Ulysses Bookstore

I went to a booksellers conference before I opened and heard from a marketing expert that every business should have its own story as that is what will make it special to its customers, creating a sense of community and making the business personal.  So this is the story of Ulysses Bookstore.

Take one woman who use to work for a large multi-national in a finance and marketing capacity, then along came three children, so the employment became of a voluntary nature working with other mothers in her local area.  The oldest children are now at secondary school and the mother is wondering what to do with the next ten years.  She can’t see working in a large corporation again – the hours and location aren’t convenient and she’s used to working in a smaller, more personal environment.  She wants to be her own boss as she has been for the last 12 years.  A small business seems the ticket.  Then the big question – what strengths and skills does she have?

 

Well, there are the years of selling raffle tickets at a local shopping strip, giving talks to new mums, and helping her own mother in her small retail business – people skills aren’t too bad.  She’s good with computer systems and one of the few people she knows who balanced her cheque book and does a periodic check of family spending – that should be good for managing accounts and inventories.  The question is – what is the product.  Well, the only interest she feels passionate about these days is books.  Reading them, talking about them with her friends and family, reading reviews to find new things to read.  So, from this, a bookshop is born.

 

 

Where does the name “Ulysses” come from?  Honestly – a wallpaper sample that I liked in a decorating magazine.  Well, that was what got me thinking.  I thought it would make a lovely feature wall until I discovered the 3-dimentional butterflies were actually dragonflies!  But by then I was fixed on a theme of butterflies.  They reminded me of a family holiday to Dunk Island which has the beautiful blue Ulysses butterfly everwhere, and then there was the famous book “Ulysses” by Jame Joyce.  Featured in the book given to me by my husband one Christmas “1000 Books to Read Before You Die”, I did try to read it but only got about half way.  I believe it is one of those books that everyone says they have read or tried to read but couldn’t finish.  Lastly, there’s the Irish connection – my younger brother and his family live in Dublin.  It just seemed right.