Shane Gottwals
www.gottwalsbooks.com
Gottwals Books, as of this coming Friday, is a 4-store operation. This would be adventuresome enough if all the stores were within a close proximity, but our newest location in North Carolina is seven hours away.
In the past four weeks, here is my typical schedule:
Sunday
Church, family, and rest.
Monday
This week, in particular, I have another seven-hour journey. I’ve done this sort of trip, there-and-back, each of the past four weeks (once was to Tennessee where our first “sister” store is opening). I’ll start out early in the morning (after loading some supplies), arrive by lunch, and get straight to work. The North Carolina Gottwals Books is set to open on Friday, and there are still books all over the floor (there’s a video on www.gottwalsbooks.com that shows this). Needless to say, I will start work as soon as I get there. There’s pricing, sorting, and shelving to be done. We work with a small crew, so times get tough. But, it’s the life of a bookseller!
Tuesday
This day, when I’ve not been out of town, has been spent traveling amongst our three locations in Middle Georgia. I’ve been prepping books to be sent to other locations, checking on inventory, pricing all the new trade-ins, and helping with customers whenever there’s a need. Our Warner Robins store gets quite busy, and sometimes 2-3 people is barely enough to help all the customers in that 2700 sf location!
When I’m out of town, it’s just another full day, dawn to dusk (and later), of sorting and shelving books in the new store. Just last week, I helped our Tennessee partner find a great location. It’s 3,000 sf, priced right, and in a wonderful spot on a busy street.
Wednesday
We have church on Wednesday nights, so we don’t work too late. This week, I’ll be headed home from North Carolina, probably after an early morning of more sorting and shelving. The new store opens Friday, so I hope we’ll be done.
Thursday
This has been another day of the same… especially with our newest operation (see my article about opening your own store), a few phone calls and e-mail correspondences are thrown into the mix. I also like to work in my wife’s stead so that she can get some time off. Being the owners of a bookstore chain, one of us needs to be in at least one of the locations at all times. This way, if there is a question or a pressing issue, we are immediately available. Since I’ve been traveling a good bit, my wife has been working almost non-stop. She has other employees to help, but it’s still tough. So, giving her a few hours off here-and-there has been nice.
Friday
Fridays have been one of our busiest days, so I try to stay close to a shop.
Saturday
No leaving for any of us! This is our #1 sales day by far, so all the key players are in a store, ready to assist customers. I can’t remember the last time I was out of town on a Saturday. Be prepared, especially if you have a strong kids sections, for your Saturdays to be busy!
I know I’m not the typical bookshop owner, but maybe this schedule will either prompt you to or keep you from opening multiple locations. I’ve written in the past about not becoming a “distant manager” who is out of touch with customer needs. Honestly, my “floating” from store-to-store and stretching myself across multiple states HAS caused me to lose some of that relationship I’ve built with our customers. But, this is where good employees step in. However, there is far more risk in a multi-store system, and quality control is difficult to manage. Plus, employees are expensive!
Don’t take this article as a call to expand… this was written so that you can understand, especially if you don’t already have a store, what it really takes to operate a used book business well. I think our company has done a great job, but I don’t think I can ever quit working 50+ hours each week. Lately, we’ve often worked 70 hours.
Be prepared for a great store only if you’re prepared to put the time into it.
Thanks Shane and keep up the good work.
One thing that helps, I’m sure, is that you are chiefly doing things that you love doing and want to do. I’m sure mixed in are some tasks that you would prefer not doing but perform in order to get them out of the way so you can go back to doing those tasks you prefer. One of my mother’s lines (that I hated to hear) was, “The sooner you get it done the sooner you can stop dong it.” – That was a line I heard most often during our Saturday morning house cleaning chores.