cost of doing business on the original 
 marked price ($20) is $4. Adding $4 to $13.50 (cost 
 price) gives us $17.50. So when he sold that suit at 
 $15 he actually lost $2.50. 
 
 During the sale he disposed of $3,000 worth of 
 
 50 
 
FIXING PRICES TO GET A PROFIT 
 
 clothing — at a loss of $500 in cash. Yet he thought he 
 was making 5%, or $1.50. 
 
 He was all right as long as he added 50% to his cost 
 price, though it allowed him less profit above his cost 
 of doing business than he thought, but when he began 
 cutting prices, he ran into unseen danger. 
 
 Add 50% to $13.50. Then deduct 50% from the 
 new price. You lose $3.38 in the operation. 
 
 Apply this to some of your prices. 
 
 This method of arriving at selling prices differs 
 slightly from the regular methods of figuring per- 
 centages. We have found that while the regular per- 
 centage method is correct, many people fail to re- 
 member that a percentage added to the cost of goods 
 is less than the same percentage of the price thus 
 marked. 
 
 Adding 10% to the invoice cost of an article, allows 
 10% profit on the 70 or 80 cents you pay for the goods 
 and not 10% of the dollar in the cash drawer. 
 
 If it were convenient to arrive at percentages on a 
 basis of the cost price, and to always remember that the 
 percent of profit added to the cost price is always a pro- 
 fit on the cost price and not a percentage of the money 
 taken in then the old percentage method would be fine. 
 
 51 
 
iifie alt; Lwo views of H. A. Ballou's up-to-the-minute paint store 
 in Worcester, Mass. A girl keeps the records which show Mr. Ballou 
 just what he accomplished yesterday as compared with the same day 
 last week, last month and a year ago. 
 
 52 
 
What a Sales Record Can 
 Teach You 
 
 "It is by knowing what has sold, that 
 the chain store fellows are able to make 
 such enormous sales on such a small stock." 
 
 THE banana man who sells his entire stock of 
 bananas every night can tell you the exact num- 
 ber of bananas purchased and the exact number sold 
 during any business day. 
 
 He knows all there is to 
 know about the ''sales end" 
 of his business. It isn't guess 
 work with him. He knows 
 absolutely what he has done ; 
 what he has sold; what he 
 has purchased; what profit he 
 has made. 
 
 With him each day's business is a separate business, 
 just as much so as if he were a banana merchant on 
 Monday, a peanut vender on Tuesday, and a baseball 
 player on Wednesday. 
 
 If he overbuys, he just cuts the price to make his 
 stock move. He doesn't carry any dead stock. It 
 isn't necessary to take an inventory at the end of the 
 day to find out how much stock he has. He has none. 
 
 What he doesn't know about his sales and purchases 
 isn't worth bothering about. 
 
 He has a ''statement of his business" that makes 
 him look like a wizard compared to most retailers. 
 
 He has sales analysis down to a fine point. 
 
 Yet the banana man doesn't need to keep books. 
 
 53 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 He has only one line of goods; he is his own and only- 
 clerk; he closes out his business every day — it is com- 
 paratively simple to arrive at all the sales facts. 
 
 But even the smallest retailer has a much more 
 complicated business. 
 
 The average retailer has many lines of goods. He 
 has several clerks. He doesn't close out his business 
 every day. It continues from day to day, week to 
 week and month to month. He doesn't even close it 
 out at the end of the year. 
 
 On account of its being bigger, he can't know as 
 much about his business unless he uses bigger methods 
 for getting the information. 
 
 If a man has a mind big enough and magic enough 
 and superhuman enough to grasp all the details of a 
 big retail business and to store them up in his memory 
 for weeks and months — 
 
 Well, then, he would be wise enough to use records 
 instead of brain cells for a bookkeeping system 
 
 He would do just what all the successful retailers, 
 the chain store fellows, and the really successful one- 
 man businesses are doing. 
 
 There is a chain of big clothing stores, doing business 
 in a number of cities, employing from twenty-five to a 
 hundred clerks in each store, which can give you just as 
 complete information about its sales as can the banana 
 merchant who sells but one line of goods, has but one 
 clerk, and who closes out his business every day. 
 
 This chain store company is not unusual; its 
 methods are unusual only in that they are typical of 
 the methods of other successful merchants in every line 
 of business. 
 
 For every sale that is made in each of the stores 
 in this chain, the clerk makes out a sales slip giving 
 the name and amount of the goods sold and the price. 
 
 54 
 
WHAT A SALES RECORD CAN TEACH YOU 
 
 The bookkeeper tabulates this information and is 
 able to tell at the end of the day how much goods of 
 each line has been sold, the number and the amount of 
 the sales by each clerk, the number and the volume of 
 sales in each department, and number and the volume 
 gl I of sales in the entire store. 
 ^'' In the home office, the bookkeeper tabulates 
 
 this information so that the managers of the 
 great corporation which conducts the stores 
 ^j , can tell at a glance exactly what profit has 
 gjjjl been produced by each line of goods, and by 
 
 each clerk in each store. 
 «] 1 1 If the expenses in each store, for instance, 
 
 ^l\ 11 exceed by one-fourth of one percent the estab- 
 lished average on the total sales, that store is 
 going to hear from the Home 
 Office before long. 
 
 Each store is allowed about 10 
 to 103^% of its total sales as sal- 
 aries. After the Managers' salary 
 in each store is taken out and 
 allowance made for bookkeepers, 
 stenographers, janitors, watch- 
 men, etc., about 8J^% to 9% is 
 .„„ ..O.UC vn..c u.uu.a.«. Mt to pay thc clerks. 
 
 _J//(I sales from branch to • i i i i i • 
 
 g|j/ office records jf a smglc clerk shows sales m 
 
 such small amount as to raise the percentage 
 represented by his salary to above 9%, he will 
 very quickly hear from the Manager. 
 
 If the condition continues for any con- 
 
 Jj^ siderable length of time, the clerk is certain to 
 
 * be dropped and some one else put in his place 
 
 who can reduce the cost of sales behind his 
 
 counter to 9% or less. 
 
 If a clerk sells enough goods to bring the 
 
 55 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 percentage represented by his salary down to less than 
 8% of his sales, the management watches him and soon 
 raises his salary or promotes him. 
 
 And then if a certain line of collars, for instance, 
 doesn't sell as readily as some other line, the line which 
 sells best, (the store is in position to know what lines 
 sell best) will soon be the only line of collars carried — 
 the line which will be pushed. 
 
 With complete sales information these stores are 
 able to quickly eliminate the goods which won't sell 
 and to replace them with goods which will sell. 
 
