LemondFanForeve

Great, informative interview Rob, it was fun to read.

cricket1116

Cool interview, thanks for sharing. I believe the tooting is well deserved....

kissTheApex

Well deserved and late in coming Rob.

triumph.1

Nothing wrong with tooting your horn when you're good at something, congrats. I take it this is you?

https://www.psimet.com/about-us.html

aham23

wait, who is blowing who's horn?



Well done Boss. later.

pchopper

great interview! What kind of wheels did your mom end up buying

motobecane69

did someone say Rusty Trombone?

"I have adopted a philosophy that I should never have to chase down someone I want to give money to." The only semi negative thing I will say about Psimet is that some of us feel this way about you. You have ALWAYS made it clear that this isn't a full time gig for you and that turn around times may be a challenge so nobody can really bash you for it but I for one ended up building my own set of wheels after communication broke down (translation, I asked a couple of questions before wanting to pull the final trigger and didn't hear back).

I really hope you go full bore with what you do and get processes streamlined so that none of us have to chase you down to give you our money. You have a great reputation and people will pay you a premium for that so charge more or do whatever you hvae to do to make it happen!

Psimet2001 

Yup
Agreed. I always acknowledge that as a failure on my end 100%. Hoping this is one more step to doing it all the time. If so....good communication becomes what puts food on my table/how I get paid. See what happens then.

FWIW - It's gotten a lot better. Not100% yet, but a lot better. There were a few months where I was 100% up to date on email. Behind again but not horrible...

haaseg

What you should do is... every time you have an urge to refresh bikeforums.net in the browser, you should answer 1 email. If you're like me, you'll be caught up in no time.

Psimet2001 

That's good advice, but I actually do about 3-4. Still behind.

I have streamlined the business a LOT, but 2 areas that require my direct input are: determining the specification (email), and Tension and True. Now with all of my sponsored riders as well.....

Officially announcing I am sponsoring US Pro Chad Hartley (Kenda) for Cyclocross this year as well as "another big guy"...as he pursues Masters Worlds 55+ this year - not sure he wants that public yet.

triumph.1

So the email I sent this morning should get an answer sometime.

markrj

Great interview and very informative to us newbies.

Congrats!

motobecane69

Good to hear. Also, a word of advice to you as you consider growing your business. NEVER OUTSOURCE YOUR CORE COMPETENCY. Obviously in your case its the actual building of the wheels. You could probably hire a college kid as an intern and help organize and answer some of the emails and bring someone else on that has basic knowledge about wheelbuilding and give them your crash course in your philosophy on how wheels should be built and allow them to handle the more technical emails. Then once a customer places a deposit, that is where you pick up the final communication and go over the nitty gritty and then you do all the actual wheelbuilding since that is your core competency.

Just my .02 I'm sure you've thought about it far more than I have.

Psimet2001 

Yup....my "real" job is as a Lean Manufacturing Manager so I am constantly thinking about how to make it better. That's where i took the time to determine the two core copentencies or critical value added steps in the process - determination of spec and tension/true. I currently have a few team members who I have taught to lace, etc. They come over hang out, talk about racing and prep or lace wheels. They have fun and I get things done. ........

....been spending all morning doing a cyclocross kit order for the team and permitting 2 cyclocross races......

guadzilla

Your saddle must have been crowded with both you AND Lee Waldman on it. Hope y'all cuddled

Jokes apart, cool article, big guy.

caloso

Please tell me you were blowing, not sucking, that tubular.

bonz50

well done sir!!! said many times, when it comes time for a new set of wheels I'm be calling you first. doesn't hurt that you're local to me as well!!!

simp77

Very cool! Congrats!

CyLowe97

Psimet, you should get some part time helpers. That would help out a lot in your customized wheel building endeavours.

aham23

^^^^ well played. later.

Psimet2001 

I kind of wish they had used one of these pictures:



....so I can spend all night having to say...

MOVE!
Enjoy your sweat shop procured chamois cream.

calRider

From the article: "The fact that it doesn’t have the traditional roadie narcissism attached to it makes people feel more comfortable about trying it."


Ouch, baby...very Ouch!

Congrats on the interview.