Originally Posted by FastJake

Exactly. People want to pay nothing to get their bikes fixed. Sometimes I tell my friends what the parts will cost to fix their bike (because I'll do the work for free) and they STILL don't want to pay it. And, bikes are simple enough that once many people get deep enough into it they do the work themselves.

Originally Posted by TiHabanero

Years ago I embarked upon a thorough examination of my business. I wanted to know where my customers were coming from and what operations were profitable for the shop.


This is what was found; Repairs and parts were far more profitable than new bike sales. Seems obvious, no? But the level of profitability vs. new bike sales was amazing and it was discovered the back room carried the whole shop. We made the decision to run the store from the "back room" meaning we would focus on growing the repair business taking advantage of the margins offered. This worked well, but soon found new bike sales were needed to encourage back room sales. One had a hard time living without the other.


Selling low end and mid grade bikes was easy, but add on sales were limited and repairs were limited in scope. It took about 5 years to successfully establish the shop as a full service "higher end" shop. Still sold kids bikes, but allotted more floor space to upper end bikes, and promote the shop and bikes as the area's better bike shop. This worked and continues to work.


I believe a shop could make it without selling new bikes if it focuses on not only repairs, but add on parts and accessory sales and PROMOTED like crazy to the right crowd.


Comes down to it, the shop went from bottom line profitability went from 2% to 10% two years ago when I retired from it. Good luck and create a comprehensive plan before you start!