Tea in the Library Read online

  About the Author

  Annette Freeman has worked for almost thirty years as a trade marks lawyer with the same Sydney firm, where she has been a partner for the last ten years. The stories she could tell about that! But John Grisham has already been there. So she has chosen to write about her dream which became a reality and then went bust, candidly exposing her faults and mistakes, for the reader’s enjoyment and education, plus a few laughs.

  Annette was born and raised in Tasmania (aren’t all the best people?) and gained her first two degrees at the Australian National University in Canberra, and her postgraduate degree at University of Technology Sydney. Apart from looking after her clients all around the world, Annette has also borne and raised three now-grown children, been married and divorced (but only once each), and dreamt a lot of dreams. If she had her time over, she would attempt Tea In The Library all over again, changing only about a hundred things.

  Published in Australia by Sid Harta Publishers Pty Ltd,

  ABN: 46 119 415 842 23

  Stirling Crescent, Glen Waverley, Victoria 3150, Australia

  Telephone: 61 9560 9920, Facsimile: 61 9545 1742

  E-mail: [email protected]

  First published in Australia 2007

  This edition published 2008

  Copyright © Annette Freeman 2007

  Cover design, typesetting: Chameleon Print Design

  The right of Annette Freeman to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Tea In The Library

  Freeman, Annette.

  ISBN: 978-1-921206-48-1

  Digital Editions published By

  Port campbell Press

  www.portcampbellpress.com.au

  ISBN: 9781742980096 (Epub)

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated, with heartfelt thanks, to The Team In The Library.

  You know who you are.

  Author’s Note

  This is a true story, as accurate as I could make it, allowing for my possibly faulty memory, and for things which may have been going on and me none the wiser.

  In some cases I have changed names to protect the privacy of individuals (whether they deserve that consideration or not), but in others I have left first names as the ones I know and remember fondly.

  I especially acknowledge the lovely photographs of the shop taken by Peter Bateman of Bateman Photographic Group.

  Introduction

  Welcome to the story of my dream that became a reality — a bookshop café that briefly lit up the Sydney literary and café scene. The genesis of the dream is more or less lost in the mists of time, although I have always had a passion for books and recently acquired a penchant for adventure.

  “Tea In The Library” was a bookshop café that became my passion and my burden. It was a far cry from the rest of my organized, professional life. I am a Sydney trade marks lawyer, who for many complicated and shadowy reasons decided to stop dreaming and start acting on her vision of a cosy bookshop full of interesting and eclectic titles, that served great coffee and specialty teas, and that hosted literary events, discussion groups and bookclubs — a meeting place for like-minded souls in the heart of a big city.

  However, it is one thing to dream and another to know what you are doing. Tea In The Library lasted for about eighteen action-packed months, but in the end was undone. This is the story of those eighteen months. It focuses candidly on the mistakes made and explores — hopefully with a sense of humour! — what might have been done differently. On the way we meet an eccentric cast of characters and find out what goes on behind the scenes of a gallant small business with big ideas and no experience in retail. There are funny stories and sad stories, and lots of information about what not to do.

  “How hard can it be to run a successful small business?” I asked. “People do it every day. It can’t be rocket science.” We find the answer to that question, and it is sobering news for those wannabe bookshop or café owners out there.

  I have worked for almost thirty years as a trade marks lawyer with the same Sydney firm, where I have been a partner for the last ten years. The stories I could tell about that! But John Grisham has already been there. So I have chosen to write about my dream which became a reality and then went bust, candidly exposing my faults and mistakes, for the reader’s enjoyment and education, plus a few laughs. As to my experience and qualifications for entering the retail/hospitality industry, they were slim. I was born and raised in Tasmania (aren’t all the best people?) and gained my first two degrees at the Australian National University in Canberra, and my postgraduate degree at University of Technology Sydney. Somewhat presciently, my first degree was a Bachelor of Arts with a major in — yes — English Literature. I knew that would come in handy one day. Apart from looking after my clients all around the world, I have also borne and raised three now-grown children, been married and divorced (but only once each), and dreamt a lot of dreams. If I had my time over, I would attempt Tea In The Library all over again, changing only about a hundred things.

  This book is principally a memoir about my experiences with the Tea In The Library adventure, the people I met along the way, friends and enemies made, and lessons learnt. There were many — lessons and friends, anyway! As you will find, I am wildly passionate about books and their value. But there are lessons in this story for those considering a foray into any small business, and you will find some “how to” (or in many cases “how not to”) information along the way.

  It is an exploration of motivations and experiences and ultimately learning the value of moving outside your comfort zone occasionally, looking for challenges, and staying focused on your goals. It is about the personal — and sometimes literal — mountains I have climbed, or at least dreamed of climbing.

