We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Benita Botello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Benita below.

Benita , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Book Beau started when I decided to get sober, found clarity and realized I had a passion for reading. Prior to solving a problem I had, I was reading over a hundred books a year. I am a proud fangirl and I fell hard for a few authors. I naturally starting doing research and deep dives. I found that a few authors I became obsessed with were local and there were actual book signings! I was alone in my reading ventures so I went to my very first signing by myself and the rest is bookish history!

Colleen Hoover (heard of her??) was an author I found in early 2016 and I quickly devoured every book she had written up to that point. She was coming out with a new book, I, of course went to the signing but found I DID NOT want to mess up my brand new signed copy. At the time I was working at Fedex Office and waiting tables, barely making 12 dollars an hour, plus tips from the restaurant. I really couldn’t afford to buy another book or purchase the very expensive audible. I have been on my own since I was 17. I worked 2 jobs and finally started to find something that let me escape the never ending hustle and bustle. When I got new books, I couldn’t and wouldn’t put them down. Curating this new signed collection of mine really started to have me think. How is there nothing that protects your books the same way tablets are protected?? I cant be the only one that cares about the condition of their books. Signed or not, I knew so many readers who were reading on their lunch breaks like me or reading in car line while picking their kids up from school.

I started scouring the internet looking for what I had envisioned. I assumed id find exactly what I was looking for. It was a very simple idea and I no idea I would be the one to create something so many of us didn’t know we really needed. The closest thing I found were crochet book “pouches”. I was really looking for something padded and secure. Something that would actually protect your books from the perils of your bag and the everyday grind. My very first step was a $70 sewing class in Dallas. I then bought the exact sewing machine I was taught on, tested dozens of foam products and less than a month later the first Book Beau prototype was born. For the first time in my life I started something I actually saw through and finished.

Benita , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Benita Botello and I am the creator of the bookish brand, Book Beau. This small company was based on the purest love for books and beautiful journey of self discovery. Book Beau was born because I just couldn’t stop reading. I would find an author, read everything in their catalog and then find out if they would be signing in my area. I became excited about something that was just for me for the first time. I had no idea this would become a passion of mine and lead to creating one of the most amazing community of readers in all of the inter-webs. Reflecting on this time is always so crazy because it was such a blur. I have no formal training in business and just barley graduated high school. My newfound love for books really drove me and instincts for creating I didn’t even know I had kicked in and I have never looked back.
When I fist started, my only goal was trying to create something I would want to carry around and something that truly protected my books from a very real, long and tiring everyday life. I did it and I didnt do it alone. I have a very small and powerful team that is fueled by the love and very passionate group of readers who believed in what we were doing here from the very beginning. Our book sleeves were the first and I am so proud to say still some of the best and most protective sleeves on the market.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I really love this question. This question is so important because I am a very regular woman who just felt a spark and lead with my heart. Every part of this almost 7 year journey has been about resilience and it is the secret to business (in my humble opinion). From the second I decided I would turn this into a business the difficulties, hardships and ability to recover quickly would be the true stepping stone to my success. I learned very quickly that 80% of the time things wouldn’t go as planned. As you grow, your ability to control all the different aspects of you business become harder and harder. I dont have a specific story that illustrates my resilience because you are looking at it! The fact that I am still here. Still fighting every single day is that story. I really wanted to talk about this because as i mentioned, I am just a regular Jane just like so many of my customers and your wonderful readers here. We are all so resilient. Every day we fight, pivot, make something out of nothing and are really the unsung heros to their coworkers and families. Its very much the same in business and I just really wanted to highlight that for anyone who might be reading this. We are all so much stronger than we know and are capable of really incredible things.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started out making every single book sleeve by hand. From the very beginning my instincts were to only make what I could sell. That would be the first little nugget of love I learned when I started. It proved to build the foundation to establishing good business and trust with my customers. The downside to this was the very limited quantities of product. Book Beau started out so strong. I still cant wrap my head around how quickly we got popular. To this day I am still reminded of the horror stories of my Etsy days. About how quickly my book sleeves sold and how hard it was to snag one. As I mention before, good business is the reason im in this and I couldn’t stand to see so many of my loyal customers upset. Within the first 6 months I knew I needed help. I met my former business partner and he brought me the idea to start a Kickstarter campaign to fund our manufacturing journey. Within a month we worked out tails off to build, film a video and found a manufacturer who could make my product at a very much larger scale. Launch day came and went and my beautiful community showed up!! We were fully funded at $15,000 in just 90 minutes and finished the 30 day campaign at an unbelievable $100,000!! We havent stopped growing since!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bookbeau.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookbeau/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookbeausleeves
• Other: Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@thebookbeau