A Stray Bookseller Comment Leads Us to Redo the Business and Finance Cases

We knew we wanted our foreign language books closer to travel. This led to flipping about four cases. Then Sarah realized the general business books didn't progress naturally from case to case. Then I noticed that the subsections in business didn't work well together. I wanted retirement and real estate books (well, while we still have the section) with personal finance, and the general business books near leadership and corporate stories.

I re-subdivided the sections back at Schwartz, with the help of Todd Sattersten at 800-CEO-READ. It was really to try to jump-start business sales at ou Brookfield store, only blocks from Milwaukee's largest Edge City. The problem was that it didn't matter in the end what we did; if there was no place to get food, the business types weren't going to stop and browse with us. When the Cousins sub shop closed nearby, our last hope was gone.

When we looked closer, we realized that a good number of books were shelved incorrectly. For some reason, a number of second-hand business titles had not been integrated. And the price points on some of the second-hand titles were too high; they were bought when the potential was there for these books to go head-to-head against new copies, but they had aged, the titles did not not become better known, and their prices needed to dropped accordingly. Regarding the errors, maybe some of my booksellers are afraid of the section, or are too overwhelmed with work. In any case, we needed to fix the problem.

So we have these sections, and we're selling a bit. We've done a bit of research to make sure we have some of the correct titles. The browsing is still spotty and I'd like to pull out some more subsections. We're currently pulling a section out on nonprofit resources, after realizing that so many folks we were talking to were in this field, and a bit inspired by Tracy Gary's recent visit, and the recent decision by my coworker Nancy to jump into the world of nonprofit consulting (a helpful response to all you folks who asked at Book Expo what Nancy was doing now).

But in the end, it may be that what we really need is a Cousins, or a Cousins equivalent nearby.

I also had an interesting comment from a customer who came in to thank us for reopening the bookstore, and then proceeded to tell me why he wouldn't buy a business book from me (he wound up buying nothing and leaving, content that his "go get 'em" inspirational comments were what we needed to keep the store going.) And if the business isn't there because that's the prevailing attitude, the section breadth will follow.

Another Event Partnership, this Time with Cream City Foundation for Tracy Gary, at Boswell Book Company, Wednesday, May 27th, at 7 PM.

One of the secrets to operating a bookstore on a budget is to work with partners whose common goal is to reward their customers (and by this I could mean a business or a nonprofit) and gain new supporters.

It could be 88Nine's support of Greg Kot's Ripped event. They picked up his popular show Sound Opinions within the last year, and folks in Milwaukee might not realize that this public radio show is available.

It could be Outpost Natural Foods working with us on Terese Allen's events for The Flavors of Wisconsin. They are providing some samples for our event, and I'm thrilled. I am a big fan of Outposts's prepared foods (my favorites listed below) and have been greatly impressed by catering manager Avie's offerings. (I have known Avie since she was a recordseller at Radio Doctors, and I've promised her that a post on Radio Doctors is in the pipeline).

Or it could be an organization bringing an author in for a closed event that is hoping for another venue that might find another audience. We worked with Alverno College on Roya Hakakian's Persian poetry night and memoir reading.

Just as we opened, Kathy, one of our connecting types, hooked me up with Maria Cadenas, the executive director of the Cream City Foundation, an umbrella foundation that funnels money to LGBT organizations. I met with her and Colin at Cafe Nervosa downtown and they had an idea. They were bringing in Tracy Gary, author of Inspired Philanthropy, to meet with their donors, and also help train nonprofits. Would another event be of interest to our customers? How about Wednesday, May 27th, at 7 PM?

I think so. This a book about integrating your values into your legacy, a game plan that is would be of great interest for our customers, whether you are an individual who is deciding what to do with your money, or a nonprofit leading your donors to your organization's support. It's not a ridiculous thing to say that most nonprofits are always looking for funding sources.

Gary has a loyal fan in Suze Orman, who has written the book's foreward. To just offer a short tidbit of a quote from the author of many successful financial manuals and an award-winning show aired Saturday evenings on CNBC (I mostly watch the "Can I afford it?" segment and I was surprised that she allowed the 30-something woman living with her husband and parents to remodel her closet and didn't question her not kicking in rent, the way she usually does.) Anyway...

"This book will make sure you continue to breathe financially free for yourself and others for generations to come"
--Suze Orman

I guess this quote, out of context, doesn't really say much, but sometimes a show of support is the most important thing. Say the same thing in my defense for this rather rambling post.