What made you want to do the work you do? Please share the full story.
I’ve always loved books; reading them, talking about them, writing them and recommending them. But I’ve also noticed that it’s very difficult to find the sort of books that I want to read these days; namely books by canadian authors and with lgbt subject matter that aren’t solely about the coming out storyline. Also, I wanted a platform to sell my own books that I wrote which fall into that category.My dream for a very long time has been to open my own bookstore and because recently problems with my health have made it extremely difficult for me to work at a regular job where someone else sets my schedule, I decided to finally do that.
Tell us 3 surprisingly easy and 3 surprisingly difficult things about your business.
There actually haven’t been any surprisingly easy things about my business. I expected it to be easy to open a website because there are so many different platforms for doing it and it was-plus I got some help from a more tech savvy friend of mine who also runs her own business. It is surprisingly difficult to get customers because when I floated the idea of opening my business, I got a lot of interest both from my friends and from customers at my old job but now that my business is open, I’ve only had about 3 customers total in over a year and a half. Also, it is surprisingly not difficult to market per se, but just difficult to find marketing options that don’t involve spending egregious amounts of money. Like google ads and such cost hundreds of dollars and because I don’t currently have another source of income and I still have to pay for my day-to-life, I haven’t been able to afford much. Finally, although not surprisingly, it’s been difficult to source the books that I want to put in my inventory because as with just purchasing them personally, most of them are only available through amazon and they cost a lot more money than I am willing to spend.
What are the 3 things you like best about your work and why?
The three things I like best about my work are discovering new books for my inventory-because it’s an excuse to read more, which I do anyways;getting sales because I like finding out what sort of books my customers are interested in and getting paid at the same time and doing networking events because, even though so far it hasn’t netted me any sales, I like finding out that there are other individuals in my area with similar careers.
What are your greatest 3 skills and how have they helped you succeed?
I’m good at establishing connections with people relatively quickly so that should be helping me gain more customers. Also, I’m very widely read which I think makes me a good authority on what’s a good book and what isn’t. Lastly, I’m pretty tech savvy and that has made it not too challenging to maintain my online presence.
Tell us about a time where you saw a surprising outcome that you did not expect.
Does it have to be a bad thing? Because a good example of this would be how I got my first customer. Last year, when I was just starting out, I was trying to think of ways to promote my store that wouldn’t cost me money and I had these premade business cards that the publisher of my second book had given me with information about that book. So I remade them into cards about my business and started leaving them at bus stops and someone picked one up from a stop near my house and he emailed me and checked out my website and then ordered a book.
How do you get yourself out of a funk? Please share the details.
Well, the main thing that gets me into a funk is usually my health problems so I never really fully get out of a funk until said health problem goes away, but a good book can always distract me from one. Which is another reason why I think being a bookseller is a good job for me.
What do you value most and why?
I value my family most because without them, I wouldn’t be able to survive.
How do you celebrate your victories?
It depends on the victory, but usually I like to celebrate with a little treat or by doing something fun with my friends.
What is your favorite book and why?
Runebreaker by Alex Kahler is my favourite book for several reasons. 1. most of the main characters are lgbt. 2. the very main character is both gay and not trying to be a hero. he’s very dark and violent and cynical. 3. the magic system is so interesting
If you do charity or volunteer work, what is it and why do you do it?
I don’t at the moment do charity or volunteer work but I would like to do some kind of environmental cleanup or fundraising for victoria pride society. I really want to make the world cleaner and also support the lgbt community.
Who has been your biggest mentor in life (personal or professional) and how have they helped you?
I haven’t actually had a mentor but nor do I want to be a mentor. However, my best friend amanda has been extremely helpful to me in figuring out being self-employed because she, too runs her own business. She’s a self-employed music teacher. She also assisted me in setting up my website. And she’s just generally been way more supportive and useful than my family.
Just for fun, what is your favorite food?
My favourite food is this thing my mom makes called fisee(i don’t think that’s how you spell it). It’s like spiral pasta with cream of mushroom soup and mixed veggies and salmon.