For the first 10 years of Microcosm Publishing’s existence, I didn’t entirely realize I was running a business.
In the early years, our entire catalog fit into a couple of milk crates strapped to my bicycle, and our audience was punk rock show attendees who would thumb through those milk crates on top of the bar during intermission.
At first, I assumed Microcosm would stay a hobby. I kept trying to find my way into a more “typical” career path. But I started to realize I was terminally unemployable once I moved to Portland, Oregon.
The feeling of being terminally unemployable is pretty common among entrepreneurs. For people on the autism spectrum, like me, it’s the reality: the unemployment rate for autistic people is around 75% to 85%, depending on who you ask. It’s why entrepreneurship is such an attractive option for many of us.
After getting fired from or quitting a string of jobs because I couldn’t deal with their inefficient systems, I finally started to wonder if I could turn this steady flow of orders for Microcosm Publishing’s zines into a full-time job.
Being my own boss allowed me to create systems that made sense to me. I could make decisions based on data rather than gut instinct. I wouldn’t have to be constrained by the box of common knowledge or industry wisdom.
And 23 years later, I can definitely say it was the right decision.
I didn’t start Microcosm Publishing as a money-making venture – I was just trying to provide the world with the tools and resources that would’ve benefited me when I was growing up. Today, Microcosm is a thriving small press in an industry that’s notoriously hard to thrive in. We have 15 employees and distribution around the world, and it’s because we do things differently around here.
Separate emotions from decisions
Many business owners have a hard time separating their emotional attachment to their business from reality when it comes to making decisions.
This is especially true in the publishing industry, where the average profit margins are 3% to 10%. (Or, realistically, 0% to 10%.) There’s a pipe dream in publishing that business gets in the way of art, and that if you just publish quality work you’re passionate about, it will get the accolades – and therefore the sales.
But in practice, that’s not how it works. If you want to make it in this business, you have to be incredibly smart about the decisions you make.
At Microcosm, we rely on data to help us make smarter decisions. In 2001, we hired a developer to build databases and software to keep us organized, and that’s allowed us to take advantage of reporting tools with the same level of insights a Big Five publisher would have.
As a small press, we are nimble enough that we can pivot on a dime based on the data we see. That is, as long as we take time to look at the big picture.
Dedicate time to working on your business
Having good data doesn’t do much if you don’t take time to look at it.
For the first 10 years Microcosm was operating, I didn’t have time to pay attention to data because I was just trying to keep up with a company that was growing so fast, I could barely manage it.
I didn’t have time to consider trends or make smart decisions about how many books we should actually be publishing a season, because I woke up in the morning to 300 orders and the biggest questions was how to even get them all out the door.
During the last decade, I’ve realized how important it is to take time to work on your business. As a business owner, you can be working every minute of every day, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to understand the big picture so you can direct your growth.
These days, I spend an hour every week looking at the data and trying to understand what we should be doing. Where are we seeing the most growth, and where could we be doing more? Where are we maxed out? When will we need to hire new staff? Every week, the goal of that hour is to come up with a few five-minute tasks that really pay off in the end.
I’ve shifted from holding on for the ride to trying to guide growth. And I’ve also learned to trust my own data-driven decisions, even when they go against common knowledge.
Rely on your own data over industry wisdom
Every industry is filled with truisms about how to do business. But just because it worked for someone else doesn’t mean it’s the way you should do business.
In the early days, we followed the advice of others in the publishing industry. For example, for years we worked with a distributor who told us that in order to sell, cookbooks needed to be 6” x 9” with photos of the recipes. We followed that advice without thinking for a while, but eventually we looked at our data and realized it was our non-conventional-sized, illustrated cookbooks that sold the best.
Relying on our own data has caused us to make a number of decisions that seem ridiculous in the publishing industry. Most publishers outsource distribution and pare down staff members to save costs. But our data helped us realize we could be more efficient and nimbler if we did our own distribution – even though it meant managing our own warehouse and hiring more staff.
I figured we would have a bit of a dip in sales before sustaining our previous sales numbers by the end of the first year. But the quarter after we made the switch to independent distribution, our sales went up 64%.
The data had been right all along.
The answers are in the data
Our business model and tactics may have changed over the years, but Microcosm Publishing’s goal of giving people tools to change their lives and the world around them has stayed the same since the beginning.
Our DIY punk rock ethos means we tend to question the way things have always been done – and our reliance on data means that when we ask those questions, we get answers that help us make smart business decisions. The sky is really the limit when you approach business that way.
I didn’t start my own business to do things the way everyone else thought I should, and probably neither did you. Rather than seeing the confines of the box, take the time to ask the questions no one else is asking. Then look to the data for answers.
