What would the 'Books' of a LBS look like?

[spandex]

A number of the sheffield stands in Reading town centre have been 'stickered' by a 'mobile bicycle mechanic'. No idea if he's earning a living from it.

If you see him ask him there was one in York but he lasted two years I think?

 

[dellzeqq]

I've spent some time looking at the books of an LBS and I've winkled out the sales figures of about ten shops in my part of the world. I'm not breaching any confidences when I tell you

- selling new bikes is the least profitable part of a bike shop's trade - setting up a bike received from even the best distributor is probably a two to three hour job, and the gross margin isn't great. It's remarkably easy to sell 300 bikes a year in a suburban bike shop, but don't count on retiring on the proceeds
- you have to be able to justify labour costs of £25 an hour - and this takes time.
- clothing, pedals, inner tubes, tyres and lights are where the real margins lie - but these are small ticket items
- your problem (for which read my problem) is not finding the premises - these are going for a song at the moment (I negotiated £50,000 off a five year lease in five minutes on the phone) - but getting a dealership. Dealers will kick up rough if they hear that another dealership is being set up anywhere in the vicinity.
- If I'd thought the thing through (which I didn't) I'd have gone to Taiwan and bought bikes there.
- don't do the same old same old. Bike shops are a complete mess and people who work in bike shops cannot sell stuff to save their lives, because they look at the bike and not at the people

 

[Dayvo]

..wot about a mobile mechanic..one that rides on his bike to you and fixes your bike oin your own garage....hmm...let me think this through...

i was thinking about doing that.
where would you advertise?

probably want to do it in a car though as you'd ideally have a bike stand. Fair few tools needed aswell.

I've also thought about this!

My dream plan is to contact schools, colleges, and workplaces that have the cycle-to-work campaign, qualify as a bike mechanic (which I'm planning on doing in March), buy a smallish van (VW Caddy) and drive around (probably in Sweden) with my tools/parts/accessories etc. and earn a good living teaching the pupils/students/workers the basics of bike repairs!

small voice in head *dream on, Dayvo!*

 

[swee'pea99]

I've spent some time looking at the books of an LBS and I've winkled out the sales figures of about ten shops in my part of the world. I'm not breaching any confidences when I tell you

- selling new bikes is the least profitable part of a bike shop's trade - setting up a bike received from even the best distributor is probably a two to three hour job, and the gross margin isn't great. It's remarkably easy to sell 300 bikes a year in a suburban bike shop, but don't count on retiring on the proceeds
- you have to be able to justify labour costs of £25 an hour - and this takes time.
- clothing, pedals, inner tubes, tyres and lights are where the real margins lie - but these are small ticket items
- your problem (for which read my problem) is not finding the premises - these are going for a song at the moment (I negotiated £50,000 off a five year lease in five minutes on the phone) - but getting a dealership. Dealers will kick up rough if they hear that another dealership is being set up anywhere in the vicinity.
- If I'd thought the thing through (which I didn't) I'd have gone to Taiwan and bought bikes there.
- don't do the same old same old. Bike shops are a complete mess and people who work in bike shops cannot sell stuff to save their lives, because they look at the bike and not at the people

Words of wisdom all, that should be required reading for anyone contemplating setting up in any kind of business. The bit in bold strikes me as particularly pertinent: for 'bike shop' read 'small book shop/clothes shop/restaurant' etc etc. The demise of small retail, in a word.

Tesco conquers all, because Tesco is a ruthless business run by ruthless businessmen. Anyone with even a passing interest in bikes is probably the very last person who should try to make a business out of them.

 

[another_dave_b]

A short piece in Bike Biz, suggests that Bike shops are currently doing quite well:

The ACT's latest survey has concluded that sepcialist cycle retailers are, on average, reporting five per cent sales growth in the quarter beginning September '08.

The five per cent figure puts IBDs on par with only food and drink stores in terms of growth, while the majority of other trades are suffering sales decline.

I'd assume that bike shops in London would be doing better than average.

 

[dellzeqq]

they might be, but the price of bikes coming into the country is rising rapidly. I've just bought a frame that will be 25% more expensive in three months time.

A bad time to set up. 2009 prices from the distributor will be only slightly less than 2008 prices in the shop. Bum!