With forced rest thrust upon me by my competitive nature, and with ‘Touch of Silk’ being stuck at 45,600 words, I decided now would be the best time to make a start on the business plan for my bookshop. Oh how I laugh at myself sometimes…
It’s been ten years since I went to college and completed my course – which while it had a business element to it was equine related. (Horse Management – Equine Business Management) This is never more evident than when I open up an Excel spreadsheet and attempt to put numbers into it.
I wasn’t doing too badly. I’ve found the shop that I want, at a modest rent, I know the average business rate for the area, and I have a list of stock items that I want to buy. But then my husband pointed out – what am I storing these books on? Oh yes… Bookshelves… They might be necessary. So the pricing up of my start-up costs began. And ended.
Of course I could go to a local DIY store, but surely it would make more sense to get all of my retail supplies and fixtures from one place? You’d think… But no. I cannot find a single B2B supplier that provides good, solid bookcases. Cheap, crappy, MDF ones that I could buy cheaper from B&Q – yes. Proper wooden ones? No. And as much as I would like to have them, I cannot afford £500 for a bookcase from the Old Creamery.
And so opening a bookshop comes to a standstill. Again.
One day I will get there. Just not today.
Charlotte Howard - Romance Author 
Build them – cost for us was about $28US per bookcase; put-together ones cost a few dollars more and they look great and hold up well.
I suppose if I got Rich to build them it would give him the perfect excuse to use all these tools that are gathering dust in the shed…
I think you should visit that well-known on-line auction site which begins with ‘E’ and ends with ‘bay’. Seriously, my husband re-fitted the whole study with £400 worth of wood from the afore mentioned place. It was end-of-line kitchen work top wood and he’s been advised by people in the know that you’d expect to pay five times as much for it in normal circumstances. Good luck!