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• #2
Anyone got any experience with this sort of thing?
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• #3
How is this going to work for you. Are you just going to service customer's bikes while they're using the cafe?
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• #4
Yeah that's idea. I will provide a deal where the customer is entitled to a free coffee from the cafe with each puncture repair/ service.
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• #5
the issue i see is that you will need to supply a drop in service, one day a week is unlikely to be regular enough for most folk.
you need to be available and convenient for people. from watching similar enterprises its key that you have a lot of passing trade, so the location needs to be on a commuting artery with lots of cyclists
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• #6
I was worried you would say that. As DJ says, walk up service is not a feasible system for doing one day a week, particularly during evenings. People's movements in the evenings tend not to favour that. Most walk up services that I've seen in workshops still tend to be mornings or afternoons and are still drop off services to collect the following day.
I could be wrong but I would want to know what your market research is. A bunch of supportive mates saying "yeah, that sound like a good idea" is not market research.
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• #7
As the others have said, one day a week is unlikely to work. Another problem is, simply, that the room you have in mind already seems to be well-used.
I think to make this a success, you should ask your friend to rebrand his business as a cycling café--this is what really attracts attention, as many of these are being started up and down the country. Do you think he/she might be open to that?
That there is a courtyard is a fantastic asset. Is it directly accessible from the street or do you have to go through the café? Even if you start as one day a week, would you be able to provide your service from the courtyard, maybe under a gazebo in bad weather, if it's directly accessible? It's a factor that would really make a difference.
Demand for repairs is huge; it sounds as if you would be close to many people's workplaces, but the best service would probably be to enable people to drop off their bikes in the morning and collect them for the evening ride home.
Good luck in any case. Anoher cycling café would be great.
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• #8
Nottingham?
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• #9
Slightly related, has lock 7 closed down?
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• #10
Thanks very much for all the pointers. I've had another chat with my friend who runs the cafe and have made a few changes to my plan. The first change is that the actually workshop will now be in one corner of the cafe. The place is huge so no problems regarding space. The other change is that it will run during the day. This is obviously better for trade and will make more sense when offering free coffees.
Thanks for the pointer about the potential issue with a one day only operation. My intention is offer slightly lower cosy services and repairs in order to attract the student market. Students obviously love cheap things and i believe this will attract them (and others) even if it's just a one day operation.
The courtyard is accessible from the road giving great access to building. There are already lots of bikes parked there by people working in local offices. A gazebo is a great idea and i think i will look into that.
If anyone's got any further pointers do let me know.
Cheers.
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• #11
Being inside the cafe would also give me much more interaction with customers allowing me to talk about what I'm doing.
Operating during the day would allow me to offer drop off in morning, collect in evening services.
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• #12
Sounds much better. If you fiddle about doing bits here and there, now and then, no one will come as they'll be worried you won't be there when they rock up. You need to be there all the time offering the same thing so people know what to expect.
Generally speaking new businesses establish best if you jump all the way in offering one consistently good service all the time.
My local pub offers food some days, not others, sometimes it's pub food, sometimes Thai, sometimes just sandwiches, they have one night where they close at 9pm. It's a decent pub but is always empty. I think purely because people have no idea what to expect when they turn up so they go somewhere else that's predictable. That's why I don't go anyway.
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• #13
I agree this sounds much better but if you go for one day a week won't you be putting yourself under a lot of pressure to turn repairs around the same day?
Sometimes repairs turn out to be more complex than expected and take longer, how would you avoid over committing when you don't have the fallback option of giving the bike back the next day?
Also, what if people don't pick their bikes up as planned? Will they have to wait a week? Is there somewhere to store bikes?
The bike storage/customers not picking bikes up issue is a common one even for more established, six/seven day a week bike shops. It's also more common with cheaper bikes: naturally it's unusual for someone with an expensive bike to forget/not bother to pick it up, but your student target market...
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• #14
There will be a room dedicated to storing a few bikes for the reason of non collections or services taking longer. I will organise with the customer when they can come and collect their bike, either the next day or the next suitable time for them.
Thanks all for your comments, they've definitely been constructive. If anyone's got any other pointers or thoughts I'd be very happy to hear them.
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• #15
Spill the beans then - where it at?
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• #16
Lol. Gotta keep it schtum for a little longer but will spill when things get rolling.
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• #17
let's say it will be in a very busy cycling city
London? I am excited.
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• #18
I run something similar out of a bike cafe in Scotland, basically I do a few set days a week and extra if more bikes come in. I don't do it for the money (you'll never earn much out of the bike industry!) but really enjoy my work, interacting with customers and many many tasty free coffee's and food.
Some notes that might be useful to you.
Working days vs evenings, defo days, and in the first instance just go straight in and be 'there' the whole alloted time, for the most part you aren't going to have a lot to do, but when people realise you are there on those days, they will come. It will save you more over even a short period of time (3-6 months) vs. 'I'm going to do mon + fri, but actually the first few weeks its been quiet so I'll just do mon', which quickly leads to a little negativity from locals who can't confirm you're there or not. You'll be amazed how quickly average bike riders (not avid cyclists) catch onto this fact.Yes do the service + coffee thing. We trialed it for a while, slightly reduced standard service + coffee for less than book price, and we were already cheap compared to others and there was more folk than I knew what to do with! You can also hook up with the 5pm/deal/woucher type websites as they get you some free publicity to average bike rider type folk for a cut of your voucher value (arguably a lot!) e.g. Puncture repair + good coffee = £10!*
*dutchie bikes are extra, cos hatred for all them with their rusty philips screws holding the rear end together.Be in the cafe, not in a shed outside, unless you live in the med where you can be outside all the time, a lot of folk won't notice you
Manage peoples expectations confidently. E.g. a 1 year old average quality hybrid comes in for a standard service, looking over it your confident it needs nothing other than an adjustment, but later turns out that two teeth on the pressed steel big ring are buggered (kerb) and you won't have one of those lying around. Which means it won't be same day, but +2 days for stock to arrive + 1 day to get it fitted as you aren't in that week.... It only takes a few of those to start bad noises about your business, and whilst yes its nice to be able to confidently say same day turnaround, unless you have infinite stock of parts, don't!
