Robin Agnew
Owning a "Mom & Pop" sounds romantic - though when we first opened, my uncle, who used to do evaluations for Dun & Bradstreet, pointed out, "So you're the Mom, and he's the Pop? What if one of you gets sick?" (Answer, it turns out: we close for the day). And it's true, we do just about everything, but then, there's that satisfaction: you've done everything. Owning a business isn't that different from owning and maintaining a home.
A couple things we do:
Janitorial/Maintenance. Yep, we change light bulbs in the ceiling fixtures, we vacuum and we really should get those window treatments dusted but we keep forgetting to bring the ladder in from home.
Shelving: I like this part, it's like meditation, except when you find someone has thrown the alphabet to the winds and shelved the Dick Francis books in with the Ellis Peters, and some of them are backwards. Periodically I toy with the idea of not actually letting the customers touch the books.
Accounts Payable: That's me, but then I'm also Accounts Receivable,
Newsletter: Editor, writer, communicating with the web mistress, taking it to be copied, mailing the darn thing. I'm always happy every month to get this out of the way.
Event coordinator: That's me. Much like the newsletter, I enjoy this part, though I don't enjoy it when I have to turn people down. Scheduling, publicity and the worry that no one will show up and buy books, all mine. Of course when we're packed to the rafters and sell lots of books - that's me too.
Chauffeur: Someone has to get those authors to the airport, the hotel, to a meal and key point, to the store.
Oh, yeah - Bookseller! That one is key.
Big Payoff: The Big Payoff of course is that if we're doing most parts of the job right, we get to meet the most interesting people, who come in, as Patricia Finney did this week, and give you a short course on (for example) Elizabethan England. Delightful, and the kind of thing that makes me feel lucky.
My daughter, who is interning at a library this summer, called last night to tell me she'd helped to run her first event. I was so proud. She has so much to look forward to!
