How to start your own small-town bicycle shop

(Page 5 of 5)

March/April 1974
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Since a good portion of your income will come from bicycle service, you'll need to know how to charge for the jobs you do and that's where some outside help comes in handy.

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You'll find it well worth $25.00 a year to belong to the National Bicycle Dealers Association (29025 Euclid Avenue, Wickliffe, Ohio 44092). Among other advantages, your membership will bring you a service rate book that tells how long a specific repair or adjustment should take and how much you should ask for the work in your area. The Association will also send you a listing of bicycle and parts suppliers all over the United States. By all means, join . you'll save yourself hours of frustration.

RESERVE FUND

What's left of your original $4,000 should be held in reserve just in case you need it. If a customer walks in and wants five or six bikes for his grandchildren, for instance, and you don't have them in stock at least you'll be able to order the machines.

While most businesses are new and growing it's usually best to plow every penny of profit back into the operation and a bike shop is no exception. In fact, it's a good idea not to try to depend on your fledgling enterprise for a living until it's firmly established.

PROFITS

How much can you expect to make from a small-town bike shop? It's hard to say. We've always felt that a good part of our income isn't measured in dollars, but in the satisfaction of meeting the good people who ride bicycles. That much we can promise you: The rest depends on how hard you work at learning and operating the business. Unless you open a large establishment in a big city, you can't expect to get rich but if you're satisfied to work hard at your trade in quiet, peaceful surroundings, good things will come your way.

Copyright © 2001-2002, Ogden Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.

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Comments

  • Brett 11/19/2008 12:03:51 PM

    I don't know how much help a 30+ year-old (March/April 1974) article will give, but there seem to be a couple good nuggets in here. I think it'd be interesting to talk to the author(s) now and see how the shop turned out.

  • pankaj 7/11/2008 5:22:45 PM

    or you can open your own dollarshop go to www.pansing.mydollarshop.com/makemoney its simple but you need to advertise your product on internate

  • Robert 11/14/2007 12:32:21 PM

    You say the average price of a bike is $125. Surely this was 20
    years ago as today it's about $500 for a 18-21 speed road bike. I
    think using your numbers I should multiply by a factor of 4 or 5.

  • Sam 11/7/2007 8:47:45 AM

    I'm looking at opening my own bike shop and I appreciated this
    article. Thank you! I also have found
    http://www.startingabiz.com/starting-a-bike-shop/ and
    http://www.nbda.com to be useful resources.

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