Now that it’s been a few weeks, I’ve really had time to think through my September trip & the incredible experience presented by the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest. When I read a tweet from Inc. magazine mentioning the contest, I flagged it to review later & spent the next few days thinking about the opportunities that a trip to London & the Far East would bring. More specifically, the terms of the contest really fit right in with FreeTextbooks & what we’re trying to accomplish (on a tight budget) over the next year.  So, keeping the deadline in mind, I began drafting a few ideas & finally submitted my entry.

Essentially, the contest was searching for small business owners who could really benefit from a face-to-face meeting anywhere British Airways flies. In our case, we had some preliminary contacts in Hong Kong for designing & manufacturing a digital book reader (e-reader), and really needed to meet to test functionalities & offer suggestions. The one problem: travel, especially to Asia, is very expensive and hard to squeeze it out of our tight budget. The contest seemed like a perfect fit for our business needs – now, all I had to do was win.

Fast forward a couple of months and, of course, we were all very excited to find out we were lucky enough to win. I scrambled to put together an itinerary in the two weeks leading up to the trip, making more contacts, setting up additional meetings, and even finding a friend to stay with in London.

Contrary to most of the winners from the JFK departure, I wasn’t from New York or even the Northeast.  Most lived in New York & read about the contest through a full-page ad in the New York Times. Me? I just happened to be following Inc. magazine on Twitter in little-old Birmingham, Alabama. So, I arrived a day early on a Delta flight from BHM-LGA, had an airport transfer to JFK, and checked into my hotel. After killing a day in NYC, I was excited to get an early start the next morning. Upon my arrival to the BA Terminal, I checked in, cleared security & was directed to the BA Terrace Lounge. I had no clue what to expect – how many winners there’d be, the pre-flight activities, or when we were actually leaving. I just knew that I was going to London first, then on to Hong Kong.

Upon arrival into the lounge, I enjoyed a huge breakfast & meeting many other contest winners. It was a true melting pot, as winners ranged from an educational puppeteer to the founders of a leading marketplace for illiquid assets. Speeches from BA’s EVP of the Americas, Simon Talling-Smith, & the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, entertained us through breakfast and made for an enjoyable, relaxed morning. As I boarded the plane with the 220 other winners (learned that at breakfast), I was extremely excited to find that I’d been upgraded to business class, from which the level of attentiveness & service was the best I’ve encountered (10x better than Delta’s). Really, I didn’t want to get off the plane. It wasn’t long before we arrived to London’s Heathrow Airport, where we had a reception & complimentary hotel room at the Sofitel Heathrow and a host of speakers & business seminars the next morning. The highlight of the following day was the panel of speakers, which included Willie Walsh, CEO of BA; Lord Digby Jones, former Minister of UK Trade & Investment; Andrew Sherman, small business expert & partner at Jones Day; a Harvard Business Review researcher & other BA staff. Each spoke on topics related to understanding foreign business practices & achieving business progress through face-to-face meetings, all of which were supremely informative.

With all the BA festivities over, I was on my own in London until my flight left five days later. When I made my booking, a flight to Hong Kong was unavailable, so I had to book a BA flight to Bangkok & then a semi-cheap Air Asia connection to Hong Kong. As such, getting to Bangkok was only possible on specific dates, so I did have the few days to kill in London. I had only one obligation – a meeting/tour with the bookshop manager at Imperial College.  Being back in the city was very refreshing. I spent close to eight months there during college, and it’s certainly one of my favorite places. Best part – one of my closest friends just started grad school at King’s College, so I was able to stay with him & catch up all week.

Part 2 will cover Hong Kong, getting a Chinese visa, crossing the border, and my meetings…

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FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn University, Birmingham-Southern College, Union University, and UT-Chattanooga. Providing substantial savings over a campus bookstore, FreeTextbooks.com offers cheaper prices, a higher buyback, the convenience of searching by course, cashback on referred orders, and free shipping or campus delivery. FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.

Here’s a transcript of a recent media interview that offers offer a close look into who we are & what we’re working to become.

1.      What made you decide to start FreeTextbooks.com?

Buying & selling textbooks was a common topic of frustration during my years at Samford. I was certain the situation was similar at other campuses, but felt that Samford was more pronounced due to a lack of competition. As you know, there’s one tiny bookstore and every semester, students pile in, find their books, wait in line, and over-pay. So, during my last semester there, I ordered books for a few friends, added a little profit, and sold them. It was pretty obvious I’d found a niche worth pursuing – selling textbooks to students who want to save $100 or so on their order with the convenience of delivery.