 And no store which doesn't keep a complete record, 
 and which doesn't push lines which show a fair profit 
 and drop lines which don't, can long hope to compete 
 with stores like those in this chain. 
 
 Apply these methods to your business for a while 
 and see if you don't increase your sales and decrease 
 your ratio of expenses. 
 
 56 
 
Figuring Stock Turnovers 
 
 "Business is a tank of profits. Capital is a myriad of 
 sponges. The sponges should be constantly put into 
 the tank one at a time, then taken and squeezed dry." 
 
 A SHOE dealer bought ten pairs of shoes at $2 a pair 
 and sold them at $3 a pair, costing him $20 and 
 selling for $30. He turned his capital once, at 33 1-3% 
 gross profit on the selling price. -^ 
 
 An implement dealer bought a wheelbar- -^jw^^ 
 row at $2 and sold it for $3 
 bought and sold another and 
 another and another until he 
 had sold ten, costing him $20 
 and selling for $30. 
 
 He turned his capital ten 
 times ySt 33 1-3% on the selling 
 
 price at each turn. "-turning capital often- • 
 
 One merchant makes 33 1-3% on his investment. 
 The other makes 333 1-3%, gross. 
 
 The difference is that one man invests $20 once. 
 The other man invests $2 ten times. Both do a gross 
 business of $30. 
 
 If both had $20 at the start, the Implement Dealer 
 could have invested his other $18 in a dozen other 
 items. By the time the Shoe Dealer had sold his 
 whole ten pairs of shoes the Implement Dealer would 
 have sold ten each of the other twelve items. 
 
 Capital is turned once when it is invested in stock 
 and all the stock is sold. 
 
 In practice this becomes very complicated, because 
 a part of the capital invested is released almost im- 
 mediately and put back into additional stock. 
 
 57 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 I 
 
 This has the apparent effect, 
 on the books, of increasing the 
 investment. The purchase re- 
 cords show stock purchases very 
 much in excess of the capital 
 invested. Sales records show, 
 however, that this stock has been 
 sold. 
 
 "-turned capital once-' A Dry Goods man doing 
 
 $100,000 business per year on a $10,000 investment, 
 for instance, probably puts $60,000 to $70,000 into 
 stock — that is, re-invests his $10,000 capital from six 
 to seven times. 
 
 Knowing the amount of money originally invested, 
 the average amount of stock on hand and the total 
 amount of the purchase, the Retailer can arrive at the 
 number of times he has turned his capital without 
 reference to the amount of the gross business. Whether 
 he has turned it at a profit each time is another matter. 
 We have purchased $30,000 worth of goods. Our 
 stock averaged $5,000. Our original investment was 
 $5,000. 
 
 We have re-invested our money six times. We still 
 have the same amount of stock we had in the beginning. 
 So we have invested our capital six times. 
 
 The hardware man who has $10,000 worth of stock 
 when he takes his inventory needs to know the amount 
 of the purchases and the average stock on hand to arrive 
 at the number of his turnovers. 
 
 When he tries to figure the number of turnovers on 
 the gross business, he must allow for the profit on each 
 turn of his capital before he can know the number of 
 turnovers. He is working without a starting point. 
 
 If he knew the amount of the purchases and the 
 average amount of stock on hand, it would be an easy 
 
 58 
 
FIGURING STOCK TURNOVERS 
 
 matter to see that he has re- invested the amount 
 represented by his stock a certain number of times. 
 
 Suppose you had a gross business of $10, had stock on 
 hand worth $1, and knew that you averaged $1 worth 
 of stock during any given period, how many times 
 would you have turned the stock investment of $1? 
 
 Most retailers would jump to the conclusion that 
 you had turned it ten times. 
 
 Now, let's see. Suppose you made 50% gross 
 profit (based on selling price) at each turnover. Fifty 
 percent of $10 is $5, so your total stock investment 
 represented in the $10 gross business was only $5. 
 
 You turn your capital once when you sell all the 
 goods you have bought, regardless of the price at which 
 the goods are sold. 
 
 r>9 
 
w^ms^^^^s^^^^ 
 
 The Robinson & Jones Co., of Natick, Mass., are dealers in coal, 
 wood, brick, lime, grain, etc., and operate a grain elevator in connec- 
 tion. A daily report of business done, keeps the manager of this com- 
 pany in perfect touch with the varied business. 
 
 60 
 
The Purpose of the Inventory 
 
 "The Inventory is to the stock record what 
 counting the cash is to the cash register." 
 
 A CLERK in a retail dry goods store sold half a 
 dozen items to a customer for cash. As he was 
 wrapping up the order he slipped ten yards 
 of silk into the package. 
 
 When he rang up the sale on the cash reg- 
 ister it did not include the ten yards of silk. 
 
 The cash register didn't yell 
 ''murder," and there was no record 
 of the silk removed from stock. 
 
 When the owner of the store 
 counted his cash at night, he "— suppedioyds. ofsnk— •• 
 found in his cash register just the amount which the 
 tape showed should be there. 
 
 He thought his clerks were all honest. He never 
 suspected anything to the contrary. Yet this one 
 clerk was as crooked as the negro porter's kinky 
 hair. 
 
 At least a dozen of the customers of the store 
 always insisted upon being waited on by this one clerk. 
 Apparently it was friendship and good salesmanship. 
 In reality, in this case, it was — something else. 
 
 These customers, apparently among the best 
 customers of the store, came in almost every day. The 
 amount of goods they took away unpaid for, and un- 
 charged, however, much more than ate up the profit 
 on the goods for which they paid. 
 
 At the end of the year an inventory was taken. 
 But the method of taking inventory in this store wasn't 
 designed to uncover crookedness. It was only designed 
 
 61 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 to give the owner of the store a rough estimate of the 
 amount of goods on hand. 
 
 The inventory was not checked against the sales or 
 purchases. No stock record was kept. 
 
 About three years after this clerk was employed the 
 owner of the store decided that he should have a better 
 bookkeeping system. 
 
 Within a month after the complete system was put 
 in operation the crookedness of the clerk was discovered. 
 The loss was estimated at $5000 a year through the 
 dishonesty of this one clerk. 
 
 The merchant now takes an inventory four times a 
 year and keeps a stock record which enables him to 
 check his inventories against the stock he should have 
 on hand. It protects him and his clerks. 
 
 His purchase record shows him the exact amount 
 of stock bought of each line and of each division 
 in each line — shirts of different sizes, for instance. 
 When goods are sent from the stock room into 
 the store, the amount is recorded in the stock 
 book. 
 
