My new eBike shop: Structuring, building, and pricing. Reflections and criticisms please.

[leffex]

What's up?

Some news at our place will come in the year ahead but I can't release the secret information yet.

In the meantime I'm curious how things are going for you.

I've been downgraded or really kicked from sales. I seem to be to nerdy to handle the basic which makes me sad. However the history and success doesn't lie so I'm not to keen on the reason is only for that or for "specialising" the firm. Putting the best man for the jobb at the right places makes the whole better.

Other than that personal side note there is not much going on right now. Just keeping ourselves busy the best we can and I got my projects running on the side going forward strong and profitable.

 

[neptronix]

I'm fortunate to have people bothering me all the time for service. I NEED them to go away so I can get inventory and taxes done. It's freezing outside and they still need service. Teen-agers, college students, low-income workers, and die-hard crotchety old men (like me!) are not put off by any inconvenience of loosing sensation on our fingers! Fix my eBike, so what that it's cold!

Sounds like you need to delegate some responsibilities out. If it's that busy during winter, it's probably going to be 2x busier during summer.

This is the hardest part of a business.. when you go from 1 person to 2.. you don't know anything about delegating.. and you don't really have free time to even figure that out.. so you instead figure it out as you go.. and look like an incompetent manager for a while, lol.

I ended up getting butthurt early on that i couldn't take a big web development contract.. it would have changed my fortunes because i had a mostly low paying roster of clients. In a fit of emotion, I put out an ad for my first programmer.. and found two people who were like a complimentary pair. So i took on both..

The next 8 months was spent ironing out how to be a multi-player company.. it was the most insane period of my life.. i probably wrote 30 pages of documentation, policies, workflow, etc.. but i made it through the fire.. and now each additional worker is a million times easier.. especially with systems in place to onboard people.. instead of just winging it

If you chose to use the same 'jump out of the plane and build the parachute on the way down' like i did... just be honest about where you're at with everyone.. tell the new guy that you're just getting the hang of being a manager and that you'd like his feedback on how to be a better one.. that kind of bare honesty works well.

 

[orcasprout]

Thank you for that advice and yes I'm jumping out of a plane.

I've got 2 part time now. First is really good and 2nd is brand new. Lot and lot of training. I worked in a bunch of places so I'm ok with the instruction part. It's going well. I'm extremely busy internally.

I need space and I'm gonna re-arrange the place. Fingers crossed I won't need a huge shed till next year. I'll need to manage space and workflow well.

Twice as busy in the summer? Yikes. I've ordered batteries and I'm looking for a motor/controller/display supplier. Suggestions?