Opening a Bicycle Shop.

LosBMX

Hi all, I am making a small research about opening a Bicycle shop.
What is more i have Three Basic Questions:

1 - When bicycle parts are Cleaned with some liquid/Fluid, where do they throw this wast way here in Ireland?

2- When you have some useless bicycle scraps, do you have a special bin where someone collects? or throw away as a recyclable wast?

3 - Where in Dublin or Belfast or somewhere in Ireland you think is a must, to have a Repair & Bicycle shop?

I hope anyone here knows these three simple questions that are breaking my head off...

Thankyou everyone who is trying to help.

Andreas.

ROK ON

Andreas. Best of luck with the endeavour.

Dublin, IMHO is over run with bike shops, with a fair few having opened in the past few years. Think very very carefully about opening a shop now in Dublin. You will need a very compelling proposition. The BTW scheme HAS been a great success - this doesn't mean that the demand for bikes is unlimited.
Sorry for being so negative, but cycling has been the only positive area in Irelands retail landscape in the past five years.

LosBMX

Thank you for your reply.
Yeahs i have noticed it, there are too many shops in Dublin, that is why i am just researching, for a while.

i actually have a Professional BMX Brand In Brazil, AND IT IS BEING HARD TO BE LIVING IN IRELAND AND MANAGING SALES AND OTHER THINGS THERE FROM HERE... then i want to work with what i most like... ...But i have to know those 3 basic questions First...

Red Neck Hughie

I haven't time right now to find it but -
there is a voluntary scheme by property owners who will give you a free lease for a year when you open a business, might be worth a look.
I will come back soon with a link.

Roger Hassenforder

LosBMX wrote: »

Hi all, I am making a small research about opening a Bicycle shop.
What is more i have Three Basic Questions:

1 - When bicycle parts are Cleaned with some liquid/Fluid, where do they throw this wast way here in Ireland?

2- When you have some useless bicycle scraps, do you have a special bin where someone collects? or throw away as a recyclable wast?

3 - Where in Dublin or Belfast or somewhere in Ireland you think is a must, to have a Repair & Bicycle shop?

I hope anyone here knows these three simple questions that are breaking my head off...

Thankyou everyone who is trying to help.

Andreas.

if you're putting the washing waste into a drain, you'll need a licence from the local sanitary authority, probably a grease trap to catch the oils and grease as well.

the waste metal/scraps should be easy enough to have collected by metal recycler

granda

any metal scraps can be saved up and brought to a salvage yard and traded for cash(good for any buisness) but you need alot to make it worthwhile otherwise just bring it to any recycling center and throw it in the metals bins

LosBMX

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

if you're putting the washing waste into a drain, you'll need a licence from the local sanitary authority, probably a grease trap to catch the oils and grease as well.

the waste metal/scraps should be easy enough to have collected by metal recycler

Cool, i will see how it works with the Local Sanitary Autority...=]

nilhg

We use Rilta to collect waste oils, we store it in drums till we have enough to justify them coming,it depends though on what you are using to clean the components.

Del2005

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

LosBMX wrote: »

Hi all, I am making a small research about opening a Bicycle shop.
What is more i have Three Basic Questions:

1 - When bicycle parts are Cleaned with some liquid/Fluid, where do they throw this wast way here in Ireland?

2- When you have some useless bicycle scraps, do you have a special bin where someone collects? or throw away as a recyclable wast?

3 - Where in Dublin or Belfast or somewhere in Ireland you think is a must, to have a Repair & Bicycle shop?

I hope anyone here knows these three simple questions that are breaking my head off...

Thankyou everyone who is trying to help.

Andreas.

if you're putting the washing waste into a drain, you'll need a licence from the local sanitary authority, probably a grease trap to catch the oils and grease as well.

Assuming that there will be oil in the waste then you can't put it down the drain. You'll need to find a licensed disposal agent, but you may get away with bringing it to your local dump a few times if they take waste oil till you get busy.

Scrap metal has value, depending on how much you produce you could sell it or if you don't create enough you'll have to pay to get it taken with the rest of your recyclables.