 At the end of three months when the goods in the 
 store are inventoried, the amount on hand in the store, 
 and in the stock room, must balance with the stock as 
 shown on the stock record. 
 
 His new bookkeeping system departmentizes his 
 store in such a way that if any particular line of goods 
 was short he could at once trace the shortage to the 
 clerk who was in charge of that department. 
 
 A druggist in a little Pennsylvania town who had 
 never taken an inventory in the ten years he had been 
 in business, got pinched for money and decided to 
 check up his stock in the hope of raising money by a 
 clean up sale. 
 
 He found $15,000 worth more goods on his shelves 
 than he thought he had. 
 
 62 
 
THE PURPOSE OF THE INVENTORY 
 
 He thought he was carrying about 
 $10,000 worth of stock. In reality, he 
 was carrying $25,000 worth. He had 
 kept no records that enabled him to 
 know how much he had purchased; 
 how much goods he had sold; or the 
 amount of profits he had made. 
 
 If his store had burned out before 
 taking his inventory he would have been 
 satisfied with $10,000 from the insur- "-carrying heavy stock- 
 ance companies. He would not have known that he 
 was figuring himself out of $15,000. 
 
 After he took his inventory he was so astonished 
 at what he found that he decided to put in a system 
 which would enable him to know exactly where he 
 stood all the time. 
 
 With an accurate system he was soon able to reduce 
 the amount of stock he carried and to make a great 
 deal more money. 
 
 The amount of capital released by the up-to-date 
 methods enabled him to meet his bills and open another 
 store. Now he conducts half a dozen stores. 
 
 An inventory without a stock record affords no 
 check against the goods which should show in the in- 
 ventory. A stock record without an inventory affords 
 no check against the theft of goods from stock. 
 
 The inventory is to the stock record what the 
 counting of cash is to the cash register. 
 
 Running along from year to year without knowing 
 what stock you have on hand is no more business-like 
 than going along from day to day without knowing what 
 money is in the cash drawer. 
 
 Are you only guessing at the amount of stock you 
 have on hand? Is your inventory only an estimate of 
 the amount of goods you should have. 
 
 Can you honestly say that you are able to make as 
 much money out of your business without really 
 knowing all there is to know about it, as you could make 
 out of it if you did have the information at your 
 fingers' ends. Be honest with yourself. 
 
 63 
 
Frank L. Feisler, of Erie, Pa., is very enthusiastic about his sys- 
 tem of accounting. A year ago he declared his old system was en- 
 tirely adequate. No inducement would cause him to go back to it now. 
 
 64 
 
* 'Weighing" Employees 
 
 "In scientifically managed stores, every 
 clerk is a sales Barometer whose readings 
 are always visible to the manager." 
 
 THE head of a big Chicago department store, look- 
 ing over the sales figures for the month, noticed 
 that the clothing department showed a slight falling 
 off from the preceding month and from the correspond- 
 ing month of the preceding year. 
 
 On examining the reports 
 for the sales of each employee 
 in the department, he found that 
 three of them had made less 
 sales than during the preceding 
 month, or during the corres- 
 ponding month of the preced- 
 ing year. 
 
 A further study of the figures proved that these 
 three clerks had shown a steady falling off, while the 
 other two clerks in the same department had gradually 
 built up their sales. 
 
 The two clerks were costing about 83^^ per cent on 
 their gross sales as against 91/2 percent for the same 
 clerks for the preceding year, a nice increase in efficiency. 
 The other three clerks, who showed a falling off, 
 were costing around 11 to 12 per cent. That is, their 
 salaries equalled 11 to 12 per cent of their gross sales. 
 
 This brought the salary cost for the department up 
 to 103/^ to 11 per cent of the sales. 
 
 It wasn't necessary for the manager to call in 
 the Department head. No conferences were necessary. 
 The figures told the whole story. Two of the five 
 
 65 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 clerks were good clerks 
 and three of the five 
 were unprofitable, 
 inefficient. 
 
 In a month the De- 
 partment sales had 
 picked up until the sal- 
 ary cost was down to 
 
 " — Two clerks beat sales of three others — " the reOfUlar 9^ DeT 
 
 cent — five good clerks were handling the sales. 
 
 In the big stores, clerks are judged and paid on a 
 basis of the amount of goods they sell. If a clerk is 
 paid $6 a week, she must sell goods to the aggregate of 
 between $65 and $70 a week. That is, her salary 
 cannot exceed 9}4 per cent of her sales. 
 
 There is no guess work about the value of employees 
 in the scientifically managed stores. Employees are 
 judged wholly by what they do, and the figures which 
 are furnished to the head of the store are figures which 
 enable him to absolutely know, without a question of 
 doubt, what every clerk is doing and what he is worth. 
 
 Every employee is a Barometer, whose readings, in 
 dollars of sales and percent of cost, are a!lways on file in 
 the manager's office. 
 
 If the salary runs to 8 or 7 per cent the employee is 
 scheduled for a raise. If it runs down to 5 or 4 per 
 cent the employee will soon be promoted. 
 
 Have you ever puzzled over the problem of whether 
 to raise the salary of a certain employee who is looking 
 for a better job? 
 
 Have you ever wondered whether the old employee 
 who seems satisfied to stay on with you year after year 
 without much increase in salary is really worth what 
 he is getting? 
 
 If you have more than one clerk, are you absolutely 
 sure which is the best one? 
 
•WEIGHING" EMPLOYEES 
 
 Do you know whether one of them is making him- 
 self ''solid" with your customers by giving them long 
 measures and over-weights? 
 
 Do you know whether the clerk who sells most 
 goods is really bringing in the most profits or just selling 
 the goods that go easiest? 
 
 Wouldn't it put some warmth in your words when 
 you tell John that you are going to give him that extra 
 dollar a week he asked for, if you could turn to your 
 records and see that John had been showing a steady 
 increase in sales day by day and week by week for 
 many months past? 
 
 And wouldn't it put backbone into your decision 
 not to give Henry a raise when you could see by your 
 records that his sales were showing a steady falling off? 
 Maybe you could even find another ''John" to take 
 his place. 
 
 Let John and Henry make out a sales slip for each 
 sale. Have the figures on these slips tabulated by 
 days, then recapitulated into months. Then you can 
 know, all the time, which is the best clerk. 
 
 It wouldn't take much time. The big stores find 
 that it pays big dividends in "weighing" clerks, in the 
 prevention of mistakes, in supplying information about 
 sales by lines of goods, by clerks, etc. 
 
 It costs them as much per clerk as it would you. 
 Some of them have as high as 5,000 clerks, all making 
 out sales slips on every sale. 
 
