18 FEATURE Many a bibliophile has dreamed of opening up a bookshop and spending days on end reading the latest books and making recommendations to customers. Yet, as August Aleksy Jr. MBA ’84, explains, there is a lot more to running a bookstore than enjoying reading. “Bookselling is not a job and it’s not a career,” he says. “It’s a profession and a vocation. It’s a lifestyle.” “People may think that when you own your own business, you don’t have a boss, but in reality every customer is your boss.” dom.edu / magazine This year, Aleksy, owner of Centuries and Sleuths bookstore in Forest Park, IL, celebrates his store’s 20th anniversary – a venture he started shortly after receiving his MBA from Rosary College/<strong>Dominican</strong> <strong>University</strong>. While pursuing his MBA degree, Aleksy worked at a savings and loan bank, and when he found himself out of a job a few years later, he needed to figure his next steps. With an additional master’s degree in history and a passion for reading, Aleksy toyed with the idea of opening up a bookstore that would sell history, mystery and biography books. With the knowledge and confidence gained from the university’s Brennan School of Business (BSB), he set out to research and plan for the bookstore. “My MBA studies put the whole package together for me,” Aleksy explains. “I had learned how to make a business plan in several classes, I had experience doing a satisfaction survey, and I could apply statistics to the survey to find out if I was on target.” He started by sending a questionnaire to 3,000 homes in Oak Park and River Forest to find out what type of books people bought and read. The survey results showed that history, mystery and biography were some of the top genres of books that people bought. “I was interested in those topics but also those genres were what I felt I could do best with if I opened a shop,” Aleksy recalls. So in 1990, Aleksy opened Centuries and Sleuths in Oak Park, and then in 2000, relocated to Madison Street in Forest Park. Intent on continuing to provide a unique experience, Aleksy paid special attention to the store’s aesthetics and environment. Instead of the white walls and fluorescent lighting of the big box bookstores, he opted for soft lighting, dark wood bookshelves, kelly green painted walls, and red and green plaid carpeting. The open floor plan provides ample space to move around, and a sitting area with rocking chairs and an old church pew provides a space for quiet reading, while contributing to the store’s overall relaxed feel. ALUMNAE/ I SPOTLIGHT Because Aleksy believes that much about running a successful business is built on relationships, he hosts regular mystery and history discussion groups, several author talks throughout the year, and “Meeting of the Minds” events where volunteers play the roles of historical characters and are interviewed in front of an audience. “The personal touch is so essential in business,” he says. “While you have to be driven and committed in business, you also have to address the human element. People remember how you treat them.” Aleksy frequently recommends books to his customers, and in turn his loyal customers purchase their books from him. “I have several customers who, when they see a mystery book they like at a chain bookstore, write down the ISBN number and bring it in to my shop to buy the book,” he says. With the influx of chain bookstores, online booksellers and eReaders, Centuries and Sleuths is one of the few remaining independent bookshops – which presents both challenges and benefits. “It has gotten easier over the years,” Aleksy explains. “After so many years, I have developed a track record and I have a good reputation.” And, because this is one of the few remaining history and mystery bookshops in the area, he attracts a niche audience. “I definitely think I would have been out of business in a couple years if I had opened a general bookstore,” he says. When his business faced serious challenges at its original Oak Park location, Aleksy turned to <strong>Dominican</strong> for some assistance. “While the spot in Oak Park was what I could afford at the time, I needed more foot traffic,” he says. “I decided that I was either going to have to close or move to a site with more foot traffic.” So, he worked with a BSB business management class and the students created a business plan for the store, which supported his ideas about moving to a new location. While the business school’s focus on entrepreneurship has grown and expanded substantially in the years since Aleksy completed his degree, the firsthand experience of running his own business and experiencing important bumps and turns in the road, has been invaluable. “People may think that when you own your own business, you don’t have a boss, but in reality every customer is your boss,” Aleksy says. “In order to be successful, you have to look at the market and ask yourself the hard questions of ‘What do I offer that is different’ and ‘What can I do better than what is already being done?’ “When I look back at my original business plan, a lot of the things that I dreamed about in the business plan actually came to fruition,” he says. Clearly, Aleksy’s strong business plan brought his dreams to life.
August Aleksy Jr. Owner, Centuries and Sleuths bookstore FEATURE 19
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