Winged Wheel Development

“Never sell your tools. Your tools and your skill can always make you money.”

– A wise mechanic

A good friend of mine once told me the statement above. As a lifelong mechanic, this makes perfect sense. It is the same principle on which any skilled profession works: baristas, dentists, auto body techs, photographers, you name it. Tools + Skill = Income.

This post is all about one critical skill in particular for excellent service departments: SERVICE WRITING

Time, and our perception of time, is a fascinating concept. Often we feel that ‘time flies’ or that we don’t have enough time each day. It is easy to waste five minutes per day–and it should also be easy to find five minutes per day for something important.

On the other end of the spectrum, it seems like it would be difficult to add thousands of dollars of net profit to a small retailer. Especially with no major investment in tools, personnel, etc. If it were easy, we’d all do it…right?

Our perception says these two things: finding just five minutes and adding thousands to our bottom line, are at odds with one another. And yet, these things are fully compatible. There are thousands of dollars of net profit available in just five minutes per day. Continue reading “What is five minutes worth”

For bicycle technicians (or any technician), a count-up timer is the single best tool to measure your value to the business.

• Why it works:

If a technician is paid by hourly wages or salary, every minute that is spent ‘clocked in’ costs the business something. This is important to remember and talk about openly, because it imparts a sense of urgency and purpose. Continue reading “Are you valuable to your business? Ask the timer.”

I saw this display in the photo at Boise’s go-to outdoor business, Idaho Mountain Touring the other day. I was simply ecstatic that the team there had made such an elegant display for fork service. It got me thinking about ways to write service effectively: Painting the Picture.

Continue reading “Painting the picture”

Originally published on Cycling Industry News.

I often notice examples of people forgetting how the balance of power in consumer-retailer interactions has changed in recent years. This time, it was a Facebook post on the World Bicycle Mechanics Forum: “For the first time in 9 years of business, I fired a customer.” I read through the whole post and over fifty of the comments. I stopped when I realised the comments were coming in faster than I could read them.

Continue reading “The Empowered Consumer”

Continue reading “Interview with Lester from University Bicycles”

I recently had the pleasure to sit down and spend some time talking with Dave Guettler, owner and founder of one of my favorite bicycle retailers in the country: River City Bicycles in Portland, OR. The full interview appears below and has some great takeaways for any retailer.

A huge thanks to Dave for giving generously of his time!

Winged Wheel: Can you give an overview of River City Bicycles for anyone who has not had the pleasure of seeing your store in person? Dave Guettler: River City Bicycles has been in business for 22 years. Same location the whole time, which is a high profile spot on a busy street. About 70,000 cars per day go by. It’s a free standing building with parking that has good accessibility and is centrally located in Portland. I came from a multi-store operation in the bay area. Portland was much smaller at the time and a single, large store in center of the city seemed to be an effective way to execute on the destination concept I had in mind. We’ve grown since, adding another location about two blocks away.

WW: Tell me more about that second location: DG: It’s worked well for us Continue reading “Interview with River City Bicycles”

As I wandered the various retail spaces around Las Vegas before Interbike this year, I came across a pretty impressive sight within the Tiffany & Co. store.

Behold, the lounge. This is crucial retail space that could be selling jewelry, but is utilized for making customers want to stay a bit longer, taking in the experience and the brand instead. There was another, slightly smaller lounge near the front of the store as well!

This is a great reminder that when it comes to luxury purchases–whether Continue reading “Create a place your customers want to stay”

In my last post we reviewed how the mobile bike shop trend, while interesting, has only one real advantage over the traditional brick-and-mortar retailer. Here is how the score played out:

• Price Reduction: Tie
• Customer Experience: Brick-and-mortar wins
• Added Value: Tie
• Convenience: Mobile wins

So the real opportunity for brick-and-mortar retailers is to level the playing field for convenience. Omni-channel retailing (like QBP’s announcement today) is one way that brick-and-mortar retailers have leveled the playing field against online retailers. I can buy from my local bike shop in my pajamas just as easily as I can buy from Chain Reaction.

So the opportunity to improve convenience within the bicycle service arena is easy: Buy a van and offer pick-up and delivery of bikes. 

Here is some basic math you can use to adapt to your own situation to give Continue reading “Responding to the mobile bike shop trend”

I recently spoke with a retailer who had expressed some nervousness at a growing trend: the mobile (van-based) bike shop. Even though these mobile bike shops have existed for a while in many markets, Velofix and Beeline are making solid in-roads and getting a lot of press. Back in April, Velofix announced its 100th franchise. Outside Magazine has written about them. But what is the fear of the mobile bike shop about?

Most of what I hear (and what I’ll address in this post) is fear of the unknown. Being a little afraid of a new business style that is well-branded and easy for the consumer to use is justified. But make no mistake, these franchises have a serious uphill battle.

Let’s shine some light on the unknown. Cycling has a mostly stagnant (or Continue reading “Scared of the mobile bike shop trend?”