 The average big store can find out more about the 
 sales ability of any one of its 5,000 clerks in five minutes 
 than the average small store could tell about its one 
 clerk in a whole month. 
 
 The success of big stores proves that it pays to keep 
 records. Are you going to let the big fellows crowd 
 you out of business, or are you going to defend your- 
 self with the weapons they have sharpened for you. 
 
 67 
 
Moody & Moody, dry goods and clothing:, and the Monroe Mercan- 
 tile Co., grocers and butchers, are located on opposite sides of the 
 street in Monroe, Wash. Both keep records which enable them to know 
 where they stand, all the time. 
 
er 
 
 E.2.. MERpAA.NT 
 
 111 
 
 aEEj 
 
 Cutting the Delivery Cost 
 to One-third 
 
 "An organizer is better than a hard worker: 
 The man who wastes time over small things, 
 has little time to look after big things." 
 
 ALIVE retailer in the suburbs of Boston, found him 
 self maintaining nine delivery wagons. 
 
 He could not afford that. It kA 
 
 was eating up his profits. It was /^^v 
 
 a big drag on his little business. rvW ^ 
 
 He set about investigating -^* 
 modern methods of delivery. He 
 cut the number of wagons to four 
 by solving his problem in this way: 
 
 A card was prepared and sent "-wgh delivery expense.-- 
 out to all customers explaining to them that by system- 
 atizing his delivery he had cut the expense of selling 
 goods. 
 
 A cut in the expense meant smaller prices, a saving 
 of money, to customers. 
 
 The delivery territory was divided into four dis- 
 tricts and the number of deliveries cut to two a day. 
 
 Each customer received a card with her name 
 written in, giving the hours of delivery for that district. 
 
 Several customers resented systematized delivery 
 andjthreatened to quit if they could not get groceries at 
 any hour of the day. The grocery man stood pat. 
 
 A few customers did quit, but when they came 
 square up against the facts and found that systematized 
 delivery did mean better prices, they forgot their desire 
 for every-hour-service. 
 
 In a month they had all come back, with many 
 
 69 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 additional ones. They found that they, not the grocer, 
 paid the delivery bills. 
 
 Every wagon left the store at 8 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Up to 8 o'clock the telephones were busy for 
 morning deliveries. Later in the day they were busy 
 for afternoon deliveries. 
 
 Each telephone order was considered exactly as an 
 order given over the counter. 
 
 A sales slip was made out in duplicate, one copy 
 going to the customer with the goods and the other 
 going to the bookkeeper to be used in working the 
 sales statement. 
 
 Drivers were given proper memorandum to enable 
 them to make collections and to give the cashier a 
 check on their collections. 
 
 This system worked so well and gave such satis- 
 faction that the number of wagons has since been cut 
 to three, with business continually increasing. 
 
 At $25 a week for each wagon that means a saving 
 of $150 a week — more than $7,800 a year! 
 
 A grocer can't afford to deliver a 
 can of corn '4n a hurry, for dinner" 
 without somebody paying the bill. 
 
 Even with systematized delivery 
 the cost averages about five to six cents 
 per order for delivery — about 1}^ per 
 cent of the gross sales. 
 
 The hurry-up order delivered sep- 
 arately costs a great deal more. An 
 unscientific delivery system may cost as -»" * '^""y f°' '^•°"«^— " 
 high as 3 percent or 4 percent of the gross sales! 
 
 Is the grocer going to add that to the cost of doing 
 business, making somebody pay the bill? 
 
 If he does, that will increase his expenses and makes 
 
 70 
 
CUTTING THE DELIVERY COST TO ONE-THIRD 
 
 it necessary for him to cut his profit or raise his prices 
 to everybody — that will drive away business. 
 
 He cannot add it to each individual bill. That 
 would surely drive away all his business, one customer 
 at a time. 
 
 Any grocer who now maintains one delivery wagon 
 can double or triple his delivery service by systematiz- 
 ing the delivery. 
 
 Any grocer who now has use for three delivery 
 wagons can save the cost of two with scientific methods 
 — he can save the expense of two delivery outfits — $30 
 to $60 a week. 
 
 System saves money. Systematizing any work 
 reduces the expense of doing that work. 
 
 That deliveries can be systematized has been de- 
 monstrated by all big city stores — and by many 
 little country stores. 
 
 71 
 
The middle photo shows Rowland, Texas, where the Howland Mer- 
 cantile Company's store (shown In the top picture) is located. The 
 lower photo shows the general store of J. B. TuU, Kennewick, Wash. 
 Both of these are live stores. 
 
 72 
 
Accounting Good at the Bank 
 
 "The sort of man the banks says No to 
 is the man who doesn't know all the 
 facts about his business." — System. 
 
 HENRY JOHNSON was a small grocer whose 
 specialty was fresh eggs and good butter. 
 
 His trade increased under the stimulus of right 
 methods and new clerks were employed. Finally his 
 business reached a point where much larger quarters 
 and better facilities were necessary. 
 
 He kept his own books, consisting of a daybook 
 and a ledger and didn't see a need for anything better. 
 
 The time came, however, when more credit was 
 needed to meet the demands of his increased business. 
 He went to the bank to seek an accommodation. 
 
 His banker asked him for a statement of his affairs. 
 Of course he was unable to give a satisfactory state- 
 ment and the loan was deferred. 
 
 This was a rather rude awakening to the necessities 
 of his business. He took the banker's advice and 
 called in an auditor. 
 
 The auditor told him that it would be necessary to 
 adapt his system of accounts to meet the changed 
 conditions of his business. 
 
 His single-entry books had been all right to start 
 with, but they were now too incomplete. The com- 
 pleting entries must be made at frequent and regular 
 intervals. 
 
 Additional accounts had to be opened and the 
 books kept in such a way that he could know at all 
 times just where it stood. 
 
 In short, he needed to know as much about his 
 
 73 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 hig business now as he was able to know about his 
 business when it was little. 
 
 The auditor's advice was followed. The system 
 recommended was installed, and a competent book- 
 keeper was put in charge. 
 
 Mr. Johnson soon realized that he could now do 
 what he had long desired to do — branch out. It was 
 no longer a necessity for him to be constantly on 
 the job to know what was being done. 
 
 Today Mr. Johnson has a string of 
 , stores and is known as the ''Grocery King" 
 of his city. 
 
 He has long since ceased to be the 
 sort of man the bank says No to. He 
 knows the detail facts about his business 
 so well that his bank has all kinds of 
 confidence in him. 
 '•-Grocery King- • "TheYB BTB lots of busluess meu who 
 don't really know much about their business — bright, 
 industrious, business men," said a Banker. 
 
