My dads getting a $14,000 loan and wants to open a small bike shop
he wants to do basic maintanence, sell road and mtn bikes, buy and sell used bikes
I’m asking here for shop workers, owners, or people who REALLY REALLY know the industry to tell me some stuff i should run by him. my dad isn’t a huge cycling enthusiast, he has a trek roadie and takes it out whenever he can, doenst’ know a ton about working on bikes (“ill learn as i go” he said) so idk, tell me what he should know for a small family owned bike shop.
na its cool, i know times are hard. soneone on BF just said we’re going to be in the red for a long time and this isn’t a good time to open one, and i’ll talk to him about that. but if he really is serious about going 14k in debt, any suggestions as to anything shop related? what to stock? who to buy from? advertising? tools? stands? laws?
Seems to me like becoming a huge cycling enthusiast for a solid 10 years would be a good start before opening a store.
Seriously though, I’ve seen too many start-up shops (whether they be skateboarding or cycling or both or something else entirely) run themselves into the ground in less than a year because the owners just plain didn’t know what they were doing. They had no knowledge of the industry, we out of touch with the community they were supposed to be serving, and generally had a lack of knowledge on how to make a small business successful in general (not saying this last one is necessarily the case with your dad).
I’ve got dreams of maybe starting a business like this one day (probably a bike shop if I keep with cycling like I have the past few years) and I wouldn’t ever take the risk if I wasn’t positive I was ready to do everything I possibly could to make it succeed.
[quote=spacetime]My dads getting a $14,000 loan and wants to open a small bike shop
he wants to do basic maintanence, sell road and mtn bikes, buy and sell used bikes
I’m asking here for shop workers, owners, or people who REALLY REALLY know the industry to tell me some stuff i should run by him. my dad isn’t a huge cycling enthusiast, he has a trek roadie and takes it out whenever he can, doenst’ know a ton about working on bikes (“ill learn as i go” he said) so idk, tell me what he should know for a small family owned bike shop.[/quote]
Ok… so I opened up a shop in Virginia in 2007 so I think I’m qualified to answer this.
14k wont cut it. Small or not it won’t cut it if you want to be successful. We invested 100k at first… then another 60k… then another 10k. We have a GREAT (but expensive) location. Without the location we would have died in 2 months. Without the deep pockets we would have died in 6 months. Now we are profitable. Unless you are right next to a large urban campus (or find yourself in a VERY large city with a huge cycling population) a small hole in the wall shop is a dated idea.
I hope your dad is prepared to lose that money. Make sure to tell him not to sign a lease he can’t get out of.
I don’t want to sound like a dick, but this sounds like a terrible idea. Most of the shops I know (with experience and an established customer base) are just holding on right now.
[quote=bradencbc]Ok… so I opened up a shop in Virginia in 2007 so I think I’m qualified to answer this.
14k wont cut it. Small or not it won’t cut it if you want to be successful. We invested 100k at first… then another 60k… then another 10k. We have a GREAT (but expensive) location. Without the location we would have died in 2 months. Without the deep pockets we would have died in 6 months. Now we are profitable. Unless you are right next to a large urban campus (or find yourself in a VERY large city with a huge cycling population) a small hole in the wall shop is a dated idea.
I hope your dad is prepared to lose that money. Make sure to tell him not to sign a lease he can’t get out of.[/quote]
+1
$100k is about the minimum point of entry for any small business. Expect to spend much more than that in expensive urban areas. The general rule of thumb before running a small business is to spend a couple of years working in one beforehand. Even still, the rate of small business failure is very, very high. That $14k might be better served in an index fund.
Thank you a lot. I really have been trying to talk sense into him that this might not be a very successful idea for a lot of reasons, and our location could be a helping or hurting factor. It would indeed be a small, maybe not hole in the wall shop, but definitely not anything huge. In Danville, for example, I’ve been to a guys shop that is literally in his garage, he orders parts and does maintanance. I’m not sure if he’d qualify as a “maintanance pro” but from what he’s said and what I’ve seen, he is/was doing ok. I really do appreciate the input though.
WTF PEOPLE? i went to bf today and this is the second cross posted thread i’ve seen. fuck off, eat some dicks, and don’t bring your stupid bf threads here!
Hey do you like bikes? do you like the cycling community? do you want it to expand? help someone decide whether or not his dad should open a bike shop "tjayk’
Most of what needs to be said has already been said, but money aside, the idea that your dad can just “learn as [he] goes,” is totally insane. No one in their right mind would patronize a bike shop run by some guy with no experience who is just looking up everything on the internet. The main (and often only) asset that a small shop like the one you’re describing has is a knowledgeable and experienced staff to tackle difficult problems and wow the public with their bike knowledge, and almost every newer small shop that I’m aware of was started by master mechanics who were able to bring a decade of loyal customers over with them. Without that or a mind-blowingly awesome location, your dad won’t last a month
[quote=spacetime]Hey man just stop being a selfish immature internet brat and if you know anything about the cycling industry, try to give some productive input.
don’t worry, we all think you’re cool[/quote]
shhhh. The BF vs. tarck is a bad idea. Tarck will win.
FWIW I think ur being selfish if you think u can come and get 100% seriousness.
On ur topic. I think it’s a bad idea. 14k is nothing. Price out the BARE MINIMUM you’d need for tools and repair supplies and ur at that. That leaves you with rent for after the first month, and maybe some shit to sell so people come into ur shop. Not to mention, ur pop doesn’t know how to wrench and seems like he thinks cycling is one of those things that you don’t need to know shit about to be a successful shop owner. We have one of those shops here. They suck.