Bill Greenley retired from his railroad job and his wife, Donna, from her media job with the local school district, but they were not ready to completely stop working. An existing Ottumwa bookstore had gone out of business, resulting in an opportunity for them to open their own bookstore, which they did in 2005.

O’Town Books is located in a building that already contains a coffee shop and an antique mall. The business also sells many of Bill’s wood carvings, including a line of wooden Santas. Donna and Bill are examples of a growing trend of senior citizens who start and operate small businesses. Donna is using her school media experience to determine which books children read that parents will buy.

Ottumwa just became a Main Street community, and Donna is involved on the Main Street board. The bookstore is located downtown and helps draw customers to the downtown area.

The Greenleys came to the SBDC to receive help in starting their business. Indian Hills SBDC Center Director Bryan Ziegler helped the Greenleys deal with legal requirements and financing issues. They obtained a loan of $40,000 to begin the bookstore and after a year and a half the Greenleys came back to the SBDC to check on how their bookstore was progressing and to discover any additional opportunities to grow their sales. Bryan discussed their advertising budget and the effectiveness of ad content. After their meetings, the Greenleys started using more story-like ad content that communicated their advantage over competitors, especially companies who sell books on the Internet. They promote their store’s advantages, which include no shipping costs and being able to pick up an ordered book the next day instead of two to four days later.

Bryan pointed out that their business also fills a particular niche in book sales—shipping books to prisoners. Since prisons have strict requirements on how books can be shipped and on the type and subject of books, and they know how to meet these requirements, they could expand by providing their services to all prisons. This type of niche area could increase their sales.

The Greenleys are doing well and very happy about the help they received from the SBDC. Bill said, “When you don’t have direct business experience, the SBDC is an excellent resource to insure that you are making the right decisions.”