Whirlwind Book Conference Recap

Last week I headed down to Washington, DC to attend a bookseller's educational conference held by the American Bookseller's Association. Not only was the conference awesome but I got to visit with some dear friends. On Wednesday I flew down and had some Indian food with one of my oldest friends (I always find saying oldest strange, we're the same age I've just known her for seven years) Kisa and on Thursday I got to have lunch with my mom's ex-boyfriend (who is the closest thing I have to a grandfather) and dinner with Teresa and her cute as crap family. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to, but it happens. I didn't have a car and the conference was pretty intense. I found myself exhausted by day two and I was only listening. So much information!

As I mentioned the conference was educational so there were seminars that covered all kinds of topics- cost of goods, book buying economically, how to throw awesome events for a small store, etc etc. And all the people were really nice and totally supportive of me trying to start a bookstore. I know that I can contact any and all of the people I met and they will try to help to the best of their abilities. What an awesome community to be a part of. Really, great folks.

While I was there I got a call from the first bank I applied to for a loan. My application was rejected. The banker who called was apologetic about it. The bank just wanted to see me put up substantially more money than I had. I'm still raising capital (as you can see by the meter on the top-right of the blog) but what I have so far isn't enough. That's okay. It's the bank's prerogative. I'm relieved it's nothing that I could really control. I mean, I could control it but I don't know how I'm going to raise that kind of money. I revisited my start-up budget and realized I could cut at least $15,000 out of inventory- if not more. So, I can ask for less and make what I have that much more attractive. Anywhoodle, I have another loan meeting on Monday at 10am. I hope it'll be a great way to start my week....