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@BrickMan
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.