Turning Tax Time Into a Plus: Participate in ABACUS

Now, as booksellers gather their financial data for tax season, is the perfect time to submit data to the 2006 ABACUS study through a newly designed and easier-to-use Web form. Completing the survey takes approximately an hour and in return ABA member booksellers receive valuable data that can help them build a more profitable business.

Each ABA member bookstore participating in the study receives a customized report with detailed analysis of their store's financial results; comparisons with other stores based on more than 20 different criteria; an executive summary of the study's key findings; key insights into the drivers of independent bookstore profitability; year-to-year trends data; and opportunities to participate in ancillary studies.

As an incentive to provide data for ABACUS 2006, booksellers who submit completed surveys by July 31, 2006, will receive $50 off their next ABA dues renewal. To make it easier for booksellers to submit their 2005 financial data, the ABACUS Web form is now self-calculating. Also new this year, the study will begin asking participants to include their percentage of online sales.

With 278 ABA member bookstores -- representing 355 locations and approximately $379 million in sales -- submitting data to the 2005 survey (compared to 181 the previous year), the ABACUS study has clearly set a standard against which each store's financial results can be measured, providing participants, as well as the bookselling community as a whole, with invaluable information.

The 2005 ABACUS Review, which ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz presented at the welcome luncheon at this year's Winter Institute, is now available online to all ABA member booksellers.