Though students don’t necessarily use FreeTextbooks because of our social impact, we are committed to donating $1 per book purchased or rented. We also allow customers the opportunity to donate $1 or more during the checkout process. Earlier this year, I blogged about our general thoughts on charity & how we hope to harness the goodwill of our customers to meet humanity’s most basic needs around the U.S. and world (see: How We Help: Our Mission of Social Responsibility). Regardless of profits, our entire company understands & supports the importance of this commitment and it’s been exciting to see our employees associate the increase in sales with increased charitable involvement.

In addition, we want to be an open company. We want customers to know who we are, our values, ideas, or problems, and I want this blog to be an expression of that.

So, here is a look at our charitable giving for fall 2009. This was only possible through our wonderful customers, so if you bought books from us, be proud! This is just the beginning…

• Provided 4,809 meals for food-insecure American families through Feeding America.
• Gave 28 people clean drinking water for 20 years through charity: water’s freshwater well projects.
• Donated $291 for books & supplies to underprivileged classrooms through Room to Read.
• Provided vaccinations against meningitis, measles, & polio for 552 people through Doctors Without Borders.

Finally, through one of our newest partners, DonorsChoose.org, we donated books to second graders in a high-poverty Alabama classroom. Here’s a thank you letter from the teacher, Mrs. Hope (or see it, here)

Dear FreeTextbooks,
I am so excited. I know it is almost Christmas, but it feels like Christmas to me today. Wow! I cannot wait to tell my students that we will be getting a lot of new books for our classroom library. By the time children reach second grade, most of them are reading well and really enjoy it. It is important to me to have a wide variety of books on different levels for my children. You have helped make this available. I am thankful for your support of education and reading through donors choose. If it were not for Donors Choose, I would not have this wonderful opportunity to get more materials, like books, for my classroom. Once again, thank you very much! Your donation is greatly appreciated.
With gratitude,
 Mrs. H.

That wraps it up. We’re currently working on site improvements, building on-campus buyback relationships, and preparing for December & January! Get ready – big improvements are coming.

Resuming from Part 1, posted earlier this week…

From London, it was on to Hong Kong. Thankfully, this was an overnight flight, so I was able to get some rest & make my tight connection. Arriving to Hong Kong was pretty seamless – I hopped the Airport Express & my hotel was right off one of the stops. After resting up, I had to get my Chinese visa the next day. I’d read a few forums & travel advice beforehand, which mentioned that the Visa office was closed daily from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. (quite a lunch break). I arrived early enough, but even with the rush express service, the visa wouldn’t be approved until the next afternoon. I had meetings immediately scheduled in Shenzhen, which is just across the Chinese border from Hong Kong.

The next morning, I caught a few HK sights & got to the visa office early to be at the front of the afternoon line. I’d packed only a small bag with a toothbrush & extra shirt, as I thought I’d need some extra room to bring items back. From the visa office, I left immediately & had three hours filled with metro subway systems, customs officers, and swine flu checkpoints. Finally in China, I met my translators & guides – Eric & Maggie (not their real names, obviously).  We hailed a taxi and headed straight for the scheduled meeting. Conversation in the taxi was fun – they each had so many questions for me.

For the sake of privacy & future planning, I’ll only say that we see huge potential in working with this OEM. They have a few multi-featured e-reader models under development, so we were able to discuss different features, projected cost, completion deadlines, as well as suggest improvements, revisions, and usability adaptations. I was unable to bring a sample home, but expect one later this month, as production of the first model is wrapping up.   Thinking back, the language barrier was funny (but difficult) to experience. Often, I would start talking too fast & realize I’d lost them. So, we’d backtrack & I’d slow down, using better pronunciation and hand gestures, then I’d lose them again. All in all, it was a very beneficial first meeting & one that wouldn’t have been nearly as productive without the face-to-face opportunity from British Airways. I can’t imagine having that meeting over the phone or email.

After our meeting, I strolled through Shenzhen with my guides, including a dinner at KFC.  I had another meeting the next morning, and unfortunately, I couldn’t head back to Hong Kong due to my visa guidelines. I’d applied for a double entry visa & going back for the night would’ve killed my second entry. I’m definitely planning a trip back by the first of 2010, so I had to find a hotel in Shenzhen for the night. The next morning, I walked through the local computer markets, most notably the SEG, which spans over six floors. I met with a few manufacturing contacts there, primarily regarding processor & memory supply, while comparing prices to American wholesalers. As we pursue an e-reader, we’ll need strong connections for built-in NAND flash memory, or at the very least, expandable mini-memory cards.

Moving forward, I’m staying in constant communication with their product development and waiting on model samples. It will be very important to test each function, offer criticism & improvements, and then get back to work. Time will tell, but we’re all very excited about the possibility of offering our very own, customized e-reader, as well as an expansive list of digital titles, to our growing customer base. The e-reader market is getting crowded quickly, but we’re confident that investing in continued product development and setting a lower price point will give us a considerable advantage.

All in all, thank you to British Airways for this amazing opportunity. The experience has positioned us strongly for future growth, but with so much more to accomplish (and on a tight budget), we’ve also applied for a British Airways Business Opportunity Grant. We are keeping our fingers crossed, working hard, and are very excited to see what the future will bring. Stay tuned, and thank you to our wonderful customers for continuing to support our ideas.

- Jonathan

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…

_____________________

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.

_____________________

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 link to the Samford University Crimson article, written by Blake Tommey, which ran on September 9, 2009. We’ll be posting a response here later this week.

FreeTextbooks.com kicked off campus