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Introduce Yourself: Post Your Autobiography ๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ“–

Hey Square Readers!

 

Thank you so much for joining our Square Readers Book Club!

Donโ€™t forget to click Join Group at the top of our Book Club Group Hub.

 

I would love to learn more about you all, so here's a space to introduce yourselves and to meet some fellow Readers. 

 

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So tell us a bit about yourself here in the comments. 

 

Tell us:

  • Your name & location
  • Your business name (and website)
  • What you're hoping to learn and gain from Book Club
  • Your favorite book (business or fun)
  • A picture or two of you or your business

 

And of course feel free to reply to each othersโ€™ intros, especially those nearby or in the same industry as you.

 

Looking forward to meeting you all, and reading with you,

Pesso

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hello everyone.  My name is Julia and I own Dough Face Dog Treats.  I'm a crazy dog mom who spoils her fur-babies and that morphed into my home-based business.  I sell preservative-free dog treats at farmers' markets and vendor events, to a number of wholesale accounts, and through my website.

 

www.DoughFaceDog.com

Real ingredients from a trusted source.

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Thanks so much for joining and sharing, @DoughFaceDog !

 

That sounds like a great way to start and grow a business, with fantastic products! 

 

How has business been? What are your goals for it?

 

Looking forward to seeing you in our discussions for our first book!

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hello! Iโ€™m Valerie. In the spirit of Sinekโ€™s Golden Circle Iโ€™ll tell you about my business by starting with my Why.

 

Iโ€™ve lived in Canada for about 13 years now and over the years I have become very aware of how little we all know about each other, particularly when weโ€™re seemingly different in some way whether itโ€™s race, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. Weโ€™re often unsure of what to say or how to behave around differences so I wanted to help people gain the tools to hold difficult and uncomfortable conversations. I started an online bookstore at tusomebooks.com where weโ€™ve created a platform for underrepresented voices. We offer books by authors who are often marginalized and we also have events & programming including our own bookclub where we have for tough discussions.

 

Tusome Books has been in business since 2019 and itโ€™s fantastic. Iโ€™m hoping to connect with other business owners and to also learn from the books weโ€™ll be reading.

 

My favorite book changes frequently but I have authors I return to often like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, Katherena Vermette, Lawrence Hill, etc. Iโ€™m excited to read with you all! Cheers. 

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Hey @ValerieChela 

 

Thanks so much for joining and sharing, and starting with Why!

 

I love the goal of bringing people together and opening up lines of communication with folks that seem different than us, and amplifying underrepresented voices. That's huge. That book club sounds incredible!

 

Do you have any good business books in your collection that we'd be able to feature? I'd love to help bring some more representation here!


How has business been going? What are your goals for the business?

 

Thanks for sharing those authors -- I'll add them to my list!

 

Excited to read with you too, and to see you in the discussions for our first book, and the rest!

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hey Everyone!

 

My name is Cheyenne. I'm a stay-at-home mom and the owner of Feel Good Essentials based in the Bay Area. I've struggled with not feeling good for much of my life & finally changed that by implementing self-care and the natural resources I grew up around. I love creating things others can enjoy and wanted to share what I used for any and everyone who also just wanted to feel good more of the time. I now create natural aromatherapy and self-care products that others can enjoy and feel good using. 

 

At this time, I have completely rebranded from where I started and I'm implementing things I've learned to do it right this time. I run my business from home (solely online) and am eager to get to a point where I am bringing in consistent orders and can then expand to a warehouse. My goal is honestly to help others feel good more of the time while running a successful business. My husband has always worked so much since a kid and I would LOVE to retire him or at least take some stress off of him as a result.

 

What I hope to get out of this book club is more knowledge and resources for running a successful business. I'm also looking forward and already enjoying being a part of a like-minded community where we can maybe even learn from one another and network. At this time, I don't think I have a favorite book, but I love to read things themed around changing your mindset.

