Turning passion into thriving business
After going through hard times, avid reader finds success selling books online
A COMBINATION of passion and adversity has led to a successful online book business for Rachel Ang.
She quit her sales and marketing job in 2016 and struggled to pay the bills.
“I took refuge in books and that helped me to cope and care for my two children,” the 46-year-old self-confessed lover of historical novels told theSun.
It was then that she decided to try her hand at selling books. The rest, as they say, is history.
Ang recounted how stressful it was during her years in sales and marketing.
“It was a hectic life. I was frequently away from my family, even during weekends,” she said.
She became depressed and three years on, she threw in the towel.
It was then that she hit upon the idea of putting her love of reading to good use. With RM200 seed money, she started selling books online.
She named her new venture “Books n Bobs”.
“I started small, selling through Facebook.”
She sold to friends and fellow members of book clubs, and later widened her circle by joining an Instagram group for book lovers. It was not easy but with persistence, her business grew.
Ang said when she started, she had no knowledge of social media marketing.
“I taught myself and learned through experience along the way.”
It was a continuous learning process, given that the social media and online business environment changes constantly.
“The algorithm, trend, impact and even the crowd changes daily,” she said.
Ang places emphasis on social media marketing and she advertises on Facebook and Instagram. She now sells an average of 2,000 books a month.
She said followers on Instagram are more active and enthusiastic about sharing what they read.
Books n Bobs sells both new and secondhand books, and to help customers decide, the books are graded according to quality, starting from “Brand New”, followed by “Like New”, “Very Good” and finally “Acceptable”.
“I started out by selling non-fiction books but now I realise there is a market for books on every subject matter.”
For instance, books on Qigong (a Chinese form of exercise) have gained a lot of readers during the movement control order to curb Covid-19 infections.
The lockdown has given her book business a boost as more people turn to reading.
For Ang, the challenge is to ensure that readers keep returning to her bookstore.
“I always tell my staff to not judge a book by its cover. People may sometimes choose a book with a pretty cover only to realise that it is not such a good read, while a book with an unattractive cover may turn out to be more absorbing,” she added.
Five years after starting out as a one-woman enterprise, Books n Bobs now has five employees and a gross revenue of RM40,000 to RM50,000 a month.
There have been enquiries from readers as far away as India and the United Kingdom.
“I never imagined that we could grow to such a big scale,” she said.
“When I started out, I just needed some income. I was quite desperate. Any income was better than no income. The need to cover expenses was what motivated and drove me.”
As her enterprise grew, something else has become the driving force – to keep up with changes in the reading trend.