 "There's a popular notion that a man may be 
 expected to know his own business. As a banker, 
 I've grown skeptical about it. 
 
 "A man may be at his desk every day and not 
 really know what's happening in his store. 
 
 "The thing that shows whether a business man's 
 request for credit is right or not is the statement he 
 shows you. 
 
 "Most banks now use special forms and reports 
 that enable us to know the direction in which most 
 of our prospective customers are going." 
 
 Every merchant keeps some kind of records. But 
 most of them keep accounts which don't account. 
 
 Some merchants neglect to keep complete records 
 because it costs money, hut they pay for the records 
 
 74 
 
ACCOUNTING GOOD AT THE BANK 
 
 anyway, whether they keep them or not. In fact 
 they pay most for the records they donH keep. 
 
 Doing without a thing which is needed does not 
 save its cost. It always costs more to do without 
 a thing which is really needed than the thing itself 
 would cost. 
 
 W. D. Simmons, head of the great Simmons Hard- 
 ware Company, tells the story of a retailer who went 
 broke because he failed to realize the importance of 
 being able at any time to show his creditors just how 
 his business stood. 
 
 He didn't keep proper records of the details of 
 his business. When he got into a close pinch and 
 needed credit or additional capital he couldn't show 
 his banker nor the supply house, any good reason 
 why they should have confidence in him. 
 
 Things had gone so far before he really knew the 
 conditions he was facing, that he couldn't possibly 
 save himself. He was broke before he knew it. 
 
 ''In talking with him, afterwards," said Mr. Sim- 
 mons, '1 found that he had thought if he kept track 
 of his invoices until they were paid, so as to know how 
 much he owed and to whom, and kept a record of 
 the amount of money different people owed him, that 
 was really all that was necessary. 
 
 "Any records 
 other than those, he 
 thought, were 'fool- 
 ishness', and just 
 made extra work." 
 
 Every merchant 
 
 has an accounting '-many stores for sale-- 
 
 system that he considers sufficient for his business. 
 Most of them even think it the best system that could 
 he designed for their business. 
 
 75 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 That is why so many retail stores are for sale- 
 why only a bare 5% of all Retailers really make a 
 success of their business. 
 
 That is why so many of them, like the hardware 
 man Mr. Simmons tells about, are unable to get credit 
 in a pinch. 
 
 As a test could you prepare a statement of your 
 business on short notice that you, as a banker, would 
 be willing to loan depositors' money on? 
 
 Could you produce a statement of your business 
 in 24 hours that would convince a cold-blooded, hard- 
 headed creditor that you really know your business? 
 
 If you can't, you may come down to the store some 
 morning and find the sheriff ready to sell you out to 
 satisfy some fool creditor to whom you can't frove that 
 you are making money. 
 
 Storms break very quickly, sometimes. Be ready 
 for yours when it comes. 
 
 76 
 
The Boss' Eye 
 
 "TT'ES, all these things are true," says the retailer, 
 J- ''but how am I going to stop these leaks. I 
 may be so busy out on the sidewalk selling turnips 
 that I don't know the molasses barrel is leaking 
 in the cellar." 
 
 " — a system will not DO anything — " 
 
 That is just why this book was written. No pro- 
 prietor who is selling on the sidewalk, or behind the 
 counter for that matter, can keep track of all the leaks, 
 unless he is in a one-man business and is selling every- 
 thing for cash to those who carry the goods home. 
 
 Then, the goods on the shelves, and the cash in 
 the bank and in the cash drawer, are his assets. 
 
 He may be able to sell the goods, or make a physi- 
 cal inventory, in a single day^-and count his money 
 in a few minutes. 
 
 What he owes are his Uahilities. 
 
 77 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 Everything is under his own physical eye : he ieould 
 tell in a short time just what he is worth. 
 
 When he begins selling on credit, enlarges his busi- 
 ness by adding one or fifty or a hundred employees, 
 buys goods that are stored below and above, and 
 starts a delivery department, then he no longer has 
 the business under his eye — the molasses barrel may 
 empty itself without his being the wiser. Hence he 
 must have a system that will keep a record of the re- 
 sults of all the activities of his people — of the incoming 
 and outgoing of the goods (which represent his money) 
 — ^that will tell him the true value of all this activity. 
 
 Any system is just a method by which the Boss 
 may keep his eye on the results of his business. With 
 an adequate system he can have in one place an accu- 
 rate reflection of all that goes on in his business. 
 
 The system is an accounting system, because it 
 accounts to him for every penny that he gets and every 
 penny he pays out, in time, work or goods. 
 
 According to the thoroughness and efficiency of 
 
 78 
 
THE BOSS' EYE 
 
 the system in searching out and telling the whole 
 truth about the activities of the business depends 
 whether the Boss' Eye has a chance to see the things 
 it ought to see. 
 
 If the System is right, then it is up to the Eye to 
 see the facts, and the Judgment to use them. 
 
 The System will not do anything. It will only 
 show the Eye what ought to he done. 
 
 It all comes back to the Boss with the Eye. 
 
 No matter how handsomely bound, or prettily ruled 
 the pages of the account books — no matter how bright 
 and new his pens and blotters, or how polished the 
 cash register and how modern the adding machine — 
 these alone won't make a business successful. 
 
 They are only the most efficient means by which 
 to attain an end. 
 
 No matter, on the other hand, how clever the 
 merchant — if he has no books of account, or if he has 
 incomplete accounting books and inefficient methods 
 of handling them, he can't make the profits of the man 
 who is his equal in merchandising ability and who has 
 a thorough system, efficiently handled. 
 
 All businesses are ''different" — ^because each one 
 has an individuality — just as all horses are ''different," 
 but there are certain horse qualities common to all. 
 
 So all retail businesses are alike in the things which 
 make them retailers and not manufacturers, or rail- 
 roads or even wholesalers. 
 
 All accounting principles are the same — always: 
 but the methods of applying them may vary. 
 
 You may have loose-leaf books or card-ledgers, 
 but your debit and credit will be the same: you may 
 use a cash register, but you'll have to have a double 
 entry set of books, or your credit won't be as good as 
 the credit of the man who does have such a set of books. 
 
 79 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 Assets 
 
 Horses & Wagons 
 Furniture & Fixtures 
 Inventory of Stock (By Depts.) 
 Freight on Purchases (By Depts) 
 Customers Ledger Controlling 
 Account 
 
 (Individual accounts may be kept in 
 the same bmder with the general 
 ledger, but should be grouped by 
 themselves.) 
 
 Bills Receivable 
 Cash in Bank 
 Petty Cash 
 Prepaid Insurance 
 Proprietor's Personal Account 
 
 Liabilities 
 
 Capital Account 
 Audited Vouchers 
 
 (Controlling Voucher 
 Record.) 
 
