Bicycle Repair Service
What will I be doing ?
Once a major mode of transportation, bicycles are still popular as recreation vehicles. They once were tools; now they’re toys.
Fortunately, toys get attention when they’re broken. A bicycle repair service maintains, repairs, restores and recycles cycles. If you enjoy bicycle riding and happen to be handy with tools and repairs, consider starting your own bicycle repair service from your home or garage.
What will I need to start ?
To fix bicycles, you must understand how they work. Though children’s bikes are basic machines, those that adults ride are more sophisticated-and require more knowledge to repair.
One successful bicycle repair service began by purchasing children’s bikea in any condition. He paid $10 if he could roll them away and $5 if he had to carry them. He then dismantled them, replaced parts as needed from other bikes, painted them and resold them at a profit. Some of the profit went toward attending factory schools for major bicycle brands. Within a few years, his weekend service had become a full-time bike shop specializing in racing bikes.
Who will my customers be ?
Kids don’t buy kid’s bikes; parents and grandparents do. Adults also buy collector bikes, mountain bikes, racing bikes and exercise bikes. So your customers will be adults buying for kids or kid in themselves. Appeal to both the logic and the emotion of your customers and your business will succeed.
Most bicycle repair services promote themselves with small service ads in local newspapers, on area bulletin boards, in bike shops and through referrals.
How much should I charge ?
Although a bicycle repair service sets prices using an hourly rate, the price of most services is quoted to the customer based on the type of job or the value of the results. For example, a shop with a $30-an hour rate may require 40 minutes to tune up a mountain bike. The price for this service isn’t quoted as $30 an hour but as $20-or $19.95.
Base your pricing on your shop rate, the amount of time required for the typical job, and on the prices of your competitors-until you have too much business. Then raise them until you have just the right amount of business to keep you happy.
How much will I make ?
No ones has ever become rich repairing bi cycles. However, many people have started small garage ventures that grew into lucrative bicycle business. So can you. Initially, you’ll spend up to half of your time promoting your business, but should soon see that cut down to 25 percent of your time or less. Overhead expenses will depend on what type of business you’re building, where you’re located and how much time you’re devoting to it. Figure on keeping 50 to 75 percent of every dollar that comes in the door and you should be accurate.
So 40 hours a week means 30 billable hours a week. Multiply that by $25 an hour and you have a gross income of $600 a week. You’ll probably be able to keep $400 to $500 after expenses.
How can I get started ?
To start a bicycle repair business, learn as much as you can about bikes and how to repair them. Read the bicycle magazines for additional resources such as books and associations that can help you build your business.
The SIC code for bicycle repair service is 7699-74
From the book of Dan Ramsey, Title : 101 Best Home Businesses, CAREER PRESS, 3 Tice Road, P.O. Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417, 1-800-CAREER-1, 201-848-0310 (NJ and outside U.S.), FAX : 201-848-1727
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