 

Checkout my website at www.ifeelgood.love

 

Thank you all!

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Hey @Moreplease 

 

Thanks again so much for joining and sharing here!

 

I love that you took a problem that you had and turned it into a business to help others. That's absolutely wonderful.

 

Congrats on the rebrand. What have you learned and changed in order to do things "right" this time? I'm sure that knowledge can help others starting out!

 

That goal of expanding to a warehouse, making enough so that your husband can retire, and just helping others are wonderful. What do you need to happen in order to get to that growth?

 

I love that you want to learn more from the books and from others. I'd love to have you share a bunch from your journey too!

 

Looking forward to having you in the discussion for our first book and beyond!

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hello! I'm Julie and I own Rooted Body Care. I'm located just outside Houston, TX and I use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible to create a wide range of bath and body products along with canned and baked goods. I began as a business in Feb 2020, under a different name and just rebranded this year. Despite starting during the pandemic, I've still been pretty successful, by my own standards. Though growth has slowed drastically this past year, which is a bit disheartening. I'm definitely not where I'd hoped to be going in to my 4th year of business. My business is my 'full time job', but it's still not even making 'part time' kind of money. We have 3 kids, 12, 9, and 6 and they all play baseball/softball, which we also coach and my husband is on the board of directors so we are a very busy family. It's a struggle to stay on top of all our family stuff plus my business stuff as well as keeping up with chores, etc. I absolutely love what I do and the products I make and how much they can help other people like they've helped me so even though it's a struggle, I refuse to give up on it. My hope with the book club is to learn how balance it all a bit better through books we read and discussions with other people going through the same issues. I LOVE to read whenever I get the time (and even when I don't have the time and do it anyway!) so I'm very excited about this. I think it would be impossible for me to pick a favorite book. I just get so engrossed in everything I read!

 

(I did try to add photos, but apparently I don't know how.)

 

 

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Hey @JulieStafford 

 

Thanks so much for sharing and joining! That sounds like such an incredible business. How has that been going with the mix of bath & body products with canned & baked goods? 

 

What led to the rebranding, if you don't mind my asking?

 

Ah, I'm so sorry that things have slowed down. I can definitely understand how rough that is when you put so much into it. And when you're relying on it to sustain your life but it's not bringing in enough to do so. Do you know what might be causing the drop?

 

That does sound like a huge amount to try and balance, and I admire the spirit to not give up and keep putting your all in. I'm rooting for ya!

 

Looking forward to seeing you in the discussions for this book, and the next ones!

 

------

 

Adding pictures can definitely be tricky! There should be a little camera button at the top of the comment box, and you should be able to add there! No worries though-

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hello, Iโ€™m David, Iโ€™ve been a litigation attorney for over 25 years. Iโ€™m here for the book club.

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Welcome David @TurnerLaw

๏œ๏ธ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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Thanks so much for joining, @TurnerLaw !

What are you hoping to learn and get out of joining the book club?

 

I'd also love to hear more about your business and your goals!

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hi,

My name is Claudia Cupe from Granny's Doggie Treats LLC in Enfield Ct. You can check me out at http://www.ethical.com/granny-s-doggie-treats-llc within that site you can check out my Etsy shop. 

  • I make homemade gourmet dog treats, they are natural and a healthier choice for your furry loved ones. My business is fairly new its only ten months old it will be a year June 22nd. My goal is to help educate parents on choosing homemade food and treats for their dogs because it would help with having more energy and weight loss and overall health. I enjoy reading so I would like to gain more knowledge from some of the seasonal business owners and network and meet some new friends. I don't really have a favorite book but if it fun to read, its all good.Claudia owner of GDTClaudia owner of GDTlogo my daughter made of Wellybellylogo my daughter made of Wellybelly
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Hey @Granny1 !

 

Thanks so much for sharing and joining!