Don't bother selling new bikes, or if you do, just stick to one brand from one supplier and relevant to what your locals want. Everyone would like to see vintage porn and £8k carbon Di2 bikes all around their shops, but they don't sell at least not in any meaningful numbers. We just sell £300-500 town and hybrid bikes with the odd entry level road/commuter bike, and they sell well enough
BTW, most places have three levels of servicing, kind of an adjust only, then a fit some new cables and true wheels properly, adjust cup and cones etc, then a full frame strip and rebuild with fresh everything. In my time I would say 70% is the 1st, 20% the 2nd and 10% the full whack. So money wise you need to make sure your bottom level service is paying off, your aiming for a min of £25/hr labour turnover over the whole day inc breaks, chatting to folk, sipping coffee, changing gloves, ordering parts etc. So the numbers have to stack up**
**for the first 5 months where I'm at now, we had the entry level service about £10 too low, or rather I was doing a £45 job (anywhere else in the city) for £25, I was just about making money but having to work at higher speed and less accuracy than I would have liked. Now amended the price, customers literally are not fussed by the change, I can work at the speed I like to work at and everyone makes money, win!
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• #20
Hi Brickman. That is some really brilliant advice, thanks so much.
The workshop will be inside the cafe in full view of customers so great for interaction and general visibility of what I'm doing.
I was wondering if you had any pointers on promotion and getting myself known? I'm obviously gonna go down the usual social media routes; Facebook, twitter etc, but wondered if there's anything else to consider? I'm going to flyer tables the day before inside the cafe and have a permanent sign inside the cafe with information about when it will happen. I'm also going to flyer bikes at the very nearby train station.
Have you found any ways of promoting that have been particularly successful? How much do you think you rely on word of mouth? Do you have a website or Facebook that i could have a look at?
Thanks again.
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• #22
Ha cheers guys! Should have been writing words on my report but words about eating cake and playing with bikes come so much easier.
For marketing, I couldn't say with any weight that any one thing has done the trick. I would say its word of mouth between OTHER bike shops and shops in the area. We are based in the west end of Glasgow (siempre), theres a good biking community developing but its still early days really. I've been amazed by how much business we get from other bike shops who are over flowing and from other shops directing people with flat tyres (that then lead to other tasks). So making yourself known locally, and regularly, is key, go back every month and make an effort of visiting other bike shops/spanners and get some good chat, keep going back to chat and to make noise your still there as people do forget even if they don't mean to.
Ticketing bikes in need is a good thing, just be fairly subtle about it otherwise your flyers may become a nuisance.
Yup permanent stuff in the shop is good, a flyer in the window too, ideally something bike shaped like a wooden cut out of a wheel or even a bike pump tied to the front door/shutter? People don't tend to read, they just look for logos' and objects.
Also worth noting your starting at a slightly bad time, you'll catch some students influxing into the cities, but generally workshop stuff dies off from a big 2 week wait down to 'we ain't go enough to keep us busy all day' by the end of October.
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• #23
If you're on or near a busy commuter route get some A-boards out with a picture of a bike and servicing in big letters.
Also, be prepared for it to be dead in the winter - maybe do a promotion i.e where all services done before February are at a discount, try to shift some of that spring business back a few months
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• #24
Also - My friend ran a promotion in his successful workshop where he offered a FREE bicycle health check in the winter months - so Customers bought there bike in (because people love something thats free) , you check it over, give them a list of what needs doing (no actual work done at that point) if they want to go ahead with it you've got yourself a service that you charge for .
realistically most mechanics will spend a portion of time just inspecting and quoting for work, so its something you will do anyway, just make a feature of it!
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• #25
This, you do it anyways when people come in, same as car garages, BUT by turning it into a promotion it gets folk past that first step, ie. getting it out of the shed!
You also attract the DIY folk who 'just have a question'
Hey,
I'm planning on opening a weekly evening bike repair workshop in a busy cafe/restaurant that my friend runs. I'm a qualified bike mechanic and have worked in a bike shop for 3 years and feel that it could a good time to start running something myself.
The restaurant/café has a large, light spare room in which I would do repairs in. The room is already used by various people for things such as lunch meetings, art classes, philosophy groups etc and a bike workshop would definitely complement the style of the restaurant (I'd be going for something like LMNH and Roll For the Soul in Bristol dare I say).
I would initially start on a weekly basis once a week and increase from there should demand require. I wouldn't have a huge stock and would mainly focus on repairs and servicing at first. There would also be no rent involved as I would pay for this by carrying out maintenance to the building during quite times.
The restaurant is in a very busy central location and has lots of customers from nearby offices etc, some using the courtyard to park their bikes in which makes me think that potentially it could be a good place to this sort of thing. I am reasonably business savvy but wondered if anyone had any experience in this area and might be able to give any advice?
I'd prefer to not give details about the location if I may but let's say it will be in a very busy cycling city and plenty of potential for customers.
Many thanks,
Tom