[EliteVelo]

Originally Posted by Burnette

Yeah, it was obvious that this was a somewhat small side job in the very early stages. With a market saturated with good product, it's a tough gig for sure. What will make it even tougher is barriers to sale. You want to make it as easy for the end user as possible and pictures and information is 101.

We went through a bit of this with wheel sellers and it crumbles quick as people find a way around any seller if the product could be sourced elsewhere. No offense to you in anyway at all but a better model for Bertoletiti would have been a high end bike shop. To withhold price before consultation from an internet supplier is a hard sell to the casual buyer. If I have to enlist my own shop for fit as part of it why not just deal with them in the first place? And if they could also source the frame I would know price upfront, right away.

From a business standpoint you always ask yourself why would a consumer choose me? What do I offer that they can't get anywhere else and/or what value and service do I provide? If any of these metrics are lacking the smart consumer will work around me to get what they want. That's were the internet comes in, if there's a backdoor, people will go through it.

So there is the frame maker, you, the bike shop and the client. That's four jumps. I would try and be as helpful as possible for just being and in-between guy. Price and pictures would go along way. Again, the bike biz is a tough one and those same shops will hunt your customer too that you brought to their door with deals and services with prices for all to see.

I'll end with a very heartfelt good luck to you in this side experience. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I have a bit of a nest egg and at times think about what I could do, but the bike market is notorious at making small piles of money out of big ones. Dream big, work hard and limit those liabilities.

Thanks for the dialogue. Good luck to you as well!