 Accounts Payable 
 
 (Controlling Individual 
 Accounts of Shippers.) 
 
 Accrued Taxes 
 Bills Payable 
 Reserved for Doubtful 
 
 Accounts 
 Reserved for Depreciation 
 Profit & Loss 
 
 Expense Accounts 
 
 Salaries r 
 
 Rent, Light & Heat | 
 
 Store Supplies 
 
 Advertising 
 
 Insurance 
 
 Stable Expense 
 
 Printing & Stationery 
 
 Postage 
 
 Telephone & Telegraph 
 
 Discounts, Allowances & 
 
 Exchange 
 Bad Debts 
 Taxes 
 
 Depreciation 
 Miscellaneous Expense 
 
 These 
 Accounts 
 to be kept 
 
 Depart- 
 ments 
 
 Revenue Accounts 
 
 Sales & Cost of Sales 
 
 (By Departments.) 
 
 Cash Discounts Received 
 Other Income (Itemize.) 
 
 80 
 
THE BOSS' EYE 
 
 The other day a retailer who had been doing a fair 
 business, said: ''My business has been increasing 
 right along year after year, and very much more than 
 expenses have increased. So it seems to me, that I 
 ought to be making quite a little more money' than I am." 
 
 He consulted an old business friend about it. 
 
 They looked over his books, which, had been care- 
 fully kept by a young man who had "picked up book- 
 keeping." 
 
 It soon appeared that the retailer's books were 
 not kept so he could show how the gross profits of any 
 month compared with any other month. The books 
 could not show for any particular period whether 
 expenses had increased out of proportion to other 
 things. 
 
 Then his friend's expert bookkeeper was put to 
 work— and he soon found that a trusted employee 
 had been stealing the profits. 
 
 The ineffective accounting method couldn't show 
 that fact — therefore the Boss' Eye could not see it. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this little book to show a 
 retailer how to install a system of accounts. He should 
 have that done for him by a man who studies his 
 business and its requirements. It is our purpose to 
 show him why he should have all the facts. 
 
 On page 80 is shown a list of accounts which 
 a retailer who rents his store, makes his own 
 deliveries and has, or has not, a perpetual detailed 
 inventory, must have, to intelligently manage his 
 business. 
 
 This list is offered merely to show the kinds of in- 
 formation which a retailer must have to be safe. 
 
 Remember, there are three things you must answer: 
 
 1 — Where is your cash and how much have you? 
 
 2 — How much do you owe? 
 
 81 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 3 — Where's the stock you bought, how much have 
 you sold, and how much have you on your shelves? 
 
 If you have a system of accounts that tell you these 
 things, you have: 
 
 1 — Protected yourself in knowing what you are 
 doing and by knowing the value of your activity. 
 
 2 — Protected your family — your wife and children 
 — so when you are called away, your administrator or 
 executor won't have to report that ''he left his estate 
 in a badly tangled condition." Neither will they 
 lose through most of what you leave being eaten up 
 in the process of untangling of your affairs. 
 
 3 — Protected yourself against fire loss, because 
 without a system of accounts you would probably be 
 unable to prove more than 60 or 70 percent of your loss. 
 
 4 — Given yourself a chance to use all the credit 
 you are entitled to at the bank, by having an ac- 
 counting system that shows what you are doing, and 
 that you know what you are doing. 
 
 Now, get started right on this matter of an ac- 
 counting system. 
 
 Don't fool with make-shift systems — short cut ideas 
 that cut the essential facts out of the statements you 
 get. 
 
 A great manufacturer of accounting systems largely 
 used by retailers wrote the writer the other day: 
 
 '1 have from my experience come to know that 
 the rank and file of small retail merchants care little 
 or nothing about system in their business, and this 
 accounts for the large proportion of failures. Even 
 after we succeed in installing one of our systems very 
 few of them will use it correctly; therefore, their 
 success with it is limited. They merely want a system 
 or device that will relieve them of the bookkeeping, 
 
 82 
 
THE BOSS' EYE 
 
 yet they are not willing to do the little extra work 
 necessary to compile the comparative statements of 
 their business which would enable them to more in- 
 telligently determine just what progress they are 
 making." 
 
 Get the facts. Hire a bookkeeper who knows how 
 to help you. Get started right. Then have an expert 
 come in once in a while (say every three months) and 
 check up your work — just to keep you on the right 
 track. 
 
 Then keep your Eye on the Expense and Income 
 accounts. 
 
 When the former jumps, dig into it and find out 
 why. 
 
 When the latter decreases, dig again and find the 
 reason; when it increases, find out what produces the 
 effect, and push that good thing for all you are worth. 
 
 Keep your Eye on the facts of the business. It 
 can't see too many, and you can't know too much 
 about what those facts really mean. 
 
 That is why the big business has an accounting 
 system: and why no permanently successful business, 
 big or little, has ever gotten along without an adequate 
 bookkeeping system. 
 
 No business man has ever been a failure because 
 he had a bookkeeping system. No business man has 
 ever been successful because he didn't have one. 
 
 83 
 
L. C. Thayer's booth In one of the Boston Markets is so small he 
 has limited his office to 3x4 feet and operates his adding machine on 
 a shelf. The lower picture was taken through a window because It 
 was too small to get the camera into. It shows the office of A. C. 
 Candor, hardware, of Lock Haven, Pa. 
 
 84 
 
Paying For What You 
 Don't Get 
 
 "If a man needs a thing in his business, 
 it is likely to cost more not to supply the 
 need than the thing itself would cost." 
 
 A DRUMMER, walking into a hardware and imple- 
 ment store in the corn belt, found the proprietor 
 back in the warehouse setting up a stove. 
 
 After watching the 
 work for a few minutes 
 the drummer interrupted 
 him. 
 
 ''There's a chance for 
 a man to get a good place 
 as manager of a big store 
 down the state, " he be- .-boss setting up a stove- 
 gan. It's owned by a stock company, 
 they're without a manager." 
 
 'The position will pay $200 a month to the right 
 man. I'd like to find some hustling fellow I could 
 put them in touch with. They're good customers of 
 the house." 
 
 "Say, that looks good to me.^" the merchant re- 
 turned. ''You know I've found it pretty hard here, 
 for lack of capital. / wouldn't mind making a change 
 if I could get a place like that." 
 
 "Do you consider yourself a 
 
 At present 
 
 the 
 
 $200 man?" 
 drummer asked, with a twinkle in his eye. 
 
