My father has been selling bikes and parts over the years with very little want or need for help. He's recently started asking my brother and I if we'd ever want to take over for him. I hadn't put much thought into it as I wanted to make my mark in my own way but now that I'm close to finishing my studies I'm wondering if its something i could manage. Knowing him I doubt id get shown the ropes or asked to step in any time soon but I was thinking of taking some night classes to better learn finance and business running. Does anyone know of any additional reading I could do online to better equip myself; business and or bike related, really anything helps. Thanks guys!
Knowledge for taking over a business
Is his business online only? Brick and mortar only? Both? Where is the business located geographically?
The twitter handle of the same name is a crypto bot.
Hi Dave, welcome. What bike do you own now? You are more than welcome to post here if you aren’t AI.
He has been encouraged to get a website up but hasnt yet so only B&M. Its in Oxfordshire but he also one day wants to setup proper shops elsewhere.
Hi @heckler, i dont actually use twitter so glad to say im not a bot or ai haha. I have a Cube Ariel and Cube Aim for the road and have recently been using a family friends set of B Twin Rockrider SR100's to get into mountain biking. Havent decided on a personal one for myself just yet.
Cheers Davie, Welcome! My spidey senses were tingling when you posted two new threads with no response to either.
He checks out, don't ban him @vikb. https://nsmb.com/forum/forum/gear-4/topic/what-seats-do-people-recommend-132439/
/end spam filtering
fuck, I hate spam phone calls and IG bots I keep getting.
Last edited by: heckler on June 27, 2022, 5:36 p.m., edited 2 times in total.
Posted by: LittleBigDavie
He has been encouraged to get a website up but hasnt yet so only B&M. Its in Oxfordshire but he also one day wants to setup proper shops elsewhere.
Well if he's selling B&M and you want to get better at that it would make sense to do some PT work at a B&M bike shop. Ideally one that's doing well. If your labour market is like ours it shouldn't be too hard to get some PT hours at a shop. Watch and learn. See how they do things. Ask questions and get a feel for that sort of operation. It doesn't have to be a ton of hours to be useful depending on what your free time looks like after school commitments are taken care of.
Another option occurred to me...since he his operating B&M and you seem to want to make your own mark in the world perhaps you could start an online side to the business? This would expand the operation and give you an area to learn/grow on your own terms. If you can sell from stuff he's got in stock that removes a lot of the capital requirement/risk from the equation and you mostly have to invest sweat equity into setting up and managing the online shop.
If that interests you I would still recommend seeing if you can find some PT work with a company that does online sales to get some practical experience. It doesn't need to be bicycle related, but if there is a LBS with an online retail presence that could be ideal.
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