hey guys,
thanks for the concern, yeah all ok at the shop, obvs this last year has been hectic shop wise, but i've had the added problem of a mum who has developed dementia, getting her help has been a nightmare as frankly she's still switched on enough to fool the doctors (when we can actually get her to go) but bad enough that she can be angry and moody to everyone around her because she thinks we lie to her when in truth she has forgotten what has been said. so it's not been a nice year or so from that point of view. feel so sorry for my dad, he's watching his wife go downhill and being berated by her as well, it's pretty awful.
frankly the shop is a break from it when she's bad.
regards the shop though, there have been issues because of parts supply, i can forward order stuff but right now if i want any ultegra parts i ordered them today i might get them in May, if i order a 12speed xt cassette they are now quoting october 2022.
the bikes are more of an issue, i have already done my 2023 Kona bike order, in fact i did it last March which is about 15 months earlier than normal!
these issues made me look at what i'm selling, so as a result i have decided to reduce the brands i sell, so the long term plan might be to go down to just selling Kona and Orange and concentrate more on the workshop as the profit margin on bikes sucks so the plan is to not sell the cheaper bikes like Ridgeback and Dawes etc because they take up alot of space for not making much money on them.
if i do reduce the bike stock then it's likely i'll refresh the shop, i'm thinking of swapping the shop around, when i took on the second unit i just made it in to a showroom, but it's back room is bigger than my current workshop, so the plan is to swap the sides of the shop over so that i can have a bigger workshop, at which point i'll build a nicer workshop than i currently have, proper stainless steel counter, i'll also brand the workshop, i thinking Muc-off, everyone does the Park tool branded workshop, that's fine but it's crazy money to do it, as i sell alot of muc-off they will supply the graphics etc to me as i am an "ambassador" level shop. i think it will look cool once done. then the old workshop will be painted, carpeted and all the tyres will go in there, i have a huge amount of tyres, having them all in one place and better organised will be helpful especially as tyres can be very messy.
other than that it's business as usual.
oh the other shop up the road 6 miles away that i worked for before i opened has now closed but another guy opened up not far from him though, so we'll see what happens with him, he doesn't affect me though as he's trying to do high end road bikes which i'm not interested in selling, although i did build a Moots "all road" bike with ultegra Di2 the other day!
have also ordered a new van, which i know some people will think is dumb, as the van i got earlier in the thread is now only 3 1/2 years old and is still under 30,000 miles, it's the VAT and tax again that means it's sensible to do it, i'm in a position to be able to pay off the balloon payment, so if i part ex the fully paid off van against a new one i can claim back the VAT again, also, the current van because of depreciation means i haven't paid tax, so my options in the next 2 years are pay off the current van but also start paying tax, or buy a new van and not pay tax, so new van it is then! it's due around March 2022. while i get that people may be moody that essentially i haven't paid income tax, i would point out that i pay the VAT bill every 3 months, which is not a small amount, it's just the way the tax system works when you go Vat registered as opposed to not Vat registered, even without buying a van my income tax is reduced because i pay Vat.
will try and do a picture dump if i can when i get 5 mins
