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Inclusivity is key
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There's an article on Bikebiz revolving around indy shops that's worth a read.
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Keep providing great service and yeah, your customers will be YOUR customers and if they want a bike they're more likely to return to you due to the positive experience they had.
No one sells products anymore, you've gotta give them a reason to return hence you're selling an experience, not a physical actual bike/part.
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You are right about inclusivity. I have very recently taken on a small indy bike workshop with a friend of mine in Cardiff called Punk Bikes. The business has been on the site in one form or another for ~7 years and has always been built on a non judgemental, inclusive approach. We don’t care if you walk through the door with a £60 gumtree special or +£7k TT ride, you will get the same service and we have found people respond well to that. I get that larger chain shops (like Evans) are super busy and have enormous overheads etc, but they are sucking the life out of bricks and mortar bike shops imo, through a lack of inclusiveness.
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Chak
coventry_eagle
LeChef
@fly
To a small workshop owner, this debate has been very interesting. My shop is busy pretty much all the time as we focus on fast, affordable repairs and other tangible 'bricks and mortar' products. This pays the rent, keeps customers coming in the door, but it does not seem particularly scalable. Save adding more mechanics and trying to take a greater market share, how would you break out of this? And where would you break to?
P.s We don't want to be a workshop for rich people. Inclusivity is key.