Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeff Beck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jeff, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I was working in NYC in hotels and conference centers as a Technology Sales Manager – renting projectors, screens, microphones, webcasting, video conferencing, etc. – to companies holding meetings in our spaces. I was VERY good at my job and within the company I worked for had 700+ locations worldwide and I consistently ranked in the Top 25 in sales. I also got paid VERY well across 3 locations and 3 different companies. I also had an amazing boss who, to this day, is one of my best friends – Nicholas Cox.

Nick had an open door policy and was very transparent with regards to how my sales successes helped us achieve our goals for revenue but also how it trickled down to help pay our employees, depreciation on equipment, purchases of new equipment, etc. This helped me understand Profit and Loss and how to run a business. Nick and I also had a lot in common so it was easy to be successful.

By our 3rd go-round with a new, up-and-coming conference center, we had young CEOs (yes, plural) running the ship and we were able to build the department from the ground up like never before. It was a blast at first but it became apparent the the big bosses didn’t like hearing “no” or “it can’t be done” with regards to technology that wasn’t reliable or services we weren’t confident could be rolled out to improve customer experience at the time.

I had a REALLY bad day at work one day. I had been pretty exhausted of the whole scene for a while and wasn’t sure how to tell Nick I wanted out. I sat down one night and thought about what kind of job I would want that I could be happy working for the rest of my days. I came up with comic shop or music venue as both comic books and punk rock were passions of mine. I decided on comic shop because eventually I would want to have kids and didn’t want to work nights forever. Also, in my current role as Technology Sales Manager, I was responsible for over $2 million per year in sales so it made sense that if I went into business for myself, I could easily work towards $500k per year in sales.

After 8 or 9 months of working on business plan, reaching out to distributors to get information on opening accounts and wholesale agreements and networking with a few other comic shop owners, I had a business plan put together that made sense – at least I thought so.

I met with banks, credit unions – anyone who I thought I could borrow start up capital from – and nothing. I was a early 30s professional with a big savings account (I barely spent any big money that I made in NYC and just stockpiled it as much as possible) but I had no actual collateral to leverage against a loan. I met with the SBA/SBDC and took some free classes so I could understand business better and realized that I could always just tap my savings account and push my proverbial chips to the center of the table and gamble on myself. So I did.

I was living in Jersey City at the time and was hoping to open up there but retail space I could afford was real small and real expensive. I grew up in Wayne, NJ and Montclair was always a cool place to hang out when I was younger so I looked around and found a space that was ample size and affordable for me so I jumped at the chance.

I kept working in NYC while I put the business plan in action, ordering fixtures and product and even reached out to my old friend Howard Levy, who I’ve known since I was 12 years old and who got me into comics, and told him about my plan. He offered to sell me his collection right off the bat and I was doing it. I quit my job in NYC and went ahead with the plan. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it 6 months but if I was going to do it, it had to be then.

I got my fixtures, my product, my accounts, my legal paperwork, my signed lease and trudged ahead. My friends were awesome with promoting the shop and spreading the word. Social media was a great tool to get the word out too. I built out the space just the way I wanted and opened up in June of 2014.

The rest is history. I developed a super-friendly customer service model, obtained a computerized inventory system from the main distributor of comics in North America so it synched up my ordering making it easy to order items that I didn’t have in stock and rocked out! I had pull boxes/subscription boxes for folks that wanted every single issue of a particular series, greeted everyone who walked in with a smile and a welcome and focused my DIY ethic from the punk scene into being part of the community whether it was collecting food for local food banks from our movie nights, gaming nights for kids in the neighborhood, coat drives, live music from local musicians, stand up comedy nights with new friends who told jokes and rolled that into Dungeons & Dragons games on Sundays, signings with comic creators, participating in Free Comic Book Day, drawing classes for kids on Saturday mornings, midnight releases and so much more!

COVID hit and almost took me with it. I had to lay off my staff and went into the store every day for 3 months, not knowing if my business would survive, but used social media and customer contacts to keep selling comics for curbside pick up or shipping directly to them. Every day was a challenge and a nightmare and as we came out of the pandemic, I realized I was in a financial position to upgrade to a larger space. COVID had taken down a few businesses in the area and I found a spot, almost directly across the intersection, that was large enough to host my events without having to “hide” product in the back room, expand my offerings and make my staff’s and my life a little easier operationally while still maintaining our DIY ethic and friendly atmosphere.

