It never ceases to amaze me how things always seem to fall in my lap. I’ve been obsessed with bikes again, and recently an old friend reached out to me with a business proposal.
It turns out he has a bicycle shop, and wanted to know if I would be interested in being a partner to own and run it with him. On hearing the news I got pretty excited, but then reality kicked in pretty hard.
I spent a year co-developing the business plan for the Giant bicycle shop in the city (I was going to be an investor/part owner) and I know how little the mark up is on a new bicycle, and how many bikes a shop has to sell per day in order to profit. It’s pretty fucking tough. I also know through ZEN Garage just how much work is needed to build a community around your brand, and just how little you make at the end of the day when running a physical bricks and mortar shop in Sydney.
100% AOK if it’s a passion project. It’s all I’ve ever lived for to be fair, and I know I have what it takes to build a community both online and offline (via shop events and group rides etc.) but I’m just not sure.
I’m super thankful for the opportunity in any case, and no doubt about it the thought of owning and running a bike shop got my heart pumping for a few days, but right now I’m just super happy to be riding bikes again as I’ve not had any form of physical exercise for way too many years!