I wish the mobile service person luck, but "volume" (esp of repairs) does not a successful business make. There are only so many hours in the day, and charging $20 for what must have been an hour of on site work plus travel time will not ultimately pay the bills. There's a limit to how much people will pay for convenience as well.
You are on the right track in selling merchandise, though you might find limitations as to distributors you can work with if you can't show a bricks and mortar presence. It takes only a few minutes to sell and install a saddle that can net you that same $20 you charged for an hour of your time. On the other hand, stocking inventory is no picnic, and not everyone will wait for you to get their part in.
I ran a mobile repair and bicycle tour support service for 8 years and had some success, but could have used better funding at first and should have outsourced all the financial aspects. Don't try to run the business nuts and bolts if you can pay someone less than what you can net doing what you are good at and enjoy.
Hopefully Las Vegas will be a large enough market that you can get the amount of income you need to be successful. For whatever reason several previous attempts at expanded marketing of the mobile bicycle service idea have not resulted in much activity.
Last edited by cny-bikeman; 05-30-08 at 05:23 PM.