Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello everyone

This is my very first post here, I discovered StartupNation two weeks ago, have been browsing ever since and have already found lots of useful information.

My name is Inge Geleyn, I live in Belgium and have been working as a freelance translator, editor and copywriter for the last 6 years. However, I feel it is time for a change, and I am seriously looking into the possibility of starting my own personal book shopper business.

While browsing through the forums I came across a very helpful post on a similar topic:
http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/forum_posts.asp ?TID=3064
but of course every business idea is different/has a different focus, and I was hoping that you guys would care to comment on my particular business concept (it is still in the brainstorm stage, still needs lots of tweaking and further research).

As I see it now, I would be offering:
1) book title suggestions for people who are buying books as gifts: these suggestions would either be delivered in an attractive, personalised booklet at their home address or I could buy the books for them and have them delivered at their home address (I am considering offering both options as some people still prefer to go out and buy books themselves but do need help with coming up with ideas for what to buy)
2) greeting card service (as a side-product): a gift usually comes with an appropriate greeting card, to save the book buyers even more time I would then offer to include a greeting card with the books/book suggestions
3) more extensive `book dossier`: a more expensive option in which I would do thorough research and compile a comprehensive list of book titles on a particular subject - clearly not for gift buyers but for individuals/companies that need all the relevant information available on a particular subject (e.g. a business person moving to another country will probably want to read up on every aspect of that country, an academic doing research on a certain topic who quickly needs an overview of the specialised literature available...)
4) a `corporate` service: aimed at people responsible for buying business gifts for their company - I would either offer to compile fun/interesting/original book packages for them or they could buy `my serivce` (option 1) in the form of gift certificates and give their employees etc a personalised service instead of a product

I think the emphasis should always be on the time-saving aspect + my expertise in finding people what they want/need/couldn`t come up with themselves (due to lack of inspiration, lack of time, lack of research skills, knowledge of the book market...).

Personal shopping is not yet a widely spread phenomenon in Belgium, and I realise that the US and Belgian market differ in some aspects, but I would really appreciate all your comments, ideas and questions!

A few questions that come to mind:
- is it, as described above, a viable business concept, do you think people are willing to pay for this kind of specialised service (i.e. only books/book-related)
- would you go about it differently/which options would you not include/are there other options you would include - all ideas welcome
- pricing: I think it would be best to charge for the services itself (and not just ask for a percentage of the book price) but how much would you be willing to pay for each of the options above?
- target market: I am trying to define my target audience, which is of course book lovers/readers but I need to narrow it down a little bit more;-) At first I am planning on promoting my business only locally and I was thinking about marketing to travel agencies (people booking a trip usually want to read something about their destination and/or are looking for good holiday reads), day care centres (parents never have enough time to spare but do find it important to be able to offer their children good reading choices, so they might be interested in hiring a personal book shopper) etc. I have a few more ideas but this post is already too long - all input welcome though.


Thanks in advance for all your help, I am looking forward to getting to know you guys! And I promise to be more concise next time:-)


Inge


P.S. (a little further reading material) I have been contemplating this personal book shopper thing for a long time, but after reading this article last year I decided to go ahead with it instead of just dreaming about it.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story /0,,1671520,00.html

hmm...people say that reading is gradually decreasing. Maybe, maybe not, but I think we`d agree that fewer people "tend to" read these days. And, of course, books are getting a bit more expensive.

Suppose you were to "insert" your bookshopper business into what appears to be a site that reviews and categorizes books in general? I`m thinking that attracting people to buy or recommend books for them would be difficult. But to attract people to a site that rapidly summarizes AND categorizes books would be easier.

For example, before you can recommend books as gifts, you, in your own mind, will have categorized people in general. You`ll have a breakdown of people who like to cook, like mysteries, like horror, psychological drama, and all the other venues we see in a library.

