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I’m Sue Zumberge I have SubText: A Bookstore. That runs in partnership with Nina’s Coffee Café, upstairs.
We’ve been in business a week, been open for a week.
We did take over a place where there was a bookstore before that,
so that we have recognition of there being a bookstore here.
I think when you, a business owner especially a new business owner,
opens a business you have to prepare for all contingencies.
That’s why there’s such a thing as a soft opening,
which means that you’re doors are open,
you are selling whatever it is that you have for sale.
Versus a hard opening or grand opening which
should be down the line a bit when you really have things in place.
In our situation we had book shelves that needed to be built
and we have a wonderful person who’s building them for us.
But he got sick right in the process.
It turns out that his is sick with dust, wood dust allergies.
So, there’s no counting for that you just have, you never know what’s going to happen.
That’s why if you say we’re having a grand opening the first week that we’re open,
you’re not really allowing for those types of occurrences that can happen
to you when you don’t have anything planned for it.
So we have had a lot of people who have come in.
We had a soft opening.
And we had an event that night where we
had five poets who came to our reading.
And we had a great turnout for it.
And it was, we were there that afternoon shelving books.
But there was also an element to having that opening
where people can see the work in progress.
We’ve had so many people who’ve walked in the last week
that have seen what small differences there are,
what books we’ve been able to shelve.
Versus those that were in boxes.
We’ve also invited people to just dig through the boxes
and find what they want.
Or, you know, have some fun with it. We’ve had people unpacking,
we’ve had customers come in and shelving books for us.
I think that, which was not our intention,
but it turns out that that has really provided a sense of ownership.
When you’re there when those doors first open,
when you see that owner pulling her hair out and you offer to help,
you have a feeling that you’re in on the bottom level.
But we were very careful in our pre-opening publicity
which we were blessed to have free, a lot of free publicity
by people doing articles in our local papers.
We were careful to say this is a soft opening.
We will be having a grand opening in September.
Now the summer months in book selling are not always the best.
You have people getting your summer reading.
But as you go into the fall you’ll see that the publishers
are bringing out their main books.
We will have a lot of excitement
around different publishers fall list books.
So that will bring people in.
It gives us that time to work out the kinks.
It gives us some time to plan some special activities
for our grand opening.
Based on the next two months when people have let us know what they want.
So, I always suggest that you wait.
You have a soft opening to begin with
and then you have a hard opening.
And I’ve opened four businesses, four bookstores,
and I have to say I’ve always done it that way.
And there have always been un-foreseen complications.
For that person who can start their business smoothly without any complications I applaud you.
But I would say that 90% of the time that isn’t going to happen.
And it also removes some of the pressure that you might be putting on yourself.
If you just sit down and realize that your presence
in that store is probably the most important thing.
That you can talk with your customer,
that you can explain your glitches,
that you can get to know them.
You understand that there isn’t an opening police
that are there with a gun to your head.
And so it removes some of that pressure
that you without a doubt will put on yourself.