 "I certainly do/" 
 
 "Well, you wouldn't do at all. That company 
 wouldn't stand for a manager who spends his time 
 
 85 
 
. A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 putting up stoves while a $60 clerk is out in the store 
 trying to sell a hard customer." 
 
 The drummer may have been only joshing about 
 the $200 job to teach the hardware man a lesson, 
 but the story has a point just the same. 
 
 A man who allowed himself a salary of $200 a 
 month was doing his own bookkeeping by hand. 
 
 He spent two hours a day on his books, not in- 
 cluding the monthly trial balance. 
 
 At that rate it cost him about $1.75 a day, $45 a 
 month, to keep his books. 
 
 He bought a Burroughs Bookkeeping Machine. 
 Immediately he cut the amount of the time required 
 to one-half. This gave him even better records at a 
 cost of less than $25 a month. 
 
 This is a saving of $20 a month, $240 in a year. 
 Before his Burroughs wears out, that saving, deposited 
 regularly in a savings bank, would aggregate more 
 than $6,000. 
 
 But that is not all this man saved. 
 
 He found that he could get a girl to keep his books 
 on the machine as good as he could keep them by hand. 
 
 Working full time she cost him but $1.50 a day 
 and gave him so much valuable information that he 
 soon doubled his business. 
 
 A man is not in business to keep books, any more 
 than he is in business to sweep out his store. He is 
 in business to sell goods. 
 
 Books are kept to give him, every day, a complete 
 statement of his business, so that he may know what 
 steps to take to sell more goods profitably. 
 
 When a man is cooped up, in his bookkeeping cage, 
 who is running the business for him? It is being 
 run by his cheap clerks. 
 
 86 
 
PAYING FOR WHAT YOU DON'T GET 
 
 Can a $60 a month clerk run a business as well as a 
 $200 proprietor? 
 
 Of course not. When the business is being run 
 by a $60 man, it is a $60 business. When it is run 
 by a $200 man it is a $200 business. 
 
 That is the difference. A $200 man can sell more 
 goods. He will drive away less regular customers. 
 He can convert more of the transient customers into 
 regular customers. 
 
 If he is a $200 man he can use more of the figure- 
 information shown by the bookkeeper — if he saves the 
 one hour to think in and saves his mind fresh to work 
 out ways of increasing his business. 
 
 One new customer added to a 
 store's regular patronage every 
 day, means an increase in gross 
 business which at the end of a 
 year would amount to $1500 a 
 week— $63,000 a year. 
 
 Five per cent net profit on 
 that volume of business will buy 
 a mighty fine automobile. 
 
 If the proprietor of a store who keeps his own 
 books by hand, would save the time which he can save 
 by using a Burroughs and devotes that time to think- 
 ing out schemes for window displays and advertising, 
 and planning sales and better interior arrangements, 
 and working to put his schemes and plans into use, 
 couldn't he bring in one new customer a day? 
 
 Couldn't he make his business pay him several 
 times more than a Burroughs would cost? 
 
 If he couldn't, he isn't a $200 man. 
 
 If you can save one little ten minutes every day 
 and use that ten minutes to think with, you can in- 
 
 One new customer 
 
 87 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 crease your business enough to pay for several book- 
 keeping machines in one year. 
 
 You could get along without scales, if you and 
 your customers were satisfied to guess at weights. 
 
 You can get along without a Burroughs if you are 
 satisfied to guess at the figure facts about your business, 
 or if you are satisfied to pay the extra cost of getting 
 those figure facts with a pencil. 
 
 You may not realize it, but it is no less unprofitable 
 to go on paying in leaks and losses and other ways for a 
 Burroughs you are not using when it would cost you 
 much less to use one. 
 
 Talk the proposition over with a Burroughs man. 
 Let him explain to you how it is now costing you more 
 not to use a Burroughs than it would cost you to 
 buy and use one. 
 
 One hour of your time invested in a little business 
 talk of this kind will be worth a considerable sum to 
 you, even if you don't decide to use a Burroughs. 
 
 The Burroughs man, who will call when you say 
 the word, has talked with hundreds of other business 
 men — knows how they solved their problems — knows 
 how to apply their successful methods to your business. 
 
 Will you talk with him about it — without cost or 
 obligation to you? 
 
Keeping Books with a Machine 
 
 What The Burroughs Is 
 
 THE Burroughs is a ma- 
 chine to handle all 
 kinds of figures, in any way 
 it is desired to handle them. 
 It is about the size of a 
 typewriter, but very much 
 easier to operate. 
 
 The keyboard consists of 
 several rows of keys — from 6 
 to 17, depending upon the size 
 of the machine. 
 
 Each row contains all the 
 figures from 1 to 9 — ciphers 
 print automatically where needed. 
 
 The rows are arranged in such a way that any 
 figure can be printed in any column by simply touch- 
 ing the right key. 
 
 It writes down figures just as much more rapidly, 
 just as much more legibly, than they can be written 
 down by hand, as a typewriter writes letters more 
 rapidly and more legibly than they could be written 
 by hand. 
 
 It automatically adds all the figures it writes down, 
 and is ready at any time, by the mere operating of a 
 handle, to record, without the possibility of error, the 
 absolutely correct total of all the figures written — a 
 total which has been accumulated in the machine 
 during the writing operation. 
 
 Each row contains all the figures 
 from I to 9— allowing the use of all 
 the fingers at once. 
 
 89 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 Touching keys writes the figures, three or four at a time. 
 
 After a few 
 minutes practice 
 anybody can put 
 figures into the 
 machine faster 
 than they could be 
 written with a 
 pencil. Any intel- 
 ligent operator can 
 soon learn to use 
 all the fingers of 
 both hands. 
 
 The adding or calculating is entirely automatic. 
 When a key is depressed it remains down until the 
 operating handle is pulled. 
 
 The pulling of the handle causes all keys to assume 
 their original position and the amount of the number 
 to be printed on the paper and totalled on the adding 
 wheels. 
 
 When all the numbers are in the machine, depress- 
 ing the total button while pulling the handle causes the 
 total, which has accumulated on the adding wheels, to 
 
 be printed at the 
 bottom of the col- 
 umn on the sheet 
 — or in any other 
 desired place on 
 the sheet. 
 
 With every 
 machine is furn- 
 ished an instruc- 
 tion book, which 
 explains in simple 
 
 Obtaining the total; takes but a second for any length of column. langUagC anO. Wltll 
 
 90 
 
KEEPING BOOKS WITH A MACHINE 
 
 many illustrations how anybody can do a hundred 
 things with the machine that the average person 
 wouldn't think of trying to do without the instruction 
 book. 
 
