A busy-ness update
Many thanks to all who responded to our Blog a couple of weeks ago when we let you know that we are struggling a bit financially. We have been busy in the intervening couple of weeks and wanted to update you all on how we are doing and some initial plans for changes.
Our most significant progress has been in our work with local schools. We have had lots of enquiries and support from schools as far afield as Waterside, many wanting to purchase books with us. This is fantastic news and we are working on an update of our Children’s book area to reflect our desire to really inspire and connect with our younger readers. We continue to work with the Reading Buddies programme (have a listen to the podcast here to find out more) and our book buying Working group has an initial focus on the Children’s section. All this really shows what can be achieved when we work collectively.
Other good news in that the events we have held in the last couple of weeks have been really well attended with good sales. The ‘less is more’ philosophy we have adopted here really seems to be working.
We have also been interviewing for the book buying role and we feel we have found someone with the skills needed to really help us get the process of book buying back on track. The process is vital in maintaining our profitability and making sure we can fulfil the large school orders that are coming in effectively and efficiently. More on who this is very soon… watch this space.
Many others have been asking us ‘What can I do to help?’. There are a few simple things you can do:
Spread the word about us far and wide - If you have friends or family in Southampton then do let them know about our events, our space for hire, our refill station, the amazing cards we sell and mention that we provide books to schools on World Books day and offer a 20% discount to schools on bulk orders.
Let friends and family far and wide know about Bookshop.org where you can buy books online and have them delivered to your home AND support your favourite independent bookshop. Our page is here https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/octoberbooks please share.
Tell your friends and family about our survey or fill it in yourself… link is here
More updates soon and thank you all for your continued support.