Where to setup is tough. Most big cities and towns already have bike shops, so you'd need to complete on price since service is usually 2nd to most Irish people. Perhaps around the Green way they've built on the disused railway line, I can't remember where it is now though. You'd have locals and tourists there.

njburke

Hi LosBMS

Just thinking the same thing this evening after a visit to my LBS, I bought my bike and the bike for the mrs there in March, I suppose I've spent 1200 .
There was a queue out the door at 5.45.
I had to schedule getting my BB seen to for next week,ended up buying a splendid pair of polaris shorts for 60 euros.

That said, I once turned a hobby into a business, did reasonably well for a while, we got it into revenue fairly rapidly,peaked at 3 paid employees and two mostly unpaid directors. We were exporting high end diving equipment into 30 odd countries, we designed, manufactured,distributed and then retailed diving lights. Some of the models sold for 3000 euros a pair, most for in around 850 euros. i.e about the same price as a bike. Ran it for 4 years from '05 to '09, in the end we wound it up. Landlord, UPS/DHL, 40 suppliers, the corpo all made money from it, alas I did not. Great fun in the beginning, towards the end, not so much. Ruined the hobby for me for a while, no time.

I wouldn't worry to much about what to do with a couple of litres of lubricant just yet.

move question 3 up the list.

Rent, rates, fire/ burglar alarm, i.e all the overheads will need to be covered along with salary for your self. Pay yourself first, not last if at all. Its all in the business model. Find a good accountant.

If you're going to start up a bike shop location is key, maybe one of the suburban towns or on a busy cycle lane in Dublin. Do the market research, hang about at a traffic light and ask cyclists what they want. Feckit, stand by the lane with placard with 'do you need a bike shop here?' count how many bother to stop and talk to you.

Retail sales if at all possible would also be a good source of revenue, distributorship for Trek/Giant/whatever has a full catalogue would be really helpful. Talk to a distributor or two see what they have to say, go to whatever UK/EU tradeshow there is for bikes shop owners. And get all that in place before you start paying rent.

To be a bit more encouraging, my brother and his business partner turned a sweetshop into a photography business late last year. Almost a year in and they are both quite happy, some risk, but its showing promise.

Best of luck with it.

Niall

Crow92

Depending on the size of your shop and what you stock there, road, bmx or whatever could be a possibility to open one on the northside of dublin.

I was thinking around clontarf...there is a new bmx park being built in fairview. And clontarf is sort on a commuter route along the coast. City cycles odesn't seem to be rated from what i've heard, neither is artane cycles. little sport have a good rep though and they're starting to sell bmx's.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213340574589170720105.0004c3905959c51f9786c&msa=0&ll=53.398684,-6.190109&spn=0.114429,0.338173


another option being around portmarnock/malahide which is one I though for ages was strange they didn't have a bike shop, esp. for a more affluent area of northside dublin. They only have Richies in swords and halfords swords.

easygoing39

Swords also has Eurocycles and that bikeshop that sells 2nd hand bikes up opposite the courthouse.

hardCopy

Crow92 wrote: »

Depending on the size of your shop and what you stock there, road, bmx or whatever could be a possibility to open one on the northside of dublin.

I was thinking around clontarf...there is a new bmx park being built in fairview. And clontarf is sort on a commuter route along the coast. City cycles odesn't seem to be rated from what i've heard, neither is artane cycles. little sport have a good rep though and they're starting to sell bmx's.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213340574589170720105.0004c3905959c51f9786c&msa=0&ll=53.398684,-6.190109&spn=0.114429,0.338173


another option being around portmarnock/malahide which is one I though for ages was strange they didn't have a bike shop, esp. for a more affluent area of northside dublin. They only have Richies in swords and halfords swords.

There's also BikeHub in Howth. I live in Fairview but head out to BikeHub for all my LBS needs.