  Happy reading!

  Chapter One

  What a great idea!

  I was sitting with a friend having coffee one day, and discussing a favorite topic — bookshops I have known and loved. In particular, I had recently enjoyed what was a fairly new phenomenon at that time — bookshops that also served tea and coffee and little snacks.

  Despite having first come across this excellent improvement on an already indispensable institution in the USA, it in fact reminded me rather of things British. In particular, the idea of sipping tea among the books transported me to the drawing room of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, or the country house library of the Earl of Emsworth in P G Wodehouse’s hilarious send-ups.

  “It’s just like having tea in the library!” I enthused to my friend.

  There were shades of East Coast USA upper crust life too. I recalled visiting the library of the exclusive Washington Club in DC (for a private reception — I doubt they’d let me past the door otherwise), and being once again transported by the tall walls of books, the deep leather armchairs, the lamps, drapes, dusty back-copies of journals, the SILENCE sign. They didn’t seem to serve tea there, but I expect you could have ordered a nice dry sherry. Both are certainly available in The Coffee Club, a private New York establishment where deep armchairs and communal-style meals along a refectory table are the backdrop for chance meetings and lively discussions with writers, dissenters, progressives, reactionaries, and other assorted citizens interested in thinking and talking about life, the world and community.

  I was des
cribing the concept of sitting among the books and enjoying afternoon tea, with walls of books about one, to a much younger woman one day. After contemplating my description, a light bulb illuminated over her head — “Like Bruce Wayne’s Manor!” she said. Exactly!

  Somewhere around this time a small kernel of an idea lodged in my subconscious and gradually worked its way into the daylight. As I went about my daily life, doing the job I had done for twenty-plus years, looking after my home and family, contemplating life and the universe, as one does in mid-life, “the idea” was like the pea under the princess’s ten mattresses — I knew something was there. I could feel it.

  If I had a dollar each for all the people who have confided to me that they would love to own a bookshop café — sometimes whispering as if they were ashamed of such a dumb idea; sometimes disappointed, as if I had beaten them to the punch — well, I’d be able to go on selling books for fifty years! I sure wasn’t Robinson Crusoe with this idea. But on the other hand, there are only a select few crazy people who have actually acted on it. (We’ll meet some of them later.)

  Dreams have a way of sneaking up on you unexpectedly. I’ve tried to understand why this Great Idea revealed itself to me at this particular time. And why and how I was actually able to bring Tea In The Library to living, breathing reality. In particular I’ve asked myself why didn’t it last? My home town, a small Tasmanian town which hasn’t grown much since the days when I grew up there — it may even have shrunk — did not possess a bookshop. It still doesn’t, although you can probably pick up a pot-boiler or Harry Potter at the news agency. So why books?

  And was it just coincidence that at this time of my life I also became passionate about visiting remote areas of the world on adventure trips, for the thrill of gazing upon the highest mountains in the world? Tasmania has a few rugged hills, but it is hardly the South Island of New Zealand. But during these years I had developed a growing ambition to see the high Himalaya. Now, to put this in context — at school I was always the last shivering little figure in baggy white shorts to be picked for the team on sports day. My mother, bless her, would let me sneak home on sports afternoons in high school. When a careers aptitude test at school returned results which showed a marked interest in “the outdoors”, my family laughed and said there must have been something wrong with the test. Apart from the odd bush walk and an unsuccessful camping trip (think serious sunburn and longings for the motel), I had not led an outdoors life by any stretch of the imagination. Nor was I particularly fit. I had a sedentary job, played no sport and was about 10 kilos overweight.

  Perhaps my stars moved into a particularly interesting alignment. Perhaps it was a mid-life crisis of some kind. But the next few years turned out to include some very challenging real and metaphorical mountains to climb.

  Anyone contemplating starting a small business will inevitably become aware of the sad statistics that nine out of ten of them fail. They will also probably be convinced in their heart that their small business will be the one that survives. Possibly, like me, they will believe firmly that knowledge is a powerful thing, that running a small business can’t possibly be rocket science, and that all you have to do is develop a good plan, and then put it into execution. They will not be afraid of hard work, they will be incredibly energized by their vision of what they want to create, and they will have a huge passion for their idea.

  Yep, that was me. In fact it still describes me, except the bit about believing my small business will be the one that survives. A little bit of reality has set in, that’s for sure, but the roller-coaster ride of starting a small business from scratch has been so incredibly rewarding in so many ways that I’d do it all again tomorrow. Of course, I’d have to win the lottery first.

