Left Bank Books Makes a Love Connection

Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri, is giving customers a chance to both profess their love for their local indie bookstore and help it win a grant worth $35,000 -- the grand prize in the Intuit Love a Local Business contest. Customers are asked to visit LoveALocalBusiness.com and nominate the bookstore by posting a comment about why they love it. "We are currently the second most nominated business in the whole country," said Danielle Borsch, events coordinator at Left Bank, who noted that the bookstore had more than 600 "heart-warming" nominations.

Comments include "I love Left Bank Books because of the role they play in the community, specifically around getting books into the hands of children in local public schools"; "I love this business because they are so committed to the community of St Louis City!"; and "It's a wonderful locally owned bookstores where the clerks talk to you about books and it feels like HOME!"

In addition to helping the bookstore increase its chances of winning the grant, the comments have offered useful feedback, said Borsch. "We have a lot of special programs and events and sometimes it's easy to feel like no one knows about any of it. The responses people have written in to Intuit have proven that people do know what we're trying to do and they appreciate it in a big way. It's very cool to be attached to such a motivated community."

Any local business in the country is eligible to participate in the contest, sponsored by Intuit, a provider of tax prep software and related services for small businesses. Five businesses will be randomly selected to receive small business grants worth $5,000, and judges will then review the winning nominations to select one of those five to win the grand prize. The $35,000 grand prize includes $25,000 worth of local radio advertising, $9,500 cash, plus $500 in Intuit products and services. Winners will be announced by March 15.

Should it win the grand prize, Left Bank will immediately put the grant to good use. The advertising money would be used to promote some of their upcoming author events, said Borsch. "We spend a lot of time and energy trying to get the word out to people in St. Louis about the exciting speakers coming to town, but inevitably there is always someone who comes up to us months later and says, 'I didn't know Jimmy Carter was in town!'" Possible plans for the cash include adding even more books to the store shelves, hosting a parent/teacher night in the store, and purchasing additional equipment to make off-site event sales faster and easier.

"Even if we don't win a prize, simply reading what customers, friends, employees, authors, teachers, and others in the community have said has been a huge boost to morale," said Borsch. "It's good to hear and read that we're important to the community that we love so much. We must be doing something right." --Karen Schechner