This Harrogate business owner went from NHS radiographer to running a bookshop

It was coming up to a year after Georgia Eckert left her job as an NHS radiographer to open an independent bookshop when she fired off a Tweet about a disappointing day of takings.

“We only took £12.34 today,” it read. “If anyone was thinking about buying a book, now would be a great time. Things have been tough recently - today the worst day ever. A card, a book, anything makes a huge difference to a small business like ours. We’d be very grateful for your support.”

She thought little of the post about her Harrogate shop - Imagined Things - but to her amazement, the response was “utterly ludicrous”. “Emails started pouring in from people asking how they could buy books,” she recalls.

“The next day, there were so many people in the shop. People were making a point of coming in to buy something, anything, a card, a book, ordering stuff. There were people apologising saying they didn’t know we were here. It was ridiculously busy for a few weeks.”

To date, the Tweet, shared in June 2018, has amassed more than 6,000 likes and another 6,000 reTweets. Its impact in that first few weeks gave the bookshop a major boost and as the store marks its third birthday this week, 30-year-old Georgia says the effects ripple on.

“It turned our fortunes around really,” she says. “The effects of the Tweet have been long-lasting because for a lot of people, it meant that they knew about us and they’ve kept coming back ever since.”

The bookshop has been a labour of love for Georgia, after leaving behind a six-year career with the NHS at Harrogate Hospital. She joined in 2011 as a newly-qualified radiographer in the x-ray department and later trained in CT scanning. “It is a bit of a bizarre place to work,” she reflects. “None of the patients are really your patients...You’re always giving them back to someone else.

“You’re the middle person. That can be wonderful in that you’re a really important person in part of that patient’s journey - radiographers are essential - but I found it quite hard that there was only ever so much you could do for a patient and you only saw a snapshot of their journey and not how things turned out for better or worse.

“In CT, you see some of the very sickest patients in hospital. That can be quite hard...It made my view of the world a bit skewed - you’re seeing lots of abnormal scans because a lot of the people that need them, need them for a reason.”

Only a year into the job, Georgia began thinking about other career options. “Even when I realised I didn’t want to be a radiographer long-term, I thought I’ve been through three years of uni (she studied diagnostic radiography at the University of Leeds), I’ve got quite a good job now, what else am I going to do? I eventually realised that the thing I really wanted was more freedom and the only way I’d get that was running my own business.”

Among the ideas she considered was the opening of a bookshop. Books had been a big part of her childhood, growing up in Middlesbrough, but when it came to work, she had chosen to focus on her enjoyment for science, unsure about career options that would embody her love for reading.

“After I went to bed when I was younger, my mum would catch me reading with the torch or putting the bedside light back on to finish a book,” Georgia recalls. “Mum would often read to me. She can still recite some of The Jolly Postman now because she read it so often.”

Fast-forward to 2017 and it was her now husband Karl that encouraged her to give the bookshop some serious consideration. And when a unit became available on Westminster Arcade, on Harrogate’s Parliament Street, she didn’t stop to think twice, selling her flat to fund the venture.

She secured the keys in June that year, the same month she finished her full-time radiography job, and after painting and fitting out the shop with the help of her mum, Georgia opened the doors of Imagined Things, three years ago this very week. “With the books, I’m spoilt for choice, I could fill the bookshop ten times over,” she says.

“We have a diverse range of genres but I guess your own tastes do sneak in a bit. I love kids books and science so I’ve got things like Quantum Physics for Babies. When you put it in the window, people often comment. It’s really simplified but the actual science is right.”

Though the shop had been getting steadily more well known, when Georgia posted her Tweet weeks before its first birthday, it had experienced a quiet few months. “Two weeks before the Tweet it was like a ghost town. It was just so quiet. It was especially worrying because we were so new. I was starting to think we’re going to run out of money if this continues.

“When we had that worst day ever, we took £12.34 and I decided to Tweet about it. Obviously people don’t know our costs but everyone knows that isn’t enough to pay bills and everything. I’m always really positive and passionate about the books and I thought maybe everyone just thinks we’re fine and doing really well. Maybe if they know we’re not and we need to be a lot busier or we’re not going to exist, then more people might come through the door.”

Her off-the-cuff outpouring resonated with thousands. Locals made a point of visiting and Georgia set up a PayPal account as requests came in by phone and email for orders to be posted out not only in this country but to France, the US and even Kazakhstan. Two years later, she’s used the coronavirus lockdown to properly launch the bookshop’s website, meaning people can now make purchases through an online shop.

As with many businesses, it hasn’t been an easy few months. In the weeks the shop was forced to shut, Georgia kept the business running by working with wholesalers to send books directly to customers as well as delivering stock from the shop to those living locally.

“It’s been quite a lonely time being in the bookshop on my own and trying to do what’s best for the business and me in this bizarre situation we all find ourselves in,” she reflects. Though the store is now reopen - with safety measures in place - the worry isn’t over. “My main worry at the moment, despite the immediate future and how busy we’ll be, is Christmas...

“December takings make up a good portion of our year. If we don’t have a good Christmas, we won’t have a good year. That’s just the way that retail is and bookshops are no exception. It’s a wonderful period usually with loads of big titles out, there’s a really nice atmosphere in the shop and I’m a bit concerned about how we’re going to manage that if we still have to limit customer numbers.”

Still, she remains hopeful for the shop’s long term future. “To open a bookshop at all, you have to be fairly optimistic. If you aren’t, then it’s going to be a downward spiral. Obviously I am worried as we’re going into a recession but sometimes pressure can cause change for the good and I think people are wanting to support local businesses more. I hope that continues.”

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