 How The Burroughs Is Used 
 
 Here are a few of the things for which Burroughs 
 Machines are being used by thousands of retailers : 
 
 Making up a daily record of sales by clerks, by 
 departments and by lines of goods, from sales slips. 
 
 Reconciling bank balances by listing outstanding 
 checks. 
 
 Checking freight and cartage bills. 
 
 Handling deposit tickets in duplicate. 
 
 Auditing and checking cash book. 
 
 Auditing ledger. 
 
 Tabulating cost and selling price of articles sold. 
 
 Compiling expenses by different lines of goods and 
 by departments. 
 
 Totaling and balancing outstanding accounts. 
 
 Making records of C. 0. D. orders. 
 
 Handling records of petty cash. 
 
 Balancing daily cash books. 
 
 Proving daily postings, which guarantees a balance. 
 
 Making out and proving monthly statements. 
 
 Compiling a record of purchases by lines of goods 
 and by departments. 
 
 Handling stock records and inventories. 
 
 Auditing charge systems. 
 
 Checking invoices. 
 
 Checking vouchers and making voucher records. 
 
 91 
 
A time-saving-, mistake preventing, worry-eliminating brain assist- 
 ant for tlie retailer or his boolckeeper. This machine, or any one of 
 the 85 other Burroughs, can be used on a high stand at the book- 
 keeper's desk or on a low stand beside the manager's desk. 
 
 92 
 
Burroughs Systems Service 
 
 Across the street, perhaps is a mer- 
 chant you've never visited — across the 
 state, several you've never heard of. 
 
 EVER since the Burroughs Company was organized, 
 twenty years ago, its men have been in close 
 contact with the planning and accounting end of 
 thousands of business houses. 
 
 Naturally they have learned a great many things 
 about the best accounting methods in use in every 
 line of business. 
 
 The Burroughs Department of 
 Systems Service was organized for 
 the purpose of boiling down this 
 information, and to put it into 
 shape to be distributed to other 
 business men interested in it. 
 
 A few years ago, the now 
 famous Burroughs Book, ''A Bet- 
 ter Day's Work,'' was written systemsboous 
 from this boiled down experience. Four large editions, 
 135,000 copies, of this book have gone out to business 
 men in all parts of the world. 
 
 Another book, called ''Cost Keeping Short Cuts," 
 adopted as a text book in the Universities of Wis- 
 consin, Indiana and Minnesota and in other big schools 
 — originated in the same way. 
 
 After these two books were written, it was decided 
 that there should be something especially designed 
 for the Retailer. A book which we called, ''Why 
 Don't you Go home" was written and published. 
 
 98 
 
 -boiling down experience into 
 
A BETTER DAY'S PROFITS 
 
 The book was so well received that when the first 
 edition of 25,000 copies was exhausted, it was decided 
 to re-issue the book along a little more complete lines. 
 
 The result was this Retail book, ''A Better Day's 
 Profits," probably the most unusual book of its kind 
 ever published. 
 
 Naturally the men who use Burroughs Bookkeep- 
 ing machines are progressive men. The fact that they 
 use machines proves that they are always in search 
 of the best methods. 
 
 Nearly 150,000 of these business men are always 
 ready and willing to explain their best methods to us, 
 in exchange for the methods which we have gathered 
 from thousands of other business men. For that reason 
 it is easy for us to obtain information that could not 
 possibly be obtained in any other way. 
 
 It would require hundreds of men many months 
 to visit as many modern business houses as the Bur- 
 roughs organization has visited. 
 
 In reading this book, you will find 
 many things that will strike you 
 very unusual. Possibly some 
 things you will find hard to be- 
 lieve. But if you could take 
 the time, and cared to assume 
 the expense, to visit 150,000 
 business houses, in every part of ••—«"! strike you as unusual.—- 
 the world, you would find many things that would 
 surprise you. 
 
 In addition to the information which we have 
 collected first hand, through the personal contact of 
 our large organization, from other business houses all 
 over the world, we have also collected a vast amount 
 of information by mail. 
 
 For instance the chapter on figuring profits, in 
 
 94 
 
• » • 
 
 BURROUGHS SYSTKMa->ERVI13R'!»*.*; j'*.: l.-V- 
 
 this book, is based on an extensive investigation to 
 determine how retailers figure their profits. 
 
 The results of the investigation were very interest- 
 ing; in fact they were so interesting that several 
 hundred retail trade papers printed a story of the in- 
 vestigation as news. 
 
 All the other chapters in the book are based upon 
 information and experience which is not available to 
 the ordinary publisher of books. This fact will pro- 
 bably account, in some measure at least, for its being 
 ''different" from other books. 
 
 In this book we have only tried to 
 drive home, in a graphic way, the pos- 
 sibilities of better bookkeeping; 
 to make retailers want more 
 information; to make them see 
 and understand that they can 
 only succeed by basing their m^ifO 
 efforts upon real information 
 
 and directing their energies from positive knowledge 
 rather than from guess. 
 
 The Department of Systems Service does not under- 
 take to install bookkeeping systems. It offers only a 
 suggestion service. The members of its staff do not 
 pose as Public Accountants, nor as Experts. 
 
 It has nothing to sell. It does not buy anything. 
 It is just a department for the collection and distribu- 
 tion of ideas that help the users of Burroughs machines 
 to use their machines to better advantages, and to 
 help business men find out how they can adapt Book- 
 keeping machines to their work. 
 
 The service of this department is available to any 
 business man who is interested in better Bookkeeping 
 methods, whether they use Burroughs Bookkeeping 
 machines or not. 
 
 95 
 
Personality in Business 
 
 You may learn from competitors, whether 
 they be in the Mail Order business or 
 conducting a cross-roads store. Here is one 
 of the secrets of success of a firm which is a 
 competitor of every Retail Store in America. 
 
 TV fO matter how large the business grows, it 
 1 y is always an expression of personal force, 
 just as the personal force of a nation is the 
 sum total of the personal force of its people. 
 
 We believe that our customers and em- 
 ployees feel that our business is as much a 
 matter of personality today as it was in the 
 beginning. Behind each transaction is per- 
 sonal guarantee, and we trust that behind 
 each customer is personal interest in the 
 growth and the perfecting of a system that seeks 
 to interpret the personal desire of each man, 
 woman or child who deals with it. 
 
 Thus its policy is a composite of the ideas 
 of all its customers, expressing their will in 
 all its undertakings, while its increase, growth 
 and success are, we believe, as much matters 
 of personal pride and gratification to our 
 patrons as they are to ourselves and our 
 employees. 
 
 —A. MONTGOMERY WARD 
 
 Form 1531A-25M-5-12-C. A. Co 
 
 96 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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