‘You’re living the dream’. That’s the comment I get on nearly every post I share. Why? Because I bought a bookshop in my local sunny seaside town, and commute to work on a bike with flowers in my shopping basket.

But behind the Hallmark movie exterior lurks a slightly darker tale of financial struggles, community pushback, and the harsh realities of running a brick-and-mortar store in a global recession.

I read books, I even write books, but selling books? Honestly, it was never my dream.

Until it was.

Walking on the beach one day, my phone pinged with an email saying our local store in Umina would be closing if a buyer could not be found. Within two days, I’d spoken to my accountant and my financial advisor, who both told me it was a terrible idea, and I should absolutely do it, and I bought the shop.

Love books? You’ll love Umina Beach Book Nook.

I learned a thing or two in those early months:

1. Bookshops have their own unique challenges: complex POS systems, dozens of publishers to deal with, credit limits, returns issues, margin limits and more.
2. Sometimes owners don’t really want to sell: understanding the motives and values of the seller is deeply important for a smooth ride (spoiler: it was not smooth).
3. Finding the right staff members is vital: I quickly recognised that Michaela was an absolute asset to the store and made her a manager, and I was right, she’s excellent.
4. Change is hard: there was a brief social media campaign against time and the store changes in the early days, but we ignored it, and the community came around. Don’t feed the trolls!
5. Community is everything: with the big stores and online retailers undercutting us, we had to build loyalty and a warm environment to encourage sales.
6. Early investment matters: Although it was tough I knew I had to invest in the brand, the renovations and stock to really give the shop new life and that that money would not return immediately.

Umina Beach Book Nook has become a bustling community hub

Thankfully, I was able to use my financial experience to really firm up the cash flow, budgeting and forecasting, looking for economies and improvements. We’ve upped the average sale from around $25 to $40 with till teasers and upsells and increased overall revenue by 37 per cent in the first year alone.

To increase the number of customers, we worked hard on local SEO, improving our findability, increasing our reviews, creating local content and connections. Ialso invested heavily in digital marketing with a new brand, ecommerce website, comprehensive email marketing setup and relentless social media.

But rather than focus purely on top of funnel brand awareness, we also invested in our existing customers, setting up a generous loyalty program to reward every purchase.

Our focus has been to create a safe, diverse and welcoming community, with a host of store events, author signings, free storytelling times, literary dinners, fancy dress parties and special kids’ days.

The goal was to make the bookshop a destination, and it worked, with people travelling down from Newcastle and up from Sydney just to visit the store.

Will the bookshop become a huge money earner? I don’t think so. Retail is tough, and the bookshop model is inherently hard to make money from (unless you’re a big corporation or until the government restricts offering books as loss leaders).

But for me, the bookshop has given me a new lease of life, a deep connection with my community, a creative outlet and the ability to make my audible downloads tax deductible.

After years of working solo in a purely online space, it feels good to get my hands ‘dusty’ again, meet real people (yes even the tough customers) and have a bigger purpose than just amassing wealth.

It was the best worst decision I ever made. And I’m here for it.

Find out more about the Umina Beach Book Nook. Learn more about Kate Toon.

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