City bookshop is a familyowned company situated in heart of

City bookshop is a family-owned company, situated in heart of Norwich, England. Mrs. David Clarke and his wife were specialised in the sale of new, second-hand and antiquarian books about Norwich and Suffolk since the 1980s and are a longstanding member of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association, and more recently the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Britain’s two professional Antiquarian bookselling association. When interviewed on 14th January 2018, Mrs. Clarke spoke of the history, challenges, and opportunities of his business. This case study will highlight his response to questions asked within the interview (Appendix 2&3).

Mrs. Clarke, due to a recession, closed his coffee and bookshop which run for 20 years in 2002 in Norwich, despite this he had other business as he is a private landlord. He and his wife adjusted second-hand books fairs to trade online. The history started in 2010, when he was walking down the street, saw that building and rang the agency. It was very affordable and after 8 years of the last bookshop business, he got it.

He was in business his all life, so he already had the money and experience to open the bookshop. David is not even aware of what funding are available for entrepreneurs.

The family business has six full-time employees. David Clarke visits bookshop once a day for an hour. Have three staff who manage their own departments. Steve downstairs, do all the ordering for the new books, David is really interested in second-hand books, so he is the manager of that department. When people bring the book, David price and value them.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: Economics

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

David Clarke and his wife Joy Clarke are directors of the firm and are the main decision-makers. However, David states that his wife is a silent partner and does not get involved a lot in the company, she does not work in the bookshop but helps sometimes. Mrs. Clarke’s son was working part-time in the bookshop and was treated like the others. David’s son worked in bookshop since he left university and had some skills which were useful within the company. He had internet skills, so he was mainly responsible was listing books and working on a till. Nevertheless, David trusts his all employees and keeps a casual, relaxed feel around the office and strives to keep levels of management down as the business grows.

7.2 Goals and plans for the bookshop

David Clarke said that the main goal of having this family business is fun. David is not that much interested in income; however, this family business is a profitable business. The owner enjoys interesting books and the main passion for having a family bookshop was the enjoyment of buying and selling books. Also, the enjoyment of dealing with customers who like buying good books. It worked from day one and was very successful. In the beginning, year one was very good, and as David said each year is better and better and the last year, 2017 was superb.

Future for the city bookshop is still unclear. Mrs. Clarkes’ son worked here before and they would love to transfer their family business to the next generation, but it is still not sure if their son wants to keep it or not. Clearly, David will not be working here forever, and it is more than a possibility that he will transfer it to his son. Or the other possibility, when he gets too old or too ill, he will just sell it. However, he would rather pass it to the youngest son.