i personally know of several shops that exist with this model, but there are so many other factors involved that it's tough to credit the business model to the exclusion of the people involved.
depends on your shop traffic flow both in terms of bikes you get in, and customers to buy them. staff to refurbish them. money to pay for new parts with which to refurbish them. it's a huge puzzle.
i think the best thing to do is to diversify your income streams as much as you can. if you get 2 months in and realize that something about your setup--location, mechanical experience, market for used bikes--is not conducive to sustaining your operation, you'll have some other means of scraping by, instead of watching the entire thing fold in 6 or 8 months.
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 4:10 PM, Matthew VanSlyke
<vanslyke.matthew@gmail.com> wrote:
I have been exploring the feasibility of opening a community bike shop in my small-ish Northeast city. It looks like there's some opportunity here. As I search for start-up funding I want to be able to confidently tell funders that we'll become self-sustaining in a reasonable amount of time. My most promising lead likes to let go of the leash in 24 months. I'm anticipating most revenue to come from the sale of repurposed bikes out of the storefront, with some other special events, fundraisers, donations and memberships.
What can you tell me about your experience? Is this realistic?
Thanks,
Matt
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