You have a shop like that there? how longs it been up? What’s their website (if they have one)? I’m not saying ours would be like that at all, but if what youre saying is true, and shops like taht exist, then at least someone out there is trying, and that gives me hope
If your dad is serious about being a mechanic, he needs to get a job at the LBS. First of all, he’ll probably make more there than he will at his own shop, but that aside, he’ll also gain the knowledge and ability to competently work on bikes. If he buddies up to the owner, he may get a peak at the books and learn how the financing works. If, after a few years, he’s not totally burned out and still wants to work on bikes, he’ll be much more well-poised to open a successful shop.
this sounds like a prime setup for the head mechanic to boss pops around.
A few friends of mine opened a shop two years ago without a whole lot of money (no business loan that I know of), no shop experience and in a really shitty location. They’re doing pretty well. Granted, it is a trend-oriented fixed gear shop. But if your pop finds the right market, he could do well.
didnt read everything, but if your dad don’t know shit, probably not the greatest idea.
from what i’ve been reading, this shitty economy means great things for providers of small indulgences. perhaps your dad should look into opening a specialty cupcake or ice cream place (no joke, shits ferreal)
A friend of mine opened a bike shop in the corner of a small independent international foods grocery store. Also in Virginia (Blacksburg). He didn’t have to sign a lease, he just payed a portion of the rent and electricity. He immediately started taking in a lot of bikes for repairs and selling hybrids and electric bikes to the backyard farmer, holistic hippie lady, and Chinese grad student demographics. Less than a year later and he’s already moved into his own space in a busier part of town.
Here’s the website: http://bikebarnblacksburg.com/
The guy’s name is Yusef and I’m sure he’d be happy to answer any questions if you gave him a call.
First, eat dicks.
But on topic, like has been said, 14k is nothing. First of all, rent in a decent location. THIS IS KEY!!! LOCATION IS EVERYTHING!!! ESPECIALLY WITHOUT A BACKGROUND OF CUSTOMERS!!! See how I made that caps? It’s because it’s important.
Second, you gotta pay for your inventory. 14k won’t buy much. And by “won’t buy much” I mean will barely buy anything. Especially if he plans to have any diversity in stock. Or, like, set up a repair section.
Third: learning as he goes isn’t going to cut it, whether it’s repairs, salesmanship, running a business, or whatever. The repairs is really key. The other things, he might be able to pick up as he went, if he was decent to start and could wrench well.
So uh I’d say get more money and experience.
Questions that might possibly change my advice but probably won’t: What’s his experience in retail? What’s his experience in running a business? What’s the competition like?
The shop “like that” here (I should clarify, because I thought the points were already made) is successful because it has been in business for decades, is owned by locals, is in a “city” that has fewer than 80,000 COUNTING the D1 univ., it has a D1 univ. and is over an hour away from the next “city” which is less than 110,000. These gentlemen who own said shop, ALSO all rode and immersed themselves in cycling before opening a shop.
I say that they suck because they are currently 100% out of touch with the rest of cycling, and are perfectly happy selling hybrids to Norm and Martha up the block.
If this shop were back home, in NY. They would fail INSTANTLY. Even if there were no other shops, they would have to adapt, or fail.
On ur post though, a better effort of someone “trying” would be to… u know… try and be involved in cycling, or learn how to wrench before opening a shop.
i don’t want to be all neggy up in this thread, but i think like this is a setup for your dad getting hurt badly and i think he should stay out of the bike business unless/until he can find a more realistic way to get into it. between money and experience, this is a setup for disappointment.
If you can’t talk your dad out of this idea, at least have him get with the Small Business Development Center (run by the Small Business Administration) in the town he intends to open the shop. They can help him with the technical aspects of starting a business and might even be able to knock some sense into him.
Chris
I bought my machine shop for 20k 14 years back and then went over a year living on my part time night job. At one point I sold all of my bicycles to buy some groceries.
It to a long time for the shop to support itself. Longer to make a profit.
If dad has a way to eat while the new business hemorrhages cash go for it, but it can be a long lean start.
Edit: I had 20+ years experience running other peoples Screw Machine departments when I bought that place.
Edit: Eat a large jar of DICKS!
$14k wouldn’t be enough to start selling bikes IMO. Maybe just doing parts and repair but if you want to sell bikes you are going to need some stock in various sizes and colors, high end and low end.
This. Real profit is made by these very-small-overhead shops in repairs. People mention this constantly here. A tune-up is pure profit (after the cost of tools is covered) IF the owner wrenches. If the owner doesn’t know what he’s doing, he has to pay someone who does. Boom. Profit’s gone. If he tries to ‘figure it out’ on a customer’s bike, BOOM, your shop just got a horrible reputation for not knowing what they’re doing.
And +1 to everyone who said 14k is not enough. I’ve talked to a guy who did something similar and was stressed and struggling and hussling to get repair work to stay afloat because he had no inventory. He said if he could do it over, he’d definitely start with more money.
If you don’t have wrench experience you better have really f-ing good retail/salesmanship experience. (I worked with a dude at a bike shop who could sell anything. He didn’t ride that much and didn’t really care. But he was the best salesman there.) Some people can sell anything, and if your dad is one of those people, more power to him… but he should probably work in a shop first so he knows what he’s talking about. And a small shop where there’s nothing to really sell is probably not the best environment for someone with that particular skillset either.
Does your dad want to make money doing this or is he just looking to futz around with bikes? I used to help mix & match parts to get old bikes up and running. We would give the things away to kids that needed a bike. If this is just a post-retirement enjoyment plan, something like that might be more suitable.
im to lazy to read through all of this but for shops and people in general pedros tools all have a lifetime warranty. id go through them.
Park has a lifetime warranty too. Park products are generally better and they offer a much wider variety of necessary tools than Pedro’s. So does Craftsman, for that matter.
to answer a few questions:
Looking to make money: I’m not really sure, I think he just wants to get out of his job now and do something on his own. He’s talked about owning a bike shop for YEARS but never took any initiative til now.
wrenching experience: he has never formally worked under pro. mechanics or at a bike shop, but hes been cycling for about 20 years and usually does whatever work on his bike, but he definetlyyyyyyy does NOT know as much as bike mechanics at shops.
small business experience: a few years ago my dad and my uncle opened a corner wine store in Charlotte NC and it was up for about a year and a half, but due to what I’m guessing bad location, they went under.
Thanks a lot, I’ve taken notes of all this today and I’m gonna have a real hear to heart with him about this later. I’m going to ask him what he wants to do, repairs or be a dealer, cause it looks like that is the decision maker here. I know that he is somewhat basing what he wants to do on a Recycles type of store.
I thought I knew a lot about bikes until I got a job at a shop. Turns out, I knew a lot about my bikes.
Plus a lot for this being a stupid idea.
An internet-only specialty store might do ok, but only if he can find products people want that he can make a decent margin on in a niche that hasn’t already been occupied.
Well put.