  My Great Idea rested firmly on several Articles of Faith:

  that books are wonderfully valuable repositories of information, entertainment and cultural enlightenment that can bind people and communities together

  that my community needed a place where people could meet informally, listen to topical discussions, participate in those discussions, air their views and meet like-minded people (villages and local town halls being in short supply these days)

  that everyone is fed up with the rotten service epitomized by recorded voices, phone menus and bank queues, and would love personal service where someone takes the time to talk to you

  that bookshops can provide all of the above

  that the world can always use another bookshop

  that the coziest bookshops have somewhere to sit while browsing

  that the seating may as well be comfortable

  that people relax, spend time, and chat more comfortably if there is catering

  that a glass of bubbly with all the above would be excellent

  that “baby boomers” would enjoy all of this, and they are numerous, well-heeled, beginning to retire and have time on their hands.

  To put the Articles of Faith into practice I envisioned a “fifty-fifty” bookshop café where each side of the business was equally important. An interesting and eclectic selection of books would line the shelves and be displayed on stands among the café tables. Customers would literally sit among the books to sip tea, enjoy a cappuccino or tuck into a light lunch. A liquor license was a tan-talizing idea. Bubbly with high tea? Yum. The café tables would have white linen tablecloths and napkins, and the chairs would be comfy for long sessions of reading, chatting and discussing the meaning of life. In addition, dotted about the premises would be upholstered arm chairs, buttoned chesterfield sofas, and little occasional tables to perch one’s tea cup. On a really dreamy day, I envisioned a fireplace, classics on the mantle, and a glass of port before the fire.

  A basic tenet of this set-up would be that customers would be free to pick up books and browse through them while eating and drinking. We would have no horrid signs saying “Books Must be Purchased Before Being Read In The Café”. Almost everyone to whom I explained this radical feature warned that many books would clearly be lost to coffee splashes or crumbs between the leaves. I replied that I would “monitor it”, but this inclusive, relaxed and inviting approach was essential to the ambience I imagined. As it turned out, we never lost a book to this kind of damage. We did, however, provide a lot of free reading.

  The shop (never “store”) would be decorated in accordance with the vision, with carpeting, upholstery, warm traditional colours — no stainless steel and shiny laminate. Lamps would light the corners and the bookcases would be warm wood.

  To kick start the vision, a name was needed. Catchy, memorable, evocative but not too directly descriptive, euphonious, not like anyone else’s name, distinctive.

  Tea In The Library.

  The roller-coaster was off down the first steep slope.

  Chapter Two

  What’s in a name?

  The shop was imagined, but how does the idea become translated to reality? Clearly some deep investigation was required.

  I began in the most obvious place — a good bookshop. I purchased and perused many volumes of advice and information about starting and running a small business, in particular a retail business. The number of titles available on this subject suggested that it was an activity that was happening every day on a great scale. I read books on how to write a business plan, handling small business finances, tax, legal structures, regulations, retail leases, becoming an employer and motivating staff, marketing and promotion, analyzing your demographic and appealing to it, customer service, and every other imaginable permutation of a small business.

  I was particularly encouraged by an enticingly slim volume published by the Federal Government in 1992, called simply Managing the small business series – No.45: Bookshops. The whole procedure was explained in less than 20 pages, encouraging this novice to believe that it mightn’t be that complicated after all.

  In the introduction, the booklet described me precisely:

  Some keen readers often think (maybe when their present
job is getting them down): ‘Wouldn’t it be great to own my own bookshop?’ They imagine themselves sitting comfortably in the front of the store reading their favourite authors in between serving customers.

  When it was adopting an encouraging tone, the booklet enthused:

  Selling books can be a pleasant occupation – it is clean work and by and large the customers are pleasant.

  But it also sounded some notes of caution:

  However, it is competitive and profits are hard to come by. A well-stocked bookshop in a good location takes up a great deal of expensive floor space and requires a fair amount of working capital invested in stock. Pilfering is a major problem which can eat into profit margins.

  This book — along with many of the others — carried the warning that the enterprise would almost certainly fail. This warning was about as effective as those warnings of death and deformity that are plastered on cigarette packets and never seem to deter the dedicated smoker. You see someone take out a packet with large black print saying SMOKING KILLS, extract a cigarette, and commence to smoke. That was me with the “most small businesses fail” warning. I was addicted to my idea. I went ahead anyway.

  So why do so many rush in where more prudent angels would fear to tread? Why did I? Here, I could tell you that I have always been a determined character who never quit and pushed on until a job was done. I could give you a ringing endorsement of brave entrepreneurs who think positive and see a larger vision and pursue their passion at all costs. But I think that the truth is that I am just a regular kid from a small town, no more or less determined than the next person, who had an inflated idea of what she could do. But I did love the idea of a bookshop café, I imagined it in glorious technicolor, and it was truly my passion.