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- 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!)
-
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- 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)
-
- ************************************************************