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It takes more than a lucrative idea to open up a sprucing bike shop. Opening a bike shop doesn’t only take courage, diligence, and patience, it’s all about having appropriate skills, and a little bit of zest. Not many people are aware of this fact, but the bicycling industry is booming, and every year there are around 20 million bicycles sold across the globe. Even surprising is the fact that the numbers grow by the minutes.
What makes opening a bike shop a rewarding and lucrative career is the notion that they’ll never go out of style. Especially during the current coronavirus pandemic, most people have realized the enormous benefits riding a bike possesses, so it’s only logical that the need for purchasing bikes will only skyrocket even more. If you are wondering how to open and increase your bike shop sales, here are the 4 most effective ideas for you to implement.
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Perform a thorough market research
You are about to step into the world of owning a petite local business, and you have to be prepared for the pros and cons that brings. In order for your bike shop to survive on the ever-growing market, you have to know your niche adequately, conduct thorough market research, and strive to be unique. Firstly, for you to have the best bicycle shop on the market you need to offer unique and cutting-edge products, provide services that people can’t get online that easily and establish a community in your physical shop. Next, be acquainted with the needs and demands, for example, in this modern-day world more and more people want to have more sophisticated bikes like Dual Suspension bikes, Tandem bikes, eBikes, etc. When you have a solid insight into current trends and the overall marketplace and its potential and limitations, you would be on the right track to having a steady and fruitful bike shop. Lastly, these are additional items you must take into account before starting up you bike shop:
- current bike trends
- what are popular bikes amongst the locals
- the reasons why people opt for good bikes
- the in-demand products and services
- the average bike shopper’s budget
- the additional equipment, rentals, and repairs
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Have a business plan planned out
If you have already obtained a bank loan to start your bike shop or you have certain personal resources, then you are on a fantastic road to make your dream come true. However, not everything is plain sailing. To get your bike shop up and running you need to make a steady business plan, set a budget, and put a limit on how much you are ready to spread. If you have a loan, then you have to secure and set aside a certain amount each month until you pay it off, therefore you need to have a clear insight of how much you can spend on inventory, lease payments, store supplies, and numerous bike amenities. The same rule applies even if you don’t get credit for opening your bike shop as you will still need to have a mindful financial plan outline to help you navigate through the competitive market. Having an inveterate business plan will help delegate your finances wisely while at the same help you generate adequate earnings.
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Keep up with the trends
First things first, to get your name out on the streets you need to come up with a catchy name that will fall into the “biking” category. Make sure that your business name is easy to remember and try to follow the trends in terms of branding, design, and theme. It does all start with creating a genuine name, but the choice of concept will also be vital. If you want to attract more bicycle enthusiasts and have a well-known store you should choose whether you want to open an independent bike shop or join the existing franchise. The first choice will surely be utterly original, you would have the freedom to set out your vision and create a solely sprucing image for yourself. On the other hand, it’s also quite trendy to link up a franchise as that would significantly reduce the risk of bankruptcy and speed up your income from the start. Another way to increase your bike shop sale when it comes to following trends includes having all cosmopolitan bikes and accessories on the market. From the invigorating mountain, recreational, cross-country bikes, to city and hybrid and kids’ bikes, you must have it all.
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Finding an adequate location
Never underestimate the effectiveness of having your bike shop located on a fantastic street. Finding a great location might be one of the hardest of your starting decisions as it takes careful consideration, organization, budget, and market analysis to make everything perfect. You must determine whether you’ll have enough resources for the rent, then you must see whether you’ll be able to pay it in the long run, as a perfect location is usually extremely pricey. You could utilize off-site storage to keep your lease rate within the parameters you have set with your before-mentioned business plan. The ideal location for a bicycle-based business should have an adequate storage area for the bikes and other parts, easy for the customers to approach, and wide and practical enough for you to perform necessary repairs. One of the niftiest pieces of advice is to the old-fashioned investigation. Ask locals around about the rental rates, before creating a sales forecast determine whether you would need to upscale the prices due to rental issues, and see whether the location has the flexibility of altering the size with time. The key is not to get overburdened with the rental price but still know local ordinances and even try to make your bike shop home-based so you would be near to more widespread customers.
Form the above-mention four most crucial tips that will aid you to open a successful bike shop and run it non-distributively, there are also other items to consider like hiring respectable and skillful staff, having a team of experts by your side like accountants, insurance agents, and others. Running a bike shop is not that difficult, however, it does take certain strategical planning and careful organization to make everything run smoothly.