 

Congrats on getting so close to 1 year -- that's a huge milestone and you should be super proud of yourself! I love the business idea and I'm so glad that you've been making it work. You're carving yourself a great niche in a big market, and the goal of educating your customers is wonderful too. 

 

How has it been going so far? What do you want to do with the business moving forward?

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book we're reading so far, and I can't wait to see you in our discussions.

 

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Thank you

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Hello all!
My name is Meaghan. I co-own Zed & Ess Tailors.( www.zedandess.com ) We are in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. We offer alterations and repairs to most everyday items, as well as some formal. My partner and I worked for the previous owner before purchasing in Sept. 2021. (Her for 10 years, me for 4 years). We have started expanding to have a small boutique area of items for sale which we have made. We have been putting emphasis on our online presence which is really making a difference in our clientele and business! We are still new in terms of business ownership, but our company has been around since 1982 and we are both very experienced sewists.
Our current goals are to grow our business to have more income (half) come from our boutique area as well as grow our take home payouts to a reliable salary. We do have one part time employee who handles most of our customer service and computer related tasks. She knew I was wanting to read more business books and expand my business ownership/entrepreneur knowledge this year when she saw the email regarding this book club. We both knew it was meant to be!
I am also looking forward to making connections with others!
I am excited to hear from other business owners, especially those with lots of experience and gain more knowledge in regards to owning a business and being profitable.
I'm not sure if I can manage to pick just one favourite book. I do love Jodi Picoult books! I have two young boys and have been consuming more audiobooks than paperbacks lately. I recently listened to We were dreamers by Simu Liu and loved it!

signal-2023-04-16-154533.jpegsignal-2023-04-16-155137.jpeg

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Hey @ZedAndEssAdmin -

 

Thanks so much for joining and sharing! That sounds like an incredible way to come into a business -- first as employees to work and learn, and then to take over once you know it's something that works and you love. Those expansions are incredible! I love that you grew it to add in a new element to the business, and bringing things online is so important these days -- great work!

 

Expanding your income in order to make things more sustainable for both of you is a fantastic goal. What do you need to happen in order to get there?


I'm so glad that they found this and forwarded it along, and that you were able to join -- thank you so much!

Looking forward to this community we're building together and to have you in our discussions.

 

I haven't read any Jodi Picoult but I've heard good things and my mom loves them! Oooh, I did see that Simu came out with a book, and I'll definitely have to add it to my list. Thanks for the recs!

 

Great to meet you, and see you here-

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hello, everyone!

 

My name is Megan Gentile. I own and run Techniq Support in Western Massachusetts. I began in April 2018 while finishing up my last semester and a half of college. While it is still currently a side business to my full-time job, I hope to make the shift to full-time within the next year or so. My business provides residential and small-business IT support and website consulting. My goal is to change the way users perceive technological issues by offering a simplistic solution for long-term use.

 

Although I love reading, unfortunately I don't make enough time for it with working two jobs. I'm hoping this book club will provide me with the push I need to carve out some me time while learning a thing or two! Also, I've never been part of a book club before, so I'm excited to simply be a part of it. I enjoy non-fiction books (mainly psychology, self-help, business, health, and science) and hardly ever choose to read fiction. A book I recently finished and really enjoyed was Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of myself working, but here's my LinkedIn if you'd like to connect!

Megan
Techniq Support, based in MA
techniqsupport.com
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Hey @techniqsupport !

 

Thanks so much for joining and sharing. That's amazing that you've been running it as a side business for so long, and best of luck in hopefully making the jump to full time! What do you need to happen in order to get there?

 

We're excited to have you here! I definitely understand the challenge of finding time to read while also working -- and two jobs must be even more challenging, especially with a business! My goal here is definitely to impart that motivation and community to help folks get there. Have you started yet? Our first book is about 250 pages, so with a month left, you just have to read about 10 pages a day! 

 

I love your passion for non-fiction. Ooh, that one sounds fantastic, I'll have to add it to my list.

