PBS Changed My Store

Michelle Tuplin, Owner

Serendipity Books in Chelsea, Michigan

Serendipity Books’ mission – to be a robust, highly curated independent bookstore serving the community and providing a safe, inclusive space for all – is a tall order. I knew I had community support: I’d received recognition from the State of Michigan. Yet everything felt tenuous. I feared the business could fold at any time. 

I created Serendipity Books from the ground up. In 2017, I was a single-person business with no team to brainstorm, and no mentor to ask. The details of the book industry are numerous and industry-specific; general business advice was of little help. Local colleagues were competitors. The national industry meetups left my head spinning with all I didn’t know. 

In the spring of 2023, I turned to the Professional Bookseller’s School, joining their finance class. It was as a member of the school that an understanding of my business started to fall into place. The teachers offered both class-specific support and general mentorship I could find nowhere else. The results of my class were tangible, changing not just my life but the future path of my business, my small staff, as well as my broader community.  

Finally armed with an understanding of my budget, I applied for and was awarded a $5000 grant from Main Street America/American Express. With that money, I was able to invest in additional inventory, offer my support to community partners such as Equality Chelsea and the Chelsea Community Education Foundation, as well as introduce new initiatives that supported the broader community (such as a shop local program.)

One detail the PBS finance class taught me was the importance of calculating payroll as a percentage of revenue over a year. With this knowledge, I finally felt able to pay myself a regular income and offer my part-time booksellers stable year-round hours without worrying about seasonal fluctuations.  

When I hired bookseller Alex, she said her dream was to be a bookseller and one day own Serendipity Books! With stable hours, Alex feels ready to take steps to attain her dream and become a certified bookseller. She begins her first PBS class in the spring. When her first-grader was asked ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ she answered ‘a bookseller, like Mommy!’ Meanwhile, I continue to learn and feel the support of PBS: I am now a member of the inventory management class. 

PBS has empowered me to become a part of my industry from a position of knowledge, confident that I can make this bookstore work.  But the change PBS has created goes beyond me. It has allowed me to create a small staff ready to fashion new careers as booksellers. Furthermore, it has ensured that a small Midwestern town will have a bookstore able to fulfill its mission – serving the community and providing a safe, inclusive space for all – for many years to come.