LBCwanabe 

I’ve been wanting to share a pic

I’m mostly just doing small flips for fun.

What is you opinion: is it worth it to have a brick and mortar store front at all?

mstateglfr 

A storefront is only good if you can get the space for basically free and/or if you have a ton of money you want to lose to fund your hobby.
The costs of insurance, retail space, utilities, etc would far exceed the value of a retail shop for most situations like this. If you are overflowing with cash and looking for a way to have fun and show a loss come tax time- get a storefront.


We had a version of that pink and purple/blue trike in your picture. Our oldest had that 11 or 12 years ago and it came with a pole you could attach to help push and/or steer. Ha, I had forgotten about that little trike. Good stuff.

bark_eater 

My future scheme for going "Pro" is to get a table at the Saturday farmers market. Show off the fancy builds that no one in there right mind would pay for as examples of quality work with fenders, racks, baskets and lights and have folks drop off bikes for service, to pick up the next week. All your customer service/being nice time is bottlenecked to those 4 hours. Still need insurance and a eye toward minimizing liability as well as a dedicated multible bike hauling rig.

DMC707

That would be fun !

Ballenxj

It depends for starters on your location. Do you currently have an area you can use for a store front? A willingness to advertise on social media, along with word of mouth wil help.
If all those things align for you, I say go for it, and good luck!

thumpism 

Most of those bikes in the pic appear to be in what I guess is "your" size. You'll need to diversify your stock for the populace.

Mad Honk 

A store front will drive you into personal bankruptcy in my city. Monthly prices per square foot is over $5 and the added expenses will drive a store to thousands of dollars per month. Continue to operate out of your home... But get a business licence, register as a retail merchant with your locality, and get a separate insurance policy for your business. The insurance policy must include liability insurance! One bad test ride by a customer and you could be facing years of damage payments.
Visit with your insurance agent and get a dose of reality. Then contact Robbie Tunes and ask him. Opening a bizniz is more than just a place to sell your wares. HTH, MH

Ballenxj

This sounds like good advice. If you can license a business at your home, that would probably be the thing to do.

2manybikes

Prepare to loose a lot of money.

dweenk

Is that your storage area or your proposed showroom? It appears to be much cleaner than a normal workspace (or at least my workspace). I would like to hear more details and your plan.

imakecircles

Haha, I've always wanted to open a store called 58 cm Cyles.

LBCwanabe 

😂 thanks for the good advise all.

sykerocker 

Couple of thoughts based on my home-based bike shop (2010-14), and my home-based reenactment sutlery (1989-99):

Definitely can the idea of a storefront, unless you're building it on your property and you own the building.

Buy yourself a cheap flip phone and cheapest possible data plan. That's your shop phone. Under no conditions do your customers ever find out your personal home and cell numbers. The day they do that, you'll never find peace.

If you're the kind of guy who likes to work on a set schedule, put a clock in the shop. Then set it five minutes ahead of real time. Plans of "four hours every Saturday" as your direct contact time is a great idea but sooner or later your customers are going to find the address where you actually do the work. At which point you post your hours, and come and go religiously to those hours (including turning off the shop phone) . . . . . . based on what the official shop clock says, not real time. You'll be amazed how many customer either like to call or stop by two minutes from closing. And they're certainly planning on talking more than two minutes. If five minutes isn't giving you enough closing space, go to ten. And once you're closed for the day, you're closed.

Yeah, that sounds awful hard ass. Being able to draw the line between your time and shop time is critical to this venture being enjoyable.

Saturday in/next Saturday out sounds like a wonderful idea as long as your customers are that organized. Maybe one or two of them will be. The day they figure out where the work is being done, that's when you see the Thursday afternoon drop-off because the customer has a group ride on Saturday. And those are the considerate ones.

Definitely sounds like a neat idea. Go for it. I was planning on doing the same thing again, then the fire hit.

The Golden Boy 

How to make a small fortune with a bike shop:


Start with a large fortune.

wrk101

Trust Syke on this one.

Your current model has ZERO overhead, maybe no taxes or insurance either. Brick and mortar means all of those, plus rent plus employees. Next step is consign with a local shop, let them carry the overhead, give them a portion of the profit.