Why I bought a bookshop and what it’s really like.
Before I became a bookshop owner, I was a pharmacist and a mother. Both jobs overlapped for a few years and of course the second career still continues today. Around the time my youngest child decided he could scooter to school by himself thank you very much, I felt a growing desire to begin another career. I wanted to run my own business - not work for someone else - and while I ran through various options I kept coming back to one thing: I loved books and I loved reading and I’d always harboured a secret desire to own a bookshop so why not just take the plunge and do it?! A couple of months later, in July 2019, having no background or experience in running a small business, I purchased the Booklover Bookshop in Milford, Auckland.
What followed was one of the steepest learning curves of my life. Not only did I have to teach myself the ins and outs of accounting, staffing, operating systems, and social media, but most importantly, I had to learn what it meant to be a bookseller.
There is so much that goes on behind the scenes (and before you ask there is never time to sit at the counter and read!). Bookselling, I have discovered is an art. It’s about curating the perfect selection based on your community, it’s about reading ahead, anticipating trends, developing great relationships with your staff, publishers, authors, and fellow booksellers, and more than anything, it’s about sharing the joy of books (something I love to do).
The past few years have thrown some fairly hefty challenges my way, COVID being one of them, but I have never lost sight of the fact that I am so LUCKY to be doing what I do. Bookselling is right up there with writing a book. Incredibly rewarding, but also downright exhausting!