Pawnbroker

When they need money for big-ticket items, like a house, car, or business, people typically see a Loan Officer at a bank. Getting a bank loan, however, requires a lot of paperwork, not to mention tons of time and creditworthiness. When they need quick cash, therefore — to settle a debt, pay a bill, or otherwise purchase something they need or want — many people skip the bank altogether and go straight to their local Pawnbroker.

When you’re a Pawnbroker, you operate a pawnshop where you loan money to customers who offer up valuable personal possessions as collateral. Those possessions could be almost anything. Commonly pawned items, for instance, include jewelry, electronics, furs, furniture, tools, antiques, and collectibles, such as baseball cards, coins, stamps, and comic books.

In exchange for money, people give you these items with the intent of eventually coming back to reclaim them. And they can, provided they repay their loan — with interest — within the agreed-upon timeframe. If they don’t, you as the Pawnbroker are entitled to keep the item and sell it.

That’s how the pawning process works. Your job as a Pawnbroker, however, is a lot more complicated than exchanging cash for collectibles. In order to be successful as a Small Business Owner, you’ve got to run your business profitably and lawfully.

Doing that requires studying and memorizing the laws regulating your industry, which govern what items can and can’t be pawned, and cooperating with Police Officers looking for stolen property. And, of course, it requires being a skilled Appraiser: To make money, you’ve got to know what items are and aren’t valuable, which items are real and which are fake, and what items are worth in the current marketplace.