Alaska Booksellers Named State's Small Business Persons of the Year

This past spring, Julie Drake and Steve Lloyd, co-owners of Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska, were named Alaska's Small Business Persons of the Year for 2003 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Four other Alaska businesses were vying for the award, according to the SBA.

The 12-year-old bookstore, which sells new and used books, started in a 900-square-foot space with one employee. Now, after two moves, Title Wave occupies a 33,000-square-foot space and employs 44 people.

According to an article in the Anchorage Daily News, that kind of growth and staying power were part of the reason the store was selected for the SBA award. Other criteria, in addition to growth in sales and employees, were financial stability, innovativeness of products and services, response to adversity, and contributions to the community, said Frank Cox, Alaska district director for the SBA, who was quoted in the article. "Outstanding small businesses such as Title Wave Books represent all that is great about opportunity in America," he said.

Drake recently told BTW, "We were very honored and excited to be named Alaska's Small Business Persons of the Year. Our customers were happy, too. We work very hard and try to work very smart. Steve [Lloyd] and I are very much a part of this community. I moved here in 1984, and Steve was born and raised in Alaska. This is where we live. So our customers are our friends and neighbors -- our employees, too. So being good businesspeople is key, and so is knowing books, but we definitely believe that Title Wave is about Community as much as it is about commerce."

Title Wave's sales have grown to an anticipated $2 million this year from $10,000 during the store's first year, according to the owners. As announced on the store's Web site, wavebooks.com, "Title Wave Books beat out Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Border's Books & Music as the Best Bookstore in Alaska in the Anchorage Daily News Best of Anchorage 2003 contest."

Lloyd, a diver and author of Farallon: Shipwreck and Survival on the Alaska Shore (Washington State University Press), said that being Alaska-owned gives Title Wave an advantage over the national chain stores, where buying decisions are typically made by corporate executives far from Alaska's people and culture. "Everything about Title Wave is a reflection of Anchorage readers," Lloyd told the Anchorage Daily News. "We listen to what our customers tell us." --Nomi Schwartz