Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
Keep this as a dream. It's a fine dream. Reality will only spoil it.
Exciting business opportunity
- Thread starter winjim
- Start date
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OP
OP
winjim
Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
Globalti
Legendary Member
I know a LBS owner who is desperately depressed as he is not making a living. He's too small to get any decent brands, the key to successful distribution of a brand being not to upset your existing retailers by selling though competing retailers close to them. He therefore spends much of his time repairing bikes, a dirty, dispiriting business, which a professional mechanic must hate especially when people bring in neglected and abused bikes, expect him to make them right and then complain about the cost of their neglect. To add insult to injury many buy parts off the web cheaper than he can buy them wholesale then expect him to fit them.
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
I really don't know how my LBS stays in business. Don't get me wrong, he's a fantastic bloke who is incredibly good with bikes but the challenges posed by the internet etc plus just the time/money equations e.g. true a wheel £15, that may take a while so let's just say you're looking at half an hour - an hour. Fix a puncture, you can't really charge more than a fiver. With rent for the shop plus business rates I just have no idea how he makes money.
Still when he retires, I'll dream about it......
Still when he retires, I'll dream about it......
coffeejo
Ælfrēd
- Location
- West Somerset
My LBS seems to be doing well and I support them as much as possible. Cheaper stuff off the net doesn't help me when I have a mechanical!
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
My local bike shop is doing quite well.
I know this because I had a run at buying it - the figures speak for themselves.
He's been in business for 20+ years and it's not all been plain sailing.
The staff told me it wasn't so many years ago they had to wait for their wages.
But it seems to me you can still make a living from a bike shop - provided you know what you are doing.
That's a very big 'provided', very few people have the required knowledge and experience of the bike market in their locality.
I know this because I had a run at buying it - the figures speak for themselves.
He's been in business for 20+ years and it's not all been plain sailing.
The staff told me it wasn't so many years ago they had to wait for their wages.
But it seems to me you can still make a living from a bike shop - provided you know what you are doing.
That's a very big 'provided', very few people have the required knowledge and experience of the bike market in their locality.
John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
The ones I see that are doing well have a niche that they fill better than anyone else.
So they might be well known as a source of good quality, reasonably priced maintenance, or well chosen consumables at a price that may not beat the internet, but is close enough to make the latter less convenient. Or they may have years and years of knowledge of racing, or MTB, or particular types of custom build that you just can't get elsewhere.
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
I have a great LBS near me, I know I pay about double the internet for parts, but I have access to expertise, knowledge, and advocacy, as the owner is also the mayor of thee town. They have a good stock and selection, they have a good mechanic, and they charge reasonable prices and have good bicycles. It ione of three bike shops in town. But you have to go forty miles or so to find the next one. But you see these three LBS stickers on bicycles all over the mid-state area. And yet still, I think they all struggle. I think the time has come to ponder a new model for retail, perhaps more as a center for the cycling lifestyle. (Cafe, meeting space for clubs, group rides, clinics, pastry, etc) I remember how supermarkets got started in my town. A butcher, a greengrocer, and a dairyman all got together under one roof, and carried some other things. Perhaps that sort of thinking is what we need to carry things forward.
Always makes me laugh when it is said that you can buy the parts online cheaper than the LBS' can get them wholesale. Why aren't the LBs' also buying them online, if that's the cheaper model? They can then add on their markup and sell cheaper than wholesale too then?
Clearly they need to make a profit, totally deserved too, but I agree with @Gravity Aided in that they need to think outside the current model.
Personally, I would have a Café with plenty of space for bikes and have a mechanic roaming around doing jobs whilst people replenish themselves. Doing the work with the customer could be a niche that would attract more custom and aid learning too?
Clearly they need to make a profit, totally deserved too, but I agree with @Gravity Aided in that they need to think outside the current model.
Personally, I would have a Café with plenty of space for bikes and have a mechanic roaming around doing jobs whilst people replenish themselves. Doing the work with the customer could be a niche that would attract more custom and aid learning too?
