I’ve been asked the same question a couple times recently & it’s a good one so I thought I’d jot down a few of my thoughts. The question was: “If you’re not in it to get rich, why did you even start a business?” To me, the answer is simple. I inventoried the skill set of myself & my husband and I wondered, “How can I use these skills to help my neighbors?”

To me, the American dream isn’t about a get rich quick scheme or some idyllic picture-perfect world. It’s about leaving behind a memory your children can be proud of and your community can benefit from. My combination of a B.S. in Chemistry, minor in English, and a MLIS degree means that I’m an analytical thinker who can handle numbers, a dreamer who cherishes the written word, and a ninja when it comes to organization, cataloging and preservation. Well, all that plus maybe I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to be when I grew up! Anyways, I digress. I look around and I see how these skills can combine to solve the problem of a passion-project collection with no direction, or a mess of customer information with no logic. While my skills may seem odd, they really do work together.

My partner in work and life has the same combination of skills. He has an innate understanding of how to communicate with and to people, and he’s a natural leader. When you combine his charming personality with his knack for technology and design, you end up with a guy who can not only graphically design a gorgeous webpage, but he can generate the content, too! (He also told me that I forgot to include his “rugged good looks”…?)

So, with that said—why do we keep this business? It isn’t about getting rich, it’s about helping our neighbors. We’re not here to gouge you because we know how to code a website, or catalog your nonfiction collection using the Dewey Decimal system. We honestly want to help your business succeed and your collections to be manageable. We want to help in any way we can. That, folks, is the whole truth & I promise you, our philosophy will never change.

-Melissa

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