From Sauk Valley Newspapers

Sunday, 12 November 2000

By Diane Markel

Business Beat

Imagine a career as a business owner.

Imagine having your own business reflecting your own interests, talents and decisions.

Imagine the responsibility.

Larry Dunphy and his wife, Carolyn Chin, took up the challenge with their own business when they opened "Books on First" -- "The Premier Bookstore/Coffeehouse in Dixon, Illinois."

The store serves up coffee, pastires and tea along with hard- and soft-covered books and lots of magazines. Special ordering is a big part of the business and the couple's distributor has access to more than 500,000 current titles and 500,000 out-of-print titles.

The couple had an idea of what they might be getting into before they even started the business. Dunphy had his own food brokerage business in St. Louis in association with another partner. They represented about 30 food companies and sold to a distributor, who, in turn, sold to restaurants and hospitals.

Dunphy also used to manage a Jewel store in Chicago and was an assistant manager with an Osco Drug Store, so he was familiar with how business worked.

Chin had a master's degree in business adminsitration and always wanted to open a bookstore/cafe like one she knew of in Cambridge, Mass.

The couple eventually began looking for a place where they could open just such a business.

"The town had to be large enough to support it and small enough that the store would not have to compete with stores like Borders," Dunphy said.

The couple visited several communities with populations in the 10,000 to 25,000 range within several miles of Chicago.

Dunphy grew up in the Sauk Valley area and went to Amboy High School.

The couple also had a cabin south of Dixon and came to the area on weekends, so they were familiar with the Sauk Valley area. "We spent a couple of years looking at buildings," Dunphy said, "Finally, we were standing across the street from this building, and we said we were either going to buy this building or forget the idea.

"We bought the building." The first thing they did was a complete rehabilitation of the building, remodeling and renovating to suit their needs. They put in a nook for mysteries, made the restroom handicapped accessible and installed soffits to hide what had been exposed pipes.

On Oct. 4, 1998, the store opened for business. It is open seven days a week. There has been some part-time help from college students, and now, there is a part-time employee.

But there is still a lot of work for the owners. Dunphy is there during the week, and Chin comes in on weekends.

"We're open 75 hours a week," Dunphy said. "It's not exactly a retirement diversion and we had always intended to make it a success. It is not a hobby."

Dunphy has some advice for anyone thinking of opening a business of their own.

"Make sure you enjoy what you're going to be doing because you're going to be doing it for a lot of hours," he said. "Have enough capital to be able to stay in business for several years before you start making money. Or, have another source of income."

Dunphy said he and his wife work a lot of hours, but they are able to get away for vacations.

"It's not all work," he said, "But any business is going to take a lot of hours. We knew that going in. I was in retail before, so I had no illusions. We knew what it was going to be like."

Although many people dream of being their own bosses, business owners also have bosses.

"Whereas someone working for someone else might have one boss, I have hundreds of bosses -- such as the federal government, the state government, Social Security. ... But there is the good along with the bad.

"It's been a lot of fun," Dunphy said. "My wife has enjoyed it. I have enjoyed it. It's been good. The business is every bit what we hoped for.

"It's a nice location. There's a lot of traffic. We can open the windows so it's not like being behind a desk all day.

"And we have people coming in all the time, and that makes a difference."