Should I buy a bike shop?

[ianrauk]

Turn half the shop into a hipster overpriced coffee joint and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[Oldfentiger]

Turn half the shop into a hipster overpriced coffee joint and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

London this ain't.

 

[ianrauk]

TMN to me

Damn.. I didn't check

 

[Profpointy]

Best of luck, don't make the decision quickly, I doubt if there's a queue of people waiting to buy the business, so you have plenty of time.

Actually I advise you to make the decision very quickly indeed - DON'T DO IT !

In the OP you mention you know nothing of shops or business - that's all you need to make the decision.

Let's say there was an opportunity to get a job as a motor mechanic but you know nothing about mechanics or cars - how well would that go? It's one thing to extend a skill into a more business oriented area - maybe already got a successful bicycle repair business and considering extending that into a shop. Or maybe running a successful sweet shop and considering going into bicycles. Investing a whole load of money, most of your savings even, in something you confess to knowing nothing about would simply be nuts.

My Dad at one point was suggesting I could make some kind of hare-brained business opportunity from the ancestral 20 acre farm (buildings falling down) in west wales. My response was I have a trade which I'm pretty good at and hence quite well paid - designing computer systems - some combination of farming and property renovation which I know f-all about is very unlikely to earn me a living, and would likely lose me a load of money even if I got the place for nothing,

 

[Profpointy]

[QUOTE 4324624, member: 76"]Didn't Graeme Obree own a bike shop? He did all right, until he went bust obviously.[/QUOTE]

it's perfectly possible to make a living out of a bike shop, albeit I doubt it's easy. However it's unlikely to go well if you know nothing of business or shopkeeping

 

[PaulB]

Saw everything today and now I'm making some in-depth enquiries with the agents and getting a business plan together. Exciting times!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Saw everything today and now I'm making some in-depth enquiries with the agents and getting a business plan together. Exciting times!

Your bank may well be able to supply a guide/template to help you to construct a business plan.

My advice would be this when you write it and calculate the financials: be as dispassionate as possible.

Some people fall into the trap of writing a plan that justifies their project and unwittingly skew data to achieve this.

Once your plan is complete take professional advice on its merits from your bank, accountant, people you know who run a business and are financially astute - the two do not always go together!

If everyone is giving you a big red light then bin the project and walk away.

Gung-ho rhetoric such as 'follow your dream' and 'go for it' etc are worthy sentiments but the acid test is; are you actually going to improve your overall financial position with your project?

There are plenty of 'go for it' failures out there and as a general rule these far outnumber the successes.

Good luck whichever way you ultimately jump.

 

[Mrs M]

Good luck with your plans.

 

[Bollo]

It's a no from me.

Do I get a prize for longest ever reply to a thread?

Not bad, but you're no Philip Benstead.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I wrote a business plan for a bank once. They turned us down.

Five years later the business was out performing every dimension of the plan by several hundred percent and had been ahead of plan since Y1 Q2.

Banks are .... great at risk assessment but often wrong when it comes to small businesses.

 

[Dayvo]

Buy a coffee shop, then everyone will be happy!

 

[Milkfloat]

I wrote a business plan for a bank once. They turned us down.

Five years later the business was out performing every dimension of the plan by several hundred percent and had been ahead of plan since Y1 Q2.

Banks are .... great at risk assessment but often wrong when it comes to small businesses.

Sounds like a crap business plan then.

 

[coco69]

Right, this is the situation.

I noticed yesterday that a long-established bike shop has gone for sale in a town about 6 miles from where I live.

One the one hand, it would allow me to invest in a business with a great reputation while working in an environment I love and would enjoy being involved with.

On the other, it's a huge investment which would put all of my savings, pension fund etc on the line.

I've never even worked in a shop and have no business sense and one side of me is telling me this is a terrific opportunity while the other side is telling me to be very cautious.

I'm going to see it tomorrow with my eldest son and we're going to talk over the pros and cons of making such a big decision (no, it's not in a town called Malice).

Chip in with any info/knowledge/advice if thou wouldst.

Buy it then offer us huge discounts