Booksellers Forum, Succession Planning, and ABACUS Preview Hits at GLBA Spring Meeting

The Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) held its Spring Meeting on March 27 at the Transitions Learning Center in Chicago. The program included an ABA Booksellers Forum, an ABACUS "Sneak Preview," and a seminar on Succession Planning/Bookstore Valuation sponsored by ABA. Representing ABA at the meeting were President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago; Board member Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan; CEO Avin Mark Domnitz; COO Oren Teicher; and Ivan Barkhorn, a consultant to ABA on strategic matters. Members of the regional association who attended the sessions told BTW that they were impressed with the scope of the program.

ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and Board President Ann Christophersen

The ABACUS preview, led by Domnitz, provided booksellers with data to measure each store's business operations against others with similar sales volume, store size, and region, and, according to GLBA Executive Director Jim Dana, it was "fuller and richer data" than in previous years. "Now that there are more stores participating, I was struck by the increased information now available. I'm looking forward to the final version this spring," Dana said.

Ernie Ford, owner of Fine Print Book Store in Greencastle, Indiana, was inspired by the session to "go home and immediately prepare my data. Today I submitted it, and I only had one question -- that's pretty good," he explained.

The Booksellers Forum, following the ABACUS session, gave booksellers the opportunity to hear updates on ABA business from Domnitz and to offer their input to the ABA staff and board members. Issues of importance to GLBA members included the recent response by Michael Jacobs of Scholastic to ABA's objection to its Harry Potter/Book Fair policy.

Sally Bulthuis, a prospective bookseller from Michigan noted, "The change in Scholastic's [Book Fair] policy [to include retailers in distribution] impressed me and showed that ABA was very much on top of that."

Sue Boucher of Lake Forest Book Store in Lake Forest, Illinois, was also pleased with the publisher's response and the "fact that they had listened to the booksellers."

Ford was heartened that Scholastic had backed off and realized through the discussion that "I had to sign up [with Scholastic] as a participating distributor. I immediately went home and did that," he told BTW.

Other hot issues discussed at the forum included provisions of the USA Patriot Act that affect booksellers and creating a level playing field through equitable taxation of Internet sales.

Ivan Barkhorn of Meridian Strategy Group, LLC

The third component of the day -- "Succession Planning/How to Value Your Business," presented by Ivan Barkhorn of Meridian Strategy Group, LLC -- sparked the greatest reaction from booksellers. Barkhorn addressed a number of multifaceted questions, including: How much is my business worth now? How can I make it worth more? What are my alternatives if I want to exit the business? When should I begin working on my exit strategy? Who should I be selling to if I choose to sell? How do I negotiate successfully? How do I minimize the government's share of the proceeds?

Booksellers attending the session included both future buyers and sellers, longtime owners nearing retirement, and recent entrants to bookselling.

Boucher told BTW that "looking at both sides of the issue" was particularly interesting because she had purchased a bookstore and then bought out her partner. She was struck by Barkhorn's comments about valuation of a store by established formulas, not emotions.

Every bookseller mentioned the usefulness of the Succession Planning session, although several mentioned the difficulties of comprehending the complicated mathematics in a single session. Dana explained that this topic was difficult and that, with the input offered by the group, the Succession Planning Seminar scheduled for BEA would include handouts with further explanation.

Tomas Bissonnette, owner of Spanish Speaking Bookstore Distributions, found the session very enlightening. Particularly, he told BTW, "the personal experiences of Sue Boucher [Lake Forest Book Store] because she had so many problems. Her story was far more instructive than someone who sailed through the whole process. We could see the red flags from her experiences, and it gave us many things to think about." Bissonnette noted, "Sessions like this one would be of great value to people who think about buying a bookstore."

Bulthuis concluded, "It's good to hear people [of ABA and GLBA] making it clear that they are advocates and that there is this level of support for booksellers." --Nomi Schwartz