No stopping this bookworm

IT has only taken Kirstin Butcher two years to grow her Bookstop business from a 14 square metre retail book shop into an international retail hit.

Bookstop, which retails books through more than 40 Australian hotels, will soon launch its books through Cino to Go coffee shops throughout Perth.

And this month a deal was signed to launch the business in Indonesia.

But the road to becoming an international book baron hasn’t been easy and 28-year old Ms Butcher has learned some crucial business lessons along the way.

She started Bookstop with $5,000, plenty of passion, and an unrelenting ambition to sell books to hotels.

It’s the convenience aspect of Bookstop’s that offers a real point of difference, with hotel customers able to order and pay for Bookstop books from the comfort of the lobby or their hotel room.

To date, Bookstop has signed deals with more than 40 Australian-based hotels, and the launch into a group of Indonesian hotels will take place in a matter of weeks.

“The Indonesia deal has just happened so we will be managing the hotel distribution and manage-ment of our product,” Ms Butcher told WA Business News.

“We’re very excited about it and we’re planning on going to other countries. It’s really targeting the four- and five-star hotels,” she said.

Bookstop retail sites will also open in Indonesia through a non-exclusive licensing deal with cafe chain Caswells Coffee.

“There are five cafes where our books will be on offer so it will function like a book cafe and the cafe will run it using our IP and reviews and systems,” Ms Butcher said.

Ms Butcher is also keen on devel-oping opportunities in the US market.

“We’re in talks with a company in the US and we’re looking at launching there in the next six months,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bookstop is also enjoying strong growth back on home turf.

WA-based Cino to Go, owned by Dome Coffees Australia, will roll-out the Bookstop concept to its sites in the near future, and Mirvac Fini’s Bunker Bay Resort is among the latest hospitality properties to offer the concept to its clientele.

But to fuel the growth Ms Butcher needs to inject capital. 

“Cash flow is always an issue with high-growth businesses and we’re in our second round of capital raising, but just what we raise is still in question,” she said.

“We’re not sure whether to do $400,000 and grow organically or raise $2 million and really push the global expansion.

“I’m looking for people who can not only invest, but provide experience. We’re in the process of putting together a board and making things a bit more formal and ideally I’d want them to devote some time.”

To date the toughest part of Ms Butcher’s business has been finding the right staff.

“We’ve learnt the hard way and so now I only hire through recommen-dations from friends and family,” she said.

Ms Butcher said anyone considering establishing a business, and those new to the game, should back their own vision and surround themselves with a wide and varied group of people with life experience and business skills.

“First of all you have to have passion for what you do. I know it’s a cliche but it’s the most important thing; and then you have to believe in your gut instincts,” she said.

“Some people said to me we would never get our books into hotels, that they wouldn’t buy them, but my gut feeling was that we could.

“The second thing I would say is to be partnership orientated. When you’re taking something new to market you need people to embrace your business, and if you team up with similar businesses you can leverage other people’s minds, networks, and customers but in a way that is beneficial to both businesses.

“We have mutually beneficial relationships with HBF, Cino to Go and the hotels, and it’s not a supplier relationship, it’s a partnership.

“The third tip is to take on advice and don’t operate in a vacuum, especially when you’re young.

“It’s important to recognise you need help so surround yourself with mentors. I was lucky in that I set up my first shop in the city and our shop attracted corporates who had fantastic business minds.

“They were lawyers, bankers, brokers and the list went on.

“Because I worked in the shop for a long time on my own I got to know them well and some of them became friends and some of them invested in the first round of capital raising.”