Tel's Stallion Cycle Shop Venture!

Tel,

Have you tried your local paper - new shop opening is always news here!! Free ad can do no harm

Richard

Coincidentally I was going to update today. In honesty not much to say really, there's a bit of extra stock in there and I've got a steady trickle of customers I certainly never twiddle my thumbs. At the moment if I'm not fixing a bike I'm refurbing something for stock or working on the shops fixtures and fittings. In honesty I can't spend long enough round there. The hardest thing at the moment is my total lack of funds! Market is very slow at the moment which is a great time to buy (providing the market recovers!) but not to sell so what I find myself doing is buying stuff when I should be selling! Disaster....

Anyway some updated pics of the shop:





















Obviously still stuff to do but as I said money is my main restriction at the moment. Sign man has let me down they should be up by now, time to find someone else I think.

TGR yes I will have to contact the paper to do an article on the Islands newest bike shop which is a first for this "up and coming area" too....

Tel,

The place looks well, if selling is hard, get the website updated and advertise it locally - advertising is where it is at!!! Once you get your client base the money will come but it is the initial startup which will be costly.

Happy Easter,

Richard

Going to be working on the website over Easter. I have concentrated most of my web activity on FB at the moment as the social networking of that makes sense however I'm going to update my site and use links between the two. So much to do! Good stuff

Have a happy Easter Richard albeit from your bed....

Thanks chum,

if you need me for anything, just ask or email!!

Richard

tel i keep having same thought re shop but not made the leap yet , just happy tinkering and selling 2 or 3 bikes a month through various ways

retro is good at mo but how long can it go for ?

either way well done and long may it continue

Well life is short eh. Something that I need to get out of my system, ideally it'll go great and I'll be able to quit my full time job, get off permanent night shift and have a job that I enjoy doing. Whether that'll happen I do not know but it's exciting and fun finding out.

The retro market has been going for a long while now and I have often questioned how much longer it can go on. Thing is the market has reached it's peak and is now becoming flooded too but theres more than one way to skin a cat I guess the challenge is staying one step ahead....

I remember a similar thing (on a grander scale) happening to the classic car market in the eighties. Eventually the bubble burst and weeded out the wide boys and rip off merchants who were inflating the market.

I think that interest will always be there to a degree - I joke that bikes are for a man who is having a mid-life crisis but can't afford a sports car.

Also, cycling is now being promoted heavily and with the cost of fuel it will become more and more attractive as a mode of transport.

I started my business because it was something I'd always wanted to do. Just follow your dream (but make sure you keep your eyes open !)

Tel, one serious thought about Facebook.

I don't know about other members, but the only person in my family with a FB account is my 25 year old son, the rest of us just don't go there. On the flip side, when I'm not eating, sleeping, working or riding I practically live on the net and my daughter buys almost everything for her bikes on line, as she just cannot find a LBS she likes near her home in Bristol.

On-line is the way, but don't neglect the web site in favour of FB, as you'll miss a decent sized section of the market.

Sermon over, the shop is looking good, nice to see a few constant consumables on display... oh and the cream eggs of course

Tel":32cdpgp8 said:

Well life is short eh. Something that I need to get out of my system, ideally it'll go great and I'll be able to quit my full time job, get off permanent night shift and have a job that I enjoy doing. Whether that'll happen I do not know but it's exciting and fun finding out.

The retro market has been going for a long while now and I have often questioned how much longer it can go on. Thing is the market has reached it's peak and is now becoming flooded too but theres more than one way to skin a cat I guess the challenge is staying one step ahead....

Click to expand...

tel totally agree re retro market . and the other thing that i can never work out is some weeks its the cheaper bikes that sell and then another week its the more expensive ones .

got to keep a good choice of stock i suppose