Four semesters later, we’ve added other campuses & although we now ship books (only Samford still has campus delivery), we strive to make the book-buying process as easy & cheap as possible.

2.      What were the most difficult challenges you faced while forming your business?

Early on – it was getting the book information for each course. Our first website (SamfordBooks.com) was thrown together in about two weeks & therefore, extremely primitive. Students logged on, entered their schedule & sections in a standard PHP form, which was emailed to us. We emailed individual professors to get book information, researched books & prices, compiled a manual quote, emailed it back, waited for approval, then arranged a delivery time. It was very laborious and We’ve come a long way since then in terms of site capabilities, but we still have lots of site edits and improvements to make. Nowadays, the biggest challenges are staying current with tax filings and managing inventory.

3.      Could you please describe your typical workday for me?

I try to stay involved in every aspect as we’re still a very small, early-stage business. If it’s busy season (Aug-Sept, Dec-Jan, May), I get to our office around 7:00 a.m. and start answering the customer emails that came in while I was sleeping. Once caught up, I may fill/pack orders, scan in new inventory, check the previous day’s sales figures, find & buy books based on inventory levels, and answer more email. This may continue until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. during our busiest times. In the slower months, most of my time is spent on directing/managing site development, customer follow-up, and a few meetings/conferences/travel.

4.      How many employees do you have?  How many are full-time and how many part-time?

We have about 5-6 employees. Three are full-time employees, including myself, with one being remote. So, most days, there are only two of us in the office, though we try to bring in some part-time help during book rush to help fill & pack orders. The others are used regularly, but not necessarily full-time for design work, site help as needed, etc. Our team is spread out across the world – two in Birmingham, one in Eastern Europe, three in India, and one in Ohio.

5.      Who manages the work schedule for employees?  How are scheduling conflicts resolved?

With just one other person regularly in the Birmingham office, there aren’t many scheduling conflicts. We each know that every waking moment is needed during busy season, so neither of us request or expect to be off. During the slow months, we are much more relaxed in scheduling. Vacation time is requested, though a day off here and there is easy to come by.

6.      Who are your main competitors?

We have a lot of competitors. There are over 14 million U.S. college students that require textbooks, and many different vendors are fighting for their business, both online & offline. Each on-campus bookstore is a competitor, just as online vendors and marketplace sites are. There are a few online companies we respect and watch closely as major contributers to our industry – Amazon, Half.com, BetterWorld.com, & Chegg.com. It’s not too hard to beat campus bookstore prices, but once you step online, price competition is fierce.

7.      How are your prices established?

We have a tiered pricing strategy, depending on what’s in stock at any given moment & from where it was purchased. For example, if you’re looking at a Human Anatomy text and there’s a copy in our inventory, that’ll be our lowest fair-market price. If we don’t have it in stock, we automate a script to check availability through one of our wholesale used book channels. If it’s available there, you’ll see a different (and higher) price. If it’s sold out of both our inventory & each wholesale channel, we compare prices from other online merchants/wholesalers and shift the price to reflect theirs, plus a small markup to cover card processing fees and operating costs. Coincidentally, as a book’s price increases, our profit margin decreases. A lower price means we have it in stock, which means our profit is higher than having to source from an third-party merchant.

8.      How many vendors do you order from, and how often do you conduct inventory?

Our biggest and best vendor is students. Secondarily, there are 5-6 channels we check for availability if we don’t have a book in stock. Inventory is conducted daily, really. Every book is processed & scanned into our inventory application when it arrives, then scanned out when it’s sold. So at any point, we can consult our application to check inventory levels, sales totals, etc.

9.      Do you advertise?  If so how and through what media?

Our primary form of marketing is through student representatives at many of our campuses. Reps are offered sales experience, tracking, and quarterly summaries, as well as commission-based pay. They are charged with networking, posting flyers, and helping build buzz around campus. Once a school gains traction this way, we are able to invest more into more traditional methods, such as campus newspaper ads. We also utilize quite a bit of direct email marketing.

10.  What part of your job do you find the most challenging? Most enjoyable?

The most challenging part is staying focused on the day-to-day duties, such as email, project management, order fulfillment, and operational responsibilities (filing/paying taxes, bills, licenses, etc). The most enjoyable part is the creativity – developing new ideas and direction for the company.

11.  What developments on the horizon could affect future opportunities for your business?

We’re very interested in offering a digital textbook option through our site and would like to offer a reader device alongside e-books. So, for the future, we’re exploring digital books, open-source books, note sharing, textbook rentals, textbook auctions, and more. There’s a lot to consider moving forward, and we’re trying to weigh each option and build a stronger nationwide customer base. For us, I think that means offering more options to appeal to different types of students.

