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@cycleclinic
10 years ago when I found out my school was closing I realised I no longer wanted to teach. So I hit upon the idea why not start a bike shop. All I had was 5weeks redundancy pay. I had no idea how orwhat I was doing but I figured how hard can it be. Surely I can work it out as I go along. I did and i still am. It is also more work than being a teacher ever was was for a third to half of the money but I happily go to the shop in the morning and will never work for an employer again.
Riding to work definitely helps me as well. Driving to work just creates stress and unhappiness even if you dont realise it.
Having messed about with second hand bikes theydont sell well in the sticks. Second hand parts sales is tricky. Too many returns. Its alot of work for each item as each one has to be listed and photographed each time it up.for sale. New items can have one listing and one photo for recurring sales. Time is money and second hand is not that time efficient for me at least. Also the money made of second hand bike sales is low per hour spent. Then there is the cost of storage space. In a city where you can have fast turnaround of stock it possible to make it work. The margin in wheels per hour is much better but to build the wheels I build regularly I have to hold around £65000 worth of rims, hubs and spokes and price I pay so while I may make a decent ammount on each wheel I have to fund the big purchases to keep the wheels rolling out.
This is what I enjoy the most about running a business, creating it, spotting oppertuties and figuring out what the fuck do I do next. Never stand still and that's the fun bit.