Business Link helps family bookshop’s world trade (From The Northern Echo)

Business Link helps family bookshop’s world trade

8:49am Thursday 11th February 2010 in

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A FAMILY-RUN second-hand books business which began as a hobby has expanded to sell as far afield as Japan.

Beck Valley Books was set up by former civil servant Sharon Martin, with help from her husband and fellow bookworm Stephen.

Mrs Martin received part funding from Business Link North-East towards the £4,500 cost of setting up a website, beckvalleybooks.co.uk She also took out a lease on premises at the Stockton business centre in Brunswick Street, Stockton, which is used for storage, although customers can make appointments to look at the books in stock.

The business now sells about 150 books a month to customers not just in the UK, but all over the world in countries such as the US, Australia, Germany and Japan.

It specialises in second hand, rare and out-of-print books in subjects such as history, military and war, crime and thrillers.

Mrs Martin, 38, said: “At first we had books at home, but as the collection grew we couldn’t move. We now have more than 5,000 books.”

Mrs Martin, who lives in Billingham, said it had always been the couple’s dream to own a bookshop, since they shared a passion for books.

But after investigating the costs involved, they decided on internet-selling.

She said: “It is 100 per cent web-based. We don’t have a shop because we could not afford it. Because we are purely internet-based we also have to make sure we are competitive with other sellers.”

Mrs Martin said she had never previously been selfemployed in this way, adding: “It was a massive step, but we received a lot of fantastic advice.

“I have put my heart and soul into this and I love it.”

The business, which only started in December 2008, is hoping for further growth.

Mrs Martin said that she believed the credit crunch could have helped trade because more people were willing to stay in with a good book.

She said: “The passion is still there for books.

“We received one email from a gentleman who had been searching for a book for 20 years and managed to find it from our website. He was absolutely overjoyed.”