There used to be a decent bike shop called the Sporting Bull at the Bull Wall, I'd say they're gone about 10 years now though. Sean Duff have a shop in Omni and possibly in Donaghmede also.

happytramp

easygoing39 wrote: »

Swords also has Eurocycles and that bikeshop that sells 2nd hand bikes up opposite the courthouse.

There's also 'Richie's' in the village so Swords is definitely out. There's nothing between Clontarf, Raheny, Bayside, Baldoyle, Portmarnock and Malahide so that might be a good catchment area. Since that coastal cycle route is probably the busiest in the country.

trad

I opened a bike shop during the last recession. disposing of waste oil was the least of my worries.

Location location location. Get the right location. You HAVE to have passing traffic, you have to be visible, passing cyclists, people stuck in traffic on a bus or in a car.

Know your market. I took the decision to specialise in repairs and second hand bikes rather than new sales. Not much happening on the sales front then, the only people buying high end bikes were the small racing fraternity and they were reasonably well catered for. We had a massive passing trade and were on a major commuter route near the city in flat land and not far from a major university.

Many shops see repairs as an add on. I saw it as revenue with no massive investment in stockholding. We had a fast turnaround and never saw anyone stuck. We even lent pumps.

Th BTW scheme will end at some stage but bikes will always need repair.

denlaw

trad wrote: »

I opened a bike shop during the last recession. disposing of waste oil was the least of my worries.

Location location location. Get the right location. You HAVE to have passing traffic, you have to be visible, passing cyclists, people stuck in traffic on a bus or in a car.

Know your market. I took the decision to specialise in repairs and second hand bikes rather than new sales. Not much happening on the sales front then, the only people buying high end bikes were the small racing fraternity and they were reasonably wlee catered for. We had a massive passing trade and were on a major commuter route near the city in flat land and not far from a major university.

Many shops see repairs as an add on. I saw it as revenue with no massive investment in stockholding. We had a fast turnaround and never saw anyone stuck. We even lent pumps.

Th BTW scheme will end at some stage but bikes will always need repair.

great post trad...

Crow92

hardCopy wrote: »

There's also BikeHub in Howth. I live in Fairview but head out to BikeHub for all my LBS needs.

There used to be a decent bike shop called the Sporting Bull at the Bull Wall, I'd say they're gone about 10 years now though. Sean Duff have a shop in Omni and possibly in Donaghmede also.

Ah yea I have them all listed on the map, btw is bikehub moving back into their original premise?

easygoing39 wrote: »

Swords also has Eurocycles and that bikeshop that sells 2nd hand bikes up opposite the courthouse.

Totall forgot about eurocycles, though I was only making reference because swords is 5-8km from malahide/portmarnock.

happytramp wrote: »

There's also 'Richie's' in the village so Swords is definitely out. There's nothing between Clontarf, Raheny, Bayside, Baldoyle, Portmarnock and Malahide so that might be a good catchment area. Since that coastal cycle route is probably the busiest in the country.

Just thinking from going along the coast. There is an old lighting shop that closed down that could do the part...if the shop was planned to be big enough. Might be a bit to far up the coast near howth.



One other thing I forgot is that is "The Chuckies in St. Annes park, bmx dirt track afaik built by locals over the years. And a skatepark in Clongriffin in Father Collins park. I updated the map I linked earlier.

DirkVoodoo

It's easy to think "bike shop" and not think about parking. As that boards poll earlier proved, a lot of cyclists here also drive and some people will either be looking to pick up/drop off bikes before/after work, or maybe drop in with the kids at the weekend.

LosBMX

happytramp wrote: »

There's also 'Richie's' in the village so Swords is definitely out. There's nothing between Clontarf, Raheny, Bayside, Baldoyle, Portmarnock and Malahide so that might be a good catchment area. Since that coastal cycle route is probably the busiest in the country.

yeah man i have been checking these areas weeks ago, and they all have bicycle shops around, aggod way just to have an idea is Google maps, just put Bicycle shops in dublin... they are all over the city...and without counting to ones which doesn't show in the map...

In Fairview there is a Bicycle shop and more inside Clontarf too, i would not open something between competitors, and i thing being a shop assistant makes more money than owning a bicycles shop.... just a joke..