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FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn University, Birmingham-Southern College, Union University, and UT-Chattanooga. Providing substantial savings over a campus bookstore, FreeTextbooks.com offers cheaper prices, a higher buyback, the convenience of searching by course, cashback on referred orders, and free shipping or campus delivery. FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.

Just wanted to share some recent news…

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As university classes around Alabama resume this week, a local textbook company received some exciting news. Jonathan Robinson, founder of Birmingham’s FreeTextbooks.com, won the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest, which provides business people round-trip flights to London & beyond for face-to-face meetings.

Robinson will depart New York City for London on September 15, and will participate in several networking events, seminars with UK business leaders & government officials, and presentations on how to do business in the UK & beyond.

From London, Robinson will travel to Hong Kong & Indonesia to meet with manufacturers of e-reader devices. There, he hopes to compare devices, test compatibility, and negotiate wholesale pricing.

Although e-reader devices from Amazon & Sony are attracting a lot of attention, their price tags remain high – as much as $489 for Amazon’s wide screen Kindle DX. This prevents students from buying digital versions of their textbooks, as cash-strapped students choose to buy print books instead. Comparatively, the cost of a reader device plus the e-books far exceeds buying print books. The attraction to e-books has more to do with convenience & environmental impact than cost savings, but giving students a viable choice is the best way to test their preferences.

Robinson hopes to offer a total e-book solution on FreeTextbooks.com and provide a student’s digital textbooks preloaded on a reader device for one low price. Robinson expects this would significantly reduce students’ hesitancy to adopting the technology & spur a shift from print textbooks to digital versions.

FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Troy University. Providing substantial savings over a campus bookstore, FreeTextbooks.com offers cheaper prices, a higher buyback, the convenience of searching by course, cashback on referred orders, and free shipping or campus delivery. FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.

One of the objectives of this blog is to educate you about the college textbook market in order to help you make more informed buying decisions. That doesn’t necessarily mean buying from us – we just hate to see you walk into a campus bookstore & overspend.

A big reason I got into this business is that it always seemed like students were severely underserved. Students have no say over which books they buy & options for saving money are few. Not only do you have to buy the books assigned by professors, you’re often told, “Have the book by tomorrow.” This presents a terrible disadvantage, as you’re basically forced into walking to the bookstore & paying their price, no matter how high. Find that they’re out of used books? Sorry. You have to have it & end up buying a new one. Chances are you could’ve paid up to 30-90% less through Free Textbooks.

How can you avoid this bookstore deadlock? By ordering your books in advance. If you’re interested in saving money, never wait until the first day of class to buy your books. Free Textbooks compiles course & book data for a number of schools, making it super easy to find out which books you need & order them early.  So a couple weeks before class, start shopping. Find a good price with good shipping options & go for it.

What if you do wait until classes start? Do you really have a choice? As mentioned, when a professor tells you to get your book immediately and start studying, you think, “Oh well. There’s nowhere else I can get it in time. I’ll have to go to the bookstore.” This is a mentality Free Textbooks is trying to fight. Not only do we use free expedited shipping services, we will also offer overnight and 2-day shipping services to give students the flexibility they need.

Example: Let’s say you attend your Psychology 101 class on a Monday morning & your professor asks you to have the book by Wednesday. What can you do? Buy it at the bookstore? Order it online? Let’s compare your choices.

Psychology, by Ciccarelli, 2^nd edition. ISBN 0136004288.

Bookstore’s new price: $137.00

Bookstore’s used price: $91.10

Free Textbooks’ used price: $75.60

You know that the Free Textbooks price is cheaper, but you need it by this Wednesday & it’s Monday. So, you say, “There’s no way I can order it online. It won’t get here in time.” Well, if it’s from us, you’re wrong.

Bookstore options:

1. Buy new at bookstore for $137.00 + tax.
2. If it’s in stock, buy used at bookstore for $91.10 + tax.

Free Textbooks options:

1. Buy used for $75.60 + free FedEx Ground. Arrives Wed-Fri. Total = $75.60
2. Buy used for $75.60 + $10 FedEx 2-day. Arrives Wednesday. Total = $85.60
3. Buy used for $75.60 + $19 FedEx Overnight. Arrives Tuesday. Total = $94.60

$75.60, $85.60, $94.60  <   $137 or $91.10 + tax

No matter how you spin it, Free Textbooks can get you the book(s) you need faster & cheaper. Give us a chance to prove it.

Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below…

What is Free Textbooks? Founded in January 2009, FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn University, and Troy University. We sell for less, buy for more, and offer a unique cash back program (so you can earn free books).  FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.