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
Yebbut....LBS owners like to buy and sell bikes....cos that what an LBS does, right?
Wrong
The future for LBS are either ultra-niche (top of the range carbon, recumbents, tandems, electric assist, whatever) or repairs. Ultimately there will be no middle ground, that will be occupied by online and major retailers. Now going ultra-niche is really hard cos the inventory is a killer and you really have to know your specialist stuff. So repairs is the way for the vast majority. But LBS see it as a bit of a sideline when it should be the main business.
I very much like your idea of what is ostensibly a café where you can have your beans and toast and a cappuccino while the mechanic does some minor repairs to the bike. Café business is all about footfall. So there's a group of cyclists and one has a bit of a mechanical....in they all come to your café, bingo
I agree. There's a niche bike shop opened fairly near to me. Totally new business and in a newly converted building which could be missed if didn't know it was there.
They sell Look, Colnago, De Rosa, etc.
Quality café upstairs and will chat with no pressure downstairs. They have a rack for bikes inside and take yours off you at the door and save you the hassle.
Great idea, as you chat and fancy an Espresso and Cake upstairs. Enjoy the experience and then ask for your bike at the end. Quality kit. Good knowledge. No pressure.
Still raking it in already, only 3 months in!
Vapin' Joe
Formerly known as Smokin Joe
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
If you're looking long term you've got to take into account how long the current bike boom is going to last. Cycling is fashionable at the moment but it has been many times in the past and then been followed by a dip. In many ways it echoes the motorcycle boom that began 25 years ago, well heeled middle aged men with high disposable incomes buying top end kit. When it ended and sales slumped by 50% in a few short years dealerships were going tits up throughout the land.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
A niche shop could succeed in the right place, but you only have to look at Britain's far and away biggest bicycle retailer to see where the market is.
Medium to good quality bikes from a few hundred up to about £1,000.
Only a tiny minority of buyers study specs minutely, go on forums, or even shop around very much.
The customer wants a bike, but is not prepared to spend hours on the internet or trawling around shops.
Most of the customers in my local bike shop switch off at the mention of something fairly simple such as 650b or 29er.
If you hang around the sales floor of a Halfords for a while, you will see customers sit on two or three bikes and then pick one.
My experience of studying the business I wanted to buy is that road bike buyers tend to be more particular.
But the majority of sales are mountain bikes which will never see a proper trail or hybrids.
Cycle to Work has had a big impact.
The sale there is all but already made as soon as the customer walks through the door.
He wants to spend £X of his allowance on "something for the cycle paths" - the focus is on sorting the paperwork rather than on the bike.
Medium to good quality bikes from a few hundred up to about £1,000.
Only a tiny minority of buyers study specs minutely, go on forums, or even shop around very much.
The customer wants a bike, but is not prepared to spend hours on the internet or trawling around shops.
Most of the customers in my local bike shop switch off at the mention of something fairly simple such as 650b or 29er.
If you hang around the sales floor of a Halfords for a while, you will see customers sit on two or three bikes and then pick one.
My experience of studying the business I wanted to buy is that road bike buyers tend to be more particular.
But the majority of sales are mountain bikes which will never see a proper trail or hybrids.
Cycle to Work has had a big impact.
The sale there is all but already made as soon as the customer walks through the door.
He wants to spend £X of his allowance on "something for the cycle paths" - the focus is on sorting the paperwork rather than on the bike.
A van full of bikes all brought and fixed up during the week, then a trip to a large boot sale or market will earn you more than a lot of small bike shops are doing nowadays. Get rounds the large shops that sell BSO's and buy up the returns, buy a container full from where ever is cheapest.
Business nowadays is far more about sales and marketing than anything else out there. Not forgetting, the lower the overheads the faster you go into profit, whilst not forgetting to speculate to accumulate.
Business nowadays is far more about sales and marketing than anything else out there. Not forgetting, the lower the overheads the faster you go into profit, whilst not forgetting to speculate to accumulate.