LosBMX

trad wrote: »

I opened a bike shop during the last recession. disposing of waste oil was the least of my worries.

Location location location. Get the right location. You HAVE to have passing traffic, you have to be visible, passing cyclists, people stuck in traffic on a bus or in a car.

Know your market. I took the decision to specialise in repairs and second hand bikes rather than new sales. Not much happening on the sales front then, the only people buying high end bikes were the small racing fraternity and they were reasonably well catered for. We had a massive passing trade and were on a major commuter route near the city in flat land and not far from a major university.

Many shops see repairs as an add on. I saw it as revenue with no massive investment in stockholding. We had a fast turnaround and never saw anyone stuck. We even lent pumps.

Th BTW scheme will end at some stage but bikes will always need repair.

My friend always say to me: '' who makes most of the money? A car shop or a petrol station? think on it, and you will do very well''

LosBMX

Crow92 wrote: »

Ah yea I have them all listed on the map, btw is bikehub moving back into their original premise?



Totall forgot about eurocycles, though I was only making reference because swords is 5-8km from malahide/portmarnock.





Just thinking from going along the coast. There is an old lighting shop that closed down that could do the part...if the shop was planned to be big enough. Might be a bit to far up the coast near howth.



One other thing I forgot is that is "The Chuckies in St. Annes park, bmx dirt track afaik built by locals over the years. And a skatepark in Clongriffin in Father Collins park. I updated the map I linked earlier.

I have been some year back helping those guys on The Chuckies, and i was already researching that are, i thing it is not busy enough... , and if i am not work one of the guys who keep that trails, has a repair shop around there...

LosBMX

denlaw wrote: »

great post trad...

True, that was already the last thing on my list, all the rest is sorted, apart from the loan and local i am still working the the inventory... =], it looks simple, but it is not so simple when you have to go to the bank and prove we can pay them back...
What is more, the rent is still tooooooooooo high... those land lords still prefer no money at all than just a few quids ruining in their pockets...

trad

The problem is generally cash flow. You get the loan from the bank, get your stock, get as much as you can on account and it's 3 months in when everyone wants to be paid and you are not turning over enough cash to pay them all, that's when the fun starts.

Don't forget cycling is seasonal. As soon as the weather or the clock changes the fair weather cyclists are gone. We noticed that the hardy ones would ride their bikes until the first frost of the winter and we wouldn't see them until around Easter.

Say you get open by end of August, it'll take a few months to get established. Weather and clock are starting to change and then there's a lull until Christmas and unless you are in a position to compete with the big boys or the internet it's going to be a long winter.

In my time 3 bike shops around me closed mostly because they concentrated on retail sales and ignored the bread and butter stuff. This left us with a good grip on the repair business. I'd like to think we were fair with our pricing which was held up by the number of regular customers we had.

LosBMX

What about Wicklow?

hardCopy

Crow92 wrote: »

Ah yea I have them all listed on the map, btw is bikehub moving back into their original premise?

*bangs head on the desk*

I never even clicked your link:o

LosBMX

trad wrote: »

The problem is generally cash flow. You get the loan from the bank, get your stock, get as much as you can on account and it's 3 months in when everyone wants to be paid and you are not turning over enough cash to pay them all, that's when the fun starts.

Don't forget cycling is seasonal. As soon as the weather or the clock changes the fair weather cyclists are gone. We noticed that the hardy ones would ride their bikes until the first frost of the winter and we wouldn't see them until around Easter.

Say you get open by end of August, it'll take a few months to get established. Weather and clock are starting to change and then there's a lull until Christmas and unless you are in a position to compete with the big boys or the internet it's going to be a long winter.

In my time 3 bike shops around me closed mostly because they concentrated on retail sales and ignored the bread and butter stuff. This left us with a good grip on the repair business. I'd like to think we were fair with our pricing which was held up by the number of regular customers we had.