Thanks again for sharing and hope to see you in our discussions!

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hi my name is Abby Malcolm and I own an art store affectionately named The Art Room (don't judge the work in progress website too harshly haha I have thousands of pieces of inventory that I'm trying to get up there). Everything in my store is locally handmade and, at this point, we have a little bit of everything. We're located in Wakefield, Virginia or, because no one knows where that is, rural Southeastern Virginia. There are less than one thousand people in town so it's a very close knit community and largely focused on agriculture. But we have a heavily traveled route that passes through town and brings a lot of travelers to us. There's not much around here (though that's been changing!) and people often overlook us. But there is an insane amount of creativity that's been hidden away in this little area and I'm determined to bring it out into the open. I opened my store back in 2017 as a working studio for myself and as a place for other local artists to put their work. There were about 7 of us when our door opened. There's currently 98 artists, all within an hour radius of my little store. In May, we'll be celebrating our 6 year anniversary (I've heard it gets easier after 5 but everyone who told me that was laughing so I feel like that's a lie). The shop has grown to include lessons, paint parties, and numerous art based events for the community. Now I'm partnered with the county we're located in to help bring more of the arts to our area. I'm also working heavily with other local businesses and charities to bring a stronger creative presence to them and the community as a whole. It's always been my belief that art is for everyone and that everyone has the ability to create and these opportunities have helped us reach so many new people.

 

My goals are to continue bettering and strengthening my business so I can expand (100 artists are a little cramped in one store and I have so many more people interested). I'm really excited for this book club because it'll put me in a community of likeminded people and help keep me accountable. I'm a notorious workaholic and often find myself working instead of studying so having a deadline will force me to finish what I started.

 

I'm an avid reader (when I have time) and a massive book collector with extremely eclectic tastes. If anyone enjoys Southern Literature, a personal favorite is Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I'm also a huge Harry Potter fan and frequently reread the first chapter of the first book when I'm stressed...emphasis on frequently.

 

Here's my face and, more importantly, a bit of my store. My windows are ideal for all the stained glass that passes through. And my beloved shop cat, Pete, who is the business manager and head of marketing. He's also the unofficial mascot. I personally think he's overpaid but very cute. Look forward to meeting you guys!

EE04EBFD-B2FA-4D72-8E2D-D375F0ECDE20 2.JPGpetebandana.jpg

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Hey @theartroom !

Thanks so much for joining us here -- the website looks great! You totally don't need that Under Construction banner; I would have never known unless you told me! That's a huge undertaking to put in that many items, good luck, and you'll get there.

 

I love that you're a community space that can help showcase so many local creatives and bring more art to new folks. And that's so wonderful that you also have the opportunity to bring in a good amount of travelers too. I feel like that's the perfect balance and mix. Sounds like a great business!

 

Expanding is such a great goal and I'm so glad that you found the book club here and can help make it a community too! I really appreciate your input and can't wait to see you in all of our discussions. 

 

I'm also a big Potterhead - it's such a good comfort read. I haven't read any Faulkner yet, but I'm adding it to the list, thank you!

 

So great to meet you and the head of marketing. No such thing as overpaid on that front! 

 

Thanks again and see you around here-

๏œ๏ธ Aylon Pesso, he/him
Small Business Evangelist, Square

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Hi Everyone!  My name is Jack Rosenhammer and I own the Dragon's Den Pro Shop, a hockey and figure skating equipment store in Columbus, GA (www.dragonsdenproshop.com & @dragonsdenproshop on IG and FB).  We have only been open for a year this August and are in the growth stage.  We aim to help grow the hockey and skating community and then sell our products and services.  Our goal is to be the one place everyone in our area chooses to shop at instead of driving the 130 miles to Atlanta to our nearest competitor.  I hope to learn more about business and issues other participants have overcome.  My favorite book is Grant by Ron Chernow.     

 

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