So here we are – on the main drag in Montclair aka Bloomfield Ave – where we run all the events we did previously including but never limited to an annual Zombie Walk around Halloween, participating in street fairs and Pride celebrations, expanded our kids drawing classes to 2 classes on Saturdays (soon to be 3!), SIX Dungeons & Dragons games per week for adults and kids of various skill levels, signings with artists and writers, Power Ranger appearances, actor Patrick Wilson signing stuff for Aquaman, more live music, working with local artists to sell their work on consignment, more events, more comics and toys, more everything!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a local guy – grew up about 20 minutes away – but now live 10 minutes away with my wife and 2 kids in the next town over.

My friend Howard Levy got me into comics at the age of 12 and I’ve collected ever since, until I opened a shop. Now I just read what I can during downtime throughout the week to keep up with what’s going on so I can talk to customers and make good recommendations.

We’re a super-friendly comic shop. We love what we do. We love the content and there is content out there for everyone. It’s not just super-heroes – its Sci-Fi, action, adventure, mystery, horror, all ages friendly cartoon comics and more!

We carry toys, collectibles, statues, vintage comics, new graphic novels, used graphic novels, artwork from local artists, card games like Pokemon and Magic the Gathering, Funko POP vinyls and so much more!

We run 6 Dungeons & Dragons games per week for adults and kids of all experience levels and age groups. We host 2 (soon to be 3) drawing classes for kids, live music, stand up comedy, signings with artists and writers, our Annual Zombie Walk and more. We participate in local street fairs, support libraries in any way we can, collect cans of food for local food banks, coat drives, game demo days for new card games and RPGs, participate in Free Comic Book Day every year and are always open to new ideas and new experiences for our customers.

We are the friendliest, most welcoming comic shop around. We intentionally set ourselves to welcome anyone in our space, regardless of who you are, where you came from or what you call yourself – you’re welcome here without judgment. We’re just happy you found us and we’re happy you’re here!

Have you ever had to pivot?

March 2020. COVID is spreading and Governor Phil Murphy shut down all non-essential businesses. I was forced to lay off my staff and spent every day for the following 3 months in the shop, by myself, with the door locked to customers, trying to get creative and come up with ways to keep people interested in comics while not being able to host them in my space.

It wasn’t easy. At all.

My distributors stopped making me pay invoices but also stopped shipping new products and I had a store full of merchandise that was starting to “go stale”. I had to think of something.

I started bundling items together at a discount like offering 40 comics for $35 that included shipping and contained 15 Marvel comics, 15 DC comics and 10 “other” comics from other publishers.

Some vendors were still shipping product like Funko so I did unboxing videos when cool stuff came in.

I did Zoom calls, recorded and put on YouTube with comic creators, cosplayers and industry professionals where we just talked about what we liked, what we didn’t like, how they got to be where they are, where they wanted to go, etc.

I watched a LOT of Netflix.

I did videos on social media called New For YOU Comic Day and highlighted some of my favorite graphic novels and stories.

I had loyal customers call me and tell me they had $75 or $100 to spend and what cool stories could I bundle together and ship to them.

I had customers give me $100 to break into $5 gift card to give out to essential workers like medical personnel and grocery store workers to say thank you (and keep my cash flow going to stay afloat).

I did a bunch of deliveries to local customers after hours.

And it worked! I kept our head above water long enough to withstand opening back up and bringing my staff back from unemployment and we were back to business as usual – being friendly (behind masks), helping folks find comics they were looking for and making solid recommendations.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My team and I are essentially interchangeable except for the “business owner” stuff like remitting sales tax, most of the ordering, dealing with vendors – stuff like that. Everyone on my staff is capable and taught to do everything – we’re swiss army knives. Need a scissor? Got it. Need a pair of pliers? Got it. Need a toothpick? Got it. This translates to: looking for an issue of Batman we don’t have? We’ll order it. Looking for a place to host your artwork? We got you. Want to play a cool RPG with some friends? We have the space. Everyone on my staff can find what you’re looking for or order it for you through our distributors. Everyone knows everything about this space.

I also treat my employees like human beings. Sick? No problem. Death in the family? We’ll shut down for the day to be there for you. Need a day off for yourself, just to get your head right? No problem. I’ve found that if you treat people fairly, they’ll work hard for you and help you stand up just like you help them stand up. Everyone has issues pop up and struggles and obstacles. Treat them with respect and you’ll get it right back with loyalty too.

Pay a fair wage. Staff accordingly. Let your staff know you appreciate them constantly. But also be prepared for departures and don’t let yourself rely too much on one individual where your business is negatively impacted by someone moving on. And don’t take moving on personally. While this is MY dream job, it might not necessarily be theirs and I understand that fully.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.eastsidemags.com
• Instagram: @EastSideMags
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EastSideMags
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EastSideMags
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/i5FS2KwKw2QMxKcUYhR2Jg

Image Credits

All images are mine from a cellphone camera