Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynsey and Michael Pippen.
Hi Lynsey and Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We are an adventurous family and always search for new opportunities to explore our community and beyond! For over a decade, we have celebrated our wedding anniversary by traveling to a different state each year, terming it “50 states in 50 years.” During these trips, both rural and urban, we have found ourselves making spontaneous stops to local independent bookstores. At the time of our Kansas 2020 trip, we came to the realization that a bookshop stop is not something that is likely to happen during our daily routines at home because of the time it takes to find “just the right book” in a bookstore. This is when the book bus dream started brewing and Michael had the idea to start small and mobile.
We were both raised to make everything a family affair and our book bus is no different. To help them understand they are an important part of our family business, our sons, Luke and Nolan have their own job titles and get a small amount of payment for helping at the markets. They both have a diagnosis of high-functioning Autism and our goal is to utilize their unique abilities by teaching them the responsibilities of work and how they can be productive citizens of any community, despite the challenges that come with their disability. Their literal thinking is actually how we came up with the business name because, well, if we are going to have a little bus, we need to name it “little bus.”
Our initial plan included offering new and used reading selections to match the customer with a book they didn’t know they needed in a short amount of time while still enjoying the independent bookstore experience. In essence, we want the shop to serve as the end cap of a store isle by providing only featured items.
In addition to books with a traditional plotline, our curation process has developed to an interest in broadening cultural perspectives by highlighting the diversity of authors and story characters. This includes, but is not limited to, race, nationality, age, religion, LGBTQ, non-traditional families, and disabilities. We are even working on a collection of titles in Spanish. We read and review many of our books, in which customers can find written cards placed next to specific titles. To keep the spirit of inventory being community-based, we have begun a trade-in program asking customers to also provide a quick review of any book they add to our used selections.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We headed into the book business with big goals but small initial expectations. Setting up realistic key metrics has helped with being able to celebrate small victories. While the road to progress sometimes feels slower than we’d like, it has been an overall smooth start since our first market in May.
Our business concept is set up as quality over quantity in order to make our mission practical. We stock a smaller selection of books to make being mobile functional and strive to avoid customer overwhelm or decision fatigue when they enter our shop. With this comes the positive challenge of finding books that fit customer interests. We meet this challenge by staying current on reading trends, tracking recent purchases, and recommendations from customers or social media followers.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Little Bus Books?
Little Bus Books is a family-owned mobile bookshop selling new and used young adult and adult books. We are currently found as a tent and table pop-up shop during local market events. Plans are underway for purchase and renovation of a bus to expand our mobility and open up opportunities that will allow us to partner with other community businesses during the weekdays.
The intention for Little Bus Books is to create a profitable business that will fund a future non-profit organization in providing a free mobile bookshop for individuals and families in our community who do not have adequate access to libraries and bookstores. We will be starting this summer by collaborating with a local homeless ministry during their meal service, as well as an apartment complex which houses a large population of low-income and elderly residents.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Lakeland is the perfect community for starting a small business. There are many resources for obtaining business information, networking, marketing opportunities, and collaboration with fellow business owners. While the city is large enough to be profitable for small businesses, it is also small enough to “know someone who knows someone” that you can connect with professionally. It is apparent that the community as a whole embraces the shop local motto.
Organic networking has worked well for us. Just being out in the markets and meeting people has helped our progress tremendously. We have met many who want to support our new business, whether through a purchase, business advice, collaboration, or connection for our non-profit goal.
Pricing:
- The average cost across formats is $14, with a starting point as low as $6
Contact Info:
- Email: info@littlebusbooks.com
- Website: littlebusbooks.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/littlebusbooks
- Facebook: facebook.com/littlebusbooks
- Other: bookshop.org/shop/littlebusbooks
Image Credits
Kristin Johnson Photography
