Lee Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 I thought I'd share my stroke of luck this week. As a lot of you are aware I have quite a large shop, I found in the past few years with the changing face of retail & the online world along with being in a secondary location that my retail sales had slid of the mountain & I've scratched my head what to do with the space for some time. Anyway this year quite by accident I found myself repairing a puncture in a bicycle for an elderly lady & things escalated from there. I brought in some stock, initially a modest outlay & thought I'd continue dabbling with the cycle repair element & things went from there. Now on deciding a name for this new venture I headed online to find a domain name, its getting harder & harder to find domains with a ring to them, but I found "bikespeeds.com" and then started a bikespeeds facebook group, which was really just for my local friends. Now to my PR story! I was reading in a magazine about a "full moon" ride that had happened somehwere else & thought "whens the next full moon, ill do that" & posted up an "event" on the facebook page, expecting a handful at most of my friends to come along. I quickly realised it was being shared all over the place & I needed to bring the shop upto scratch, I had about 4 weeks so we did some decorating, binned the entire of the old stock I had, and gave the largest percentage of retail space to bike parts. My Son Ross even helped me make & put up a new sign outside the shop. it was a manic 4 weeks. right down to new toilet seat & air fresher! This Tuesday we had the full moon, 7pm arrived & we opened the shop for an 8pm ride not knowing what was going to happen, I was aware there had been a lot of local chat about it & someone told me one cycle club had even had a committee meeting to decide if they should support it or not! we had an early arriver needing lights fitted. Ross (my son) and his friend Corey run a mobile disco business & they set up a speaker & lights flowing over the road outside to give some atmosphere & then we stood like lemons waiting! at around 7.30 bikes began to fill the parade outside & by 7.45 I was beginning to think "holly s**t" & when a large local cycle club rolled down the road just after that thought, I then thought "what have I done!" it was amazing. I only got one photo, but it was just before the big group from the local cycle club arrived. We all had a great evening, people have all been sharing stories all week. it put "bikespeeds" on the map. we had around 70 riders there from all the local clubs it was a PR dream, that came out of nowhere! awesome. Lee wellsy9, mrkeys, k4mrc and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simes Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Really excellent result Lee! Must have been a big boost for business or is it too early to tell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted October 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 too early to tell, but I know from what my friends where telling me, there was a lot of "Wheres that then?" when people where initially deciding to come. If i'd held an open evening I wouldn't have got that many people to the shop. to get people to the front door so they new exactly where the shop was as well as seeing in the flesh was a stroke of genius really. I was so lucky. the weather was great too. I sold some laces & did a key on the back off it yesterday, so it worked for both sides of the coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenB Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Brilliant!I only wish I'd been free. You will be doing it again... won't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted October 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 summer solstice June 20 StevenB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenB Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 I already like your thinking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Friend Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Lee you amaze me- Ironman, shop, forum and still your brain works away- holy crap man _ I wish you everything you have worked so hard for. kobblers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted October 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 I'm one of those luckless people in business Mick. I talk the talk, but have never walked the walk. Never felt I've made it past first base.but I keep plugging away looking for something to take off for me. I love the chase all the same. kobblers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Gardner Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Well done Lee hopefully this is the one where you will make your money Keep up the good work Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrkeys Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 Inspiring, very inspiring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Muppet Posted October 29, 2015 Report Share Posted October 29, 2015 What I like most about this is that you have been able to take one of your passions outside of work and include it in your shop. This way you will be able to meet other like minded people. Wonder if there will be a bike repair forum soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broms Cobb Posted October 30, 2015 Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 I know a lad (50Yrs) who is a martial Arts expert, he say's he is the luckiest guy in the world as his work is the one thing he loves doing most and earns a good living from it. So go for it Lee, It looks great and that moonlight thingy good idea which we will all follow I am sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted October 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2015 Wonder if there will be a bike repair forum soon? Don't get me wrong, I love "this trade" and am proud of the forum. I still work away at it to keep it up to date, safe & secure but I won't do one for cycles! lol kobblers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marky1 Posted October 31, 2015 Report Share Posted October 31, 2015 superb , well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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