Sweet, yeah i am not concentrating much on retail, as i have fun repairing bicycles, as far you do it fast and well done... and the story here is the long frost or weather stuff that lasts from October till May, that might be the toughest time for bicycle shops, but i was noticing that last year and this year the weather was very sweet, i hope next year will be the same...;)

DirkVoodoo

If you are focusing on repairs, I can't see Wicklow being a viable option. No offence to anyone in Wicklow, but I don't think it really has the population density to support a thriving repair operation. People cycle in Wicklow, but we all know they come from Dublin, eat veal in chapter 21 and have their own mechanics on-call.

If you want to focus on repairs, you need to be not only in a high density commuter belt, but have opening hours that reflect this. Open early, close late to take in the repairs. Most commuters don't want to be rushing off at lunch or waiting a week for that half-day at work to collect a bike because the shop keeps a 9 to 5. Even opening early one day and closing late another gives people options.

Still, I'd agree with the above. Too many shops in Dublin and you really need something that will make you stand out from the crowd. We already have plenty of ill-tempered, centrally located shops, large warehouse shops, long established shops, new and funky shops, etc. and all competing with online prices for retail goods.

I'd only open my (dream) bike shop if I won the lottery for my own enjoyment, not because I would see it as a way to make money. It can't be easy and hats off to anyone who is brave enough to do it.

Harrybelafonte

Loads of insights and good points made already, all I can add is that my tutor on a FAS Start Your Own Business course actually asked the class asked if anyone planned on doing something with bikes. No-one raised a hand. He was very happy and said there had been at least two people in every class that were thinking along those lines. He said all bike-related industries were blacklisted in his eyes. The market was close to flooded.

njburke

@Harrybelfonte. Tell your tutor it just means there is money in it, to succeed you need to do better than your competitors, there is nothing as nourishing as bread snatched from a competitors table.

@trad, you've a good model there. As a nation we'll be riding the B2W stock for the next 20 years. My next bike will probably be someone elses unused B2W splurge, a trek 1.2 or 1.5.
Did you consider taking in taiwaneese carbon and building the frames up into bikes? I assume getting dealership for a brand will be difficult until you can demostrate that you can shift more product than an incumbent.
Is much of the retail still done on consignment, even with the credit crunch. In the diving industry we never shipped until paid at FOB, no credit, otherwise you 've to fund the credit line.

@LosBMX.
What about a large mobile van, mixture of the AA plus some regular resting spots, ie Tuesdays Clontarf, Wednesdays Sandyford, half day in Intels carpark etc ..... disappear in the winter.
NJ

Crow92

njburke wrote: »

@LosBMX.
What about a large mobile van, mixture of the AA plus some regular resting spots, ie Tuesdays Clontarf, Wednesdays Sandyford, half day in Intels carpark etc ..... disappear in the winter.
NJ

There is a guy who already does this, http://www.thespokesman.ie/
he goes around with the Coco markets to dun Laoighre and is in smithfield and I think he said he was in the pipeline to get trinity once a week.

He seems of made a grand business out of it, mainly doing repairs and selling some second hand bikes and accessories too. He just converted a transit. (also says his future plans are to franchise the business).

njburke

There is a guy who already does this, http://www.thespokesman.ie/
he goes around with the Coco markets to Dun Laoighre and is in smithfield and I think he said he was in the pipeline to get trinity once a week.

I think the spokesman has got it sussed with lower overheads, mobility, clusters of customers in factories/institutions, green credentials, can offer services such as collection and recovery (imagine if he had a key to your bicycle lock,bike breaks down,lock it,grab bus, text him its location). On the retail side, small stuff in the van, bigger stuff through the online store, use the bricks and mortar guys as your product show case (isn't that what happens anyway with online sales?).
I think the mobility is the big advantage, he can try different areas to see if an area is a good candidate for a bricks and mortar store, if his service is good then loyal customers may travel to him if he settles somewhere.

When the brother went to decide on a location, his accountant pointed out that the rates in Kildare were twice the rates in South Dublin. I think the difference was 6 weeks mortgage payments.

How many bottom brackets will LosBMX have to do just to cover the rates on a rented premises ?