We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Peete a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I’ve had the pleasure of building Second Chapter Bookstore with my mother as my business partner, and thanks to the suggestions from advisors we’ve met through local small business resources, we started much differently than we planned.

The original idea was to open a “bookbar” that focused on Black authors and culture. This space would provide an alternative to the traditional bar scene and would pair curated books with wine, baked goods, and an artsy atmosphere. We wanted to purchase a building and launch our business, as creating generational wealth through property ownership has always been a major goal for us.

In 2021, we met with an advisor from the Canisius College Women’s Business Center who suggested we start with an online business while hosting events as desired in the company. This way, we could start the business earlier and test our concept without the burden of expensive overhead. This was definitely a lightbulb moment!

In January 2023 we launched with our website and began our signature book club experiences, hosting them at various locations throughout the community like art galleries, community centers, co-working spaces, and churches. Over this past year we’ve been able to connect with incredible resources, grow our audience and customer base, establish our brand, and figure out how to maximize profitability with our events. I’m convinced that starting this way was the best for our business and I’m glad we were receptive to advice that was outside of our original plan.

Additionally, we’ve been able to build business credit and actually test out our business plan — we can show and prove that our business has the capacity to thrive with an expansion into a brick and mortar.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Second Chapter Bookstore is a Black-owned small business operated in Buffalo, NY. We don’t just sell books! As a mother-daughter duo, we combine our mutual passion for Black culture and love for reading to create spaces that cultivate joy, community, and shared learning while centering the Black experience.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I think it’s really important to build a strong personal brand before launching a business. This way, you have a trusted audience and it helps you break through all the noise on the internet. Opening a bookstore isn’t anything new, but our concept is new in our community. As funny as it may sound, we make the most money from LinkedIn, where I had developed a pretty strong presence and often recommended books that I’ve read and led different discussions for organizations.

Once we announced our bookstore, there was already an audience that was interested in what we had to offer. I think it’s really important to be authentic and identify your core values. I’ll be honest, as an introvert, I don’t love social media, but I do believe that your people will find you… IF you’re easy to find!

Play around with the different platforms and post consistently to see which work best for your business.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Since we’ve started, we’ve met so many amazing people who have consistently shopped with us and we work really hard to express our gratitude. When we’re vending at events we take photos of our customers and post them on our social media. For those who are local shop with us often, rather than pay shipping fees, we offer to meet them and drop off their purchases. To celebrate our one-year anniversary we threw an intimate party with catering and giveaways for the folks who have supported us. We’re always exploring how to get better at this!

Contact Info:

• Website: secondchapterbookstore.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondchapterbookstore/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/second-chapter-bookstore
• Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/SecondChapterBookstoreNY

Image Credits
For the first photo used (green background with myself and my mother reading a book) credit goes to Blanc Photographie.