I have heard many people say that sharing your ideas or plans too early will dissipate their energy. Other people counter with the opinion that sharing your ideas and goals will help them expand. Then, of course, you have people proclaim that if you share your ideas, someone will steal them.
Well, I am not going to worry if someone steals my ideas. If they do, they do. But, it won’t be the same idea if they do. My passion will manifest in a completely different way than someone just out to make a fast buck. And, if someone shares my same passion, they are probably dreaming of their own ideas.
Some ideas I act on right away. Others I keep to myself for awhile, ponder them, play with them, put them away for a time and then take them out to play with later. Some of these ideas turn into dreams and then they grow so big I feel like I will burst if I don’t share them.
Sometimes sharing an idea or a dream adds a certain degree of accountability. The person or persons I share them with want to know what I am doing with them.
Some ideas, goals, or dreams die a natural death. There just isn’t enough interest or passion to carry them through to completion.
Others grab hold and don’t let go.
The idea, the dream, I want to tell you about today was first shared last summer at the Compelling Storytelling workshop in Las Vegas with Barbara Winter. At the time it was just a seed of an idea. Since then it has taken root, and won’t let go. Within the last two days it has grown so big I think I’ll burst if I don’t share it.
The one thing I LOVE more than anything else is books. You may already know this if you hang out at The Dreaming Cafe or know me personally.
I have often thought of opening a bookstore. I can ‘see’ it in my head. It wouldn’t be your typical new book bookstore, but a used bookstore with an inventory of 90% used, rescued books and 10% new books. I’ve even sketched out some floor plans. I already know it’s name. And have a preliminary logo design…
Save-A-Tree-Books, The Worlds Largest Independent Used and New Book Store
(Get it? Used books traded and sold instead of all new…Save-A-Tree-Books…rescuing books and giving them a new life in a new library and saving trees at the same time.)
I ‘see’ the BIG version of Save-A-Tree-Books located in a warehouse sized location, with lots of open space, high ceilings, murals by local artist painted on all the walls, comfy chairs like home and a kids’ section with a real tree as the centerpiece enclosed by a white picket fence.
There are multiple profit centers in addition to book sales including a cafe, several small meeting rooms and one large one, for workshops and seminars, for rent by the day or hour; the warehouse in the back is used not only for book sorting, but for managing and running a both a mail order business and my own publishing company.
The mid-sized version manifests with Save-A-Tree-Books on wheels. a traveling bookstore.
The baby version is just me selling my used books at local craft fairs and flea markets on weekends.
But, with each, something always holds me back.
A retail storefront isn’t exactly a shoestring start-up.
Then I always hear the warnings and horror stories about how low the profit margins are in retail, the poor cash flow, the years it takes to turn a profit, how hard it is to train and keep staff, and the long, hard, grueling hours. (I’ve worked in retail and intensely disliked it.)
The biggest factor that has always stopped me were the hours – working every weekend, days and nights, and never having more than one day off in a row.
Then, Monday night, as I was laying in bed, unable to sleep, the minutes ticking away, I suddenly realized, “Hey, that’s what I do now!” I spend up to 2 hours a day in traffic, another 60-80 hours a week in the office and if we are working on a big project, nights and weekends, too. Plus, I take the time to do the things I love, like writing and building The Dreaming Cafe.
Then it hit me like a lightening bolt.
“If I can put in those kinds of hours working for someone else, while creating my dreams on the side, I could easily work those kinds of hours selling books or working in my own bookstore, and continue to write and build The Dreaming Cafe at the same time.”
Plus, I would decide when I worked. I could start small. If I did open a retail store, I would set the days and times the store would be open. And, in each version, even if I worked a 100 hours a week it wouldn’t be the same because I would be surrounded by books and doing something I loved. It would really be like playing.
What an epiphany!!
I am still trying to wrap my head around it all.
If you have any ideas, comments or suggestion, let them fly. I loved to hear them.
Wow, Thanks Cathy!! Now I have more indie bookstores and places to visit on my list! It is so great to meet you here. Your enthusiastic comments and ideas have me buzzing. Thanks again!!!
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
I am new to your site but already LOVE IT!! I read your “A Love of Books, A Legacy” and had tears in my eyes…it rang so true, I wrote you a post about it and my own mother who inspired my live long love of books.
