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

Businesses thesedays talk a lot about figuring out what the customer wants. Well, here’s yourfirst lesson: the customer doesn’t know what he wants. This book will show youhow to convince him he wants what you’re selling. Les Gold has been in business since age twelve, when hestarted selling used golf clubs from his dad’s basement. Now he owns Detroit’sbiggest pawnshop, American Jewelry and Loan, and is the star of the hit realitytelevision show Hardcore Pawn. As a third-generation pawnbroker, Gold grew up in thebusiness, dealing with cus­tomers who could be unruly and violent as often asthey were friendly. He became good at selling just about anything and at buyingitems for what they were worth. Although he started at his family’s smallpawnshop, he has now expanded into a fifty-thousand-square-foot former bowlingalley, making a thousand deals a day. On any given day, he could be taking a vin­tage car intopawn or chasing down a thief who’s just stolen a gold chain from the store. Nobusiness school in the world can teach you as much about buying, selling,negotiating, managing employees, dealing with customers, advertising, trackingtrends, and predicting the economy’s ups and downs. In this entertaining, honest book, Gold takes you insidesome of his weirdest, wacki­est deals and steals. From the monkey his dad oncetook in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole, he has no boundariesfor what he considers to be part of his business—and neither should you. You will learn: How to tell an emotional story when you’re selling—and take emotion out of the transaction when you’re buying; Why judging your customers before you know them can kill a potential deal; How to deal with risk, both mental and physical; How to communicate with employees (even if they’re your own kids); Why investing in relationships with your community is time well spent; Why your business should never be limited by what others tell you it should be. No place in the world prepares you better for the workingworld than a pawnshop, and Les Gold takes you inside his shop to share whathe’s learned from fifty-five years in the most interesting job in the world.