What if you were to take your own reviews, and those culled from around the Web and categorize them that way? "For people who enjoy solving problems and mysteries, `Inge`s Picks` recommends:"

Splattered all over the site, under all recommendations, would be a variation on a theme: "Email us if you`d like a personal book shopper to help find that perfect book as a gift." (Obviously, the "email us" would be a link.)

Just a thought... :-) But it revolves around how to attract visitors to your site, build original content for the search engines, and all the other stuff we`ve seen on many of the posts here.

Thanks very much for this Craig!
(I`m in a different time zone, so replying might seem a bit slow, but I do try to check in here every evening)

You`re absolutely right of course, the key is to make sure that people get to know me and see my business name/a link to my website popping up all over the place. I`m convinced there are still a few readers out there, they just need to know that I exist;-)

I was already thinking of putting this type of content (reviews, genre lists, themed lists....) on my website (or maybe start a separate blog for this - with a link to the main site naturally), because as you point out internet presence is very important. And indeed; categorizing is the basis from which you start when trying to come up with book ideas for other people.

But `participating` on other book sites is a great idea as well! These sites are already up and runnning and presumably already have visitors returning on a regular basis. I need to get myself out there, so they get to see what I do and that I know my business.

Another possibility:
Occasionally I write for a women`s magazine, published nationally, as well. Not (yet) about books though. I`m going to try and see if I could do some sort of regular feature about book-related subjects (reviews, Q&A,...), again with a byline that includes my info.

For the `corporate` service I might need a somewhat different approach. I`m going to brainstorm with an old friend of mine whose an executive at a communication agency that specializes in corporate events and promotional gifts. We should be able to come up with something.

Inge

Another thought: You could style yourself as a book reviewer, and I`m sure there are lots of e-zines and sites that look for freelance help.

We`re just now getting into how to build Web visibility, and SuN is being crawled constantly, almost on a daily basis. Make sure you have your name and Web address in your profile signature. That`s being picked up all the time.

Another place being constantly crawled, partly due to their use of Google Ads, is Squidoo. Make a lens. People will find you faster on Google. You could do a blog that`s all about book reviews.

Better---how to differentiate yourself and specialize. I read a novel every couple of nights, but when my eyes were better, I read everything I could get my hands on. One of the more interesting places to find reviews is Wikipedia, oddly enough.

For example, I wanted a short bio on Sidney Sheldon. I did a Google search, and Wikipedia`s entry was right up there. The main entry includes (as with many authors) his entire catalog. Each of those is a link, and the plot summaries and reviews were fair to good. Some of those entries had nothing....yet.

If you could maybe build a blog, then link it with Wikipedia, that might help get some visibility out there.

But I think if you can become a sort of specialized reviewer for either a genre, or a particular set of authors, that`ll be like a product line. A product would be better than basic visibility as a personality, unless your writing style is compelling enough that you are your product.

ALL this is only to drive people to your site. Then you`ll have the business of convincing them to be bookshoppers. I`m not sure of the details, but you could likely set up some gift books and sets as products directly from your Web site?

And you would want to promote that as a book-shopper you can find rare and hard-to-find books. That would mean having physical contacts, where those books don`t easily show up online. :-) Lots of possibilities....

Thanks again for all your input Craig!

At the moment I`m looking into all of these possibilities and trying to get around to `more practical things` like coming up with a catchy, original yet simple name for my business (not there yet:-), deciding on the structure and content of my website, looking into which topics are most suitable for articles with which to wow magazine editors, etcetera.

And I`d like to be more active in the forums myself, not just asking questions but maybe make myself useful as well.

Looking forward to seeing you around Craig, and best of luck with all your projects!

Inge

I just had a major problem, trying to find a book title or author ONLY by knowing some of the plot. I eventually was able to find a database, accessible through my library card, that lists the summary plot of many books.

Another problem is to find a book I read long ago, about an island. I`d thought it was called "Island" by someone, but I`ve never found it.

So I`d assume there are a lot of people who`d like to find a book but can`t remember who it was by or what it was called. Maybe that`d be a line of business?