Money, Freeware from Another Company copyright 1991 Chapter 3 THE BICYCLE BUSINESS Do you like bicycles? Have we got news for you! There are several ways to make big bucks with bicycles. Having just read the previous section about the yard sale game, you must see one way immediately. You can buy used bikes at yard sales, and sell them for three times more money. You can consign bikes to second-hand stores and bicycle shops. They are almost all interested in consignments, don't be afraid to ask. you can sell bikes at flea markets, and, depending on where you live, you can chain bikes up in front of your house with a sign that says "BIKES FOR SALE". Or you can chain up bikes in front of a friend's house. Your friend can sell the bikes, and split the profit with you. The best sellers are children's bikes. Mountain bikes are easy to sell, but used ones are hard to find at a reasonable price. We mostly ignore mountain bikes, only buying them when something good shows up, yet we have plenty of customers for our childrens' bikes. There are two things that you must be careful about, however. The bikes must not be stolen. Consider the source. Do the people you are buying from seem decent? Most families having yard sales would never sell stolen bikes out of their own home. In most communities, you can call the police and ask them to check their computer for the serial number of a bike you are considering. The other thing you must do is make sure the bikes you sell are mechanically safe. It is possible to make money in the bike business without doing any repairs, but there is far greater profit in buying broken bikes which sell for nearly nothing and fixing them. Bike repair is easy to learn and a really satisfying craft, but for those of you who are not interested in turning wrenches, we suggest partnership. One person can do all the repairing, while the other does the buying and selling. Partnerships are also a way to instantly acquire equipment. Perhaps one partner has a big barn, but the other has tools. A good partnership can be sister-brother, father-son or grandchild-grandparent. This is a great project to bring a family with scattered interests together. * If you have repairing facilities, you can make $30/hour repairing peoples' bikes for them. No licensing or college degree is required, yet there is a big demand for qualified bike repair people. How do you become qualified? Start with repairing just the bikes you sell (test ride your repairs extensively to make sure they are safe). Then do just the retail repair work of which you are capable. At the beginning, you can fix flats tires for people, but you should probably not attempt complete tune-ups. Eventually with practice, complete overhauls will be no problem for you. There are several bike repair books on the market, and for the right price, the local bike shop would be glad to help you when you have a problem. * There is also a great profit to be had in supplying used parts. If you accumulate a big parts pile, it is like having money in the bank. (At Another Company, we used to have 1/4 acre coverd with bike parts, in places 6 feet deep.) For those of you interested in the bike business, we offer a disk called THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE HOME-OPERATED BICYCLE BUSINESS. This tutorial details everything you will ever need to know about buying and selling bicycles. It contains such information as how to get parts wholesale, used bike price charts, how to close sales and for those who are interested in taking this business to higher levels, how to expand into an official glass-front retail bike store. THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE HOME-OPERATED BICYCLE BUSINESS works in any IBM-compatible computer. Price: $9.95 (No extra charge for postage, handling or tax!) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We have another program you might like. BICYCLE TUNE-UP AND REPAIR is a pictures-and-text tutorial that will show you how to tune up bicycles. Bicycle shops charge anywhere from $12 to $35 for this service, and they don't always do it right! Do your own tune-ups and know they're done right! BICYCLE TUNE-UP AND REPAIR requires CGA,EGA or VGA. Mono monitor ok. Hard disk NOT required. Works fine in laptops, Tandys and PC Jr. Price $9.95 send to: ANOTHER COMPANY P.O. Box 298 Applegate, OR 97530 503-846-7884 Please specify 5.25" or 3.5" disk size. (Outside USA: Send US funds drawn on a US bank) ************************************************************