I think your idea is a smashing good one…in fact,one of my mom’s favorite bookstore out here in Fair Oaks, California (suburb of Sacramento) is a store called The Book Worm…they are pretty successful, I would think, as they have been there for over a dozen years…They do what you are thinking about, recycle books. In fact, I have taken many of my old books in, and they have worked out a credit system for part of it, along with some cash. You might want to call them and pick their brain…that’s what I always do when I want to do research on an idea. If it’s someone close by, I ask them if I might take them to dinner or lunch and ask them questions. Then I listen, really good.
Their space is in a retail strip center, not a large one but centrally located. I would think it important to keep your overhead, especially rent, as low as possible. Right now in the economic climate we have, landlords are pretty willing to reduce rents in order to get tenants. I was a property manager for 15 years, am currently a real estate broker, so know what I am talking about. But here’s something to think about how about maybe getting an old house in a downtown area, live upstairs, have your store downstairs (to start)?
Also I like your different profit center ideas…having small conference rooms to meet in is wonderful! Lot’s of groups need those and are willing to pay. Comfy chairs a must…food/coffee/tea a must…good music, some handmade stationary, crafts/paintings from local artists…an outdoor space with umbrellas, a fountain with running water, colorful umbrellas, twinkle lights up in the trees…geez, I can get on a roll…
I have often fantasized about this kind of store…I and a best girlfriend of mine got lost for hours in one called The Leaf and Bean in Bozeman, Montana. It was really a coffee/gift shop but I could see in my mind full book shelves all around it. We went into get a coffee and read, buy some trinkets and came out 4 hours later, a bit dazed, laughing our heads off and getting in our van to head back to California…we decided it was some kind of Bermuda Triangle effect. It was a wonderful old building in downtown Bozeman, old brick walls and ceilings with the pipes running all overhead, painted to blend in. Smell of wonderful coffee and the most amazing soothing music…and the gifts they had were unique, one of a kind and reasonable. They had some old sofas around a piano in the back, and a small stage where they have music on the weekends…
anyway, I have rambled enough, I just want to encourage you to do your book stores…I know, I have heard about the miserable profits and long hours, but I’m sure you can figure a way around that…I would start by talking and visiting every book store that sparked my interest and get advice…who knows, you might run into someone who is ready to retire and willing to sell/lease…or they just need a vacation and you can cover for them for a week, see what it’s like…anyway, good luck and I’d like to hear more!
Best wishes, Cathy
Thank you Beth. I have been scouting some locations. Someplace I can grow into or grow out of. It’s great to meet another book lover who understands and ‘gets it’.
Your idea is fabulous and well thought out. It is a winner, so I encourage you to get started now as it is needed. I agree with the person who said this could become a chain in a good way, as cities all over the world could use a store like this. To me there is nothing like the experience of looking through used or new books in a book store, the smell and feel of them, the possibilities that lie ahead in the reading,etc. Comfy furniture for people to read in would be a plus. Wishing you success!
Cool!! Thanks!! I will take them. I’ll let you know when.
I knew I was pruning my library for a reason. I’ve got several boxes of books in my garage, but couldn’t decide what to do with them. Let me know when you’re ready to build inventory and they’re yours.
Thanks, Suz!!!
So let me tell you that more than one person in town here sells used books from their garage. No overhead (except when the door is up — ha, ha!) A little sign on the front lawn. Smart!!
Your idea is brilliant, m’lady!!!!!!! I just LOVE what you are doing!! And this bookstore…could grow to be a chain…in a good way. And of course, the RECYCLING of good, rescued (love that!) books makes my heart sing, too.
I remember the passion in you when you first talked about this idea. And you have a Clear Mental Image what you want. It’s coming to fruition, you know. The pieces of that puzzle are coming to you…
Amazon sellers of used books ship theirs out. Maybe that’s at least part of your picture. (Not working retail hours) And what if you had other people to do the stuff (and work the hours) you don’t want to, freeing you up to focus on the parts you LOVE?
I recently listened to a podcast where an over-stressed female entrepreneur was told…you know, Frank Sinatra never moved his own piano.
Don’t worry about the competitive stuff. You are working on a cooperative, not competitive plane. You may INSPIRE others. That’s wonderful. No one can STEAL your ideas. They are you. And yours. You’re unique. We all are.
Best! — S