I just now came up with a rough sketch of a model for a social enterprise venture that would endeavor to fund pre-existing externally-run community bicycle programs which fit certain social criteria such as providing skill-training for the financially disadvantaged people, support at-risk youth or helping people with physical disabilities, all through bike-centric programs.
My idea is to create a platform, brand and service that enables cyclists to support the above programs while at-the-same-time receiving valuable services and perks. The model relies on the sale of annual membership cards which entitle the owner to the following:
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[li]free bike repairs/maintenance (excluding parts which are provided at-cost) from local participating social-enterprise bike shops such as BikesNotBombs in Boston or Blackstone BikeWorks in Chicago (just two examples). These shops would be reimbursed for their services.[/li]
[li]access to a sophisticated web-based platform which performs functions like maintaining a database of Bike Serial Numbers/Photos in case a bike is stolen, or connecting members (perhaps even providing free access during vacations) to bike-sharing programs (like Velib in Paris or Bixi in Toronto) around the world to make it easier to go to any major city and find a loaner bike[/li]
[li]access to special offers, local bike events etc[/li][/ul]
I think the closest parallel example to this whole service might be A.A.A. which charges annual fees in exchange for complimentary emergency towing/refueling. Of course the major difference with my model is that any profits go towards the support of the programs described in my first paragraph.
So let me have it! Don’t hold back! Please share with me whatever oversights, issues or false-assumptions that occur to you upon reading about my idea. Will it be possible to calculate a reasonable price for the membership (that is able provide enough of a ‘float’ to cover the potential costs of ‘free repairs’)? Any feedback whatsoever would be fantastic!
What are your costs?
How much would you charge for memberships?
What is the size of your target market?
How much revenue can you generate in your market?
What sort of expertise will you need to hire?
How do you plan on marketing your business?
What is your plan for attracting participating vendors?
Are there any legal or insurance requirements?
Is this a business or a non-profit?
How do you make money by offering free bike repairs and then reimbursing shops, presumably from the membership fees that would be less than the cost of the repairs?
You’re trying to get investors, right? Or you’re trying to determine a customer base, right? Imagine this on a brochure. Tell me how it would play out.
If I saw this on a resume I’d think my corporate buzzword needle would swing way past overkill into the “used ironically…I hope” category. You don’t talk like this, do you? I would hope not. You’re not trying to impress people with your language skills. You’re trying to impress them with your ideas. You’re trying to get them excited and they won’t do that when they have to parse through that language.
And that’s just my initial impression. Now to read the rest of your post!
OK, so I read through it and you’re going to need to sit down and brainstorm over what is or is not covered under your membership agreement. Understand that there’s a fundemental difference between AAA and what you’re planning because there’s a fundemental difference between an automobile and a bike.
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[li]You say you’ll offer maintenance, but AAA doesn’t pay for oil changes.[/li][li]You say you’ll pay for repairs, but what kind? AAA doesn’t pay for when get into an accident. That’s what insurance is for.[/li][li]AAA is a good resource if you’re stuck on the side of the road with a flat or out of gas or need a quick jumpstart. Simple fixes. Worst case is they tow you to a participating shop and then you’re on your own for repairs. But a bike doesn’t run out of gas or need a battery and doesn’t need a tow. Or does it? Are you planning on having as a membership agreement that someone from a participating shop will drive out to the countryside with a new chain or tire?[/li][/ul]
The first challenge is figuring out a plan that will serve both the guy who takes an occassional spin rounf the neighborhood and the hardcore enthusist. Both have different maintainance needs, and you cannot accomodate both at the same price- and there is no obvious way to tell if a guy is going to just need a tune up now and then vs. the guy who runs his bike into the fround every weekend. This makes the insurance concept very difficult unless it is targetted at an extremely specific demographic.
The only way that I can think of to get around it is to offer it as a pre-paid basket of service (one tune up, two tire replacements, etc. over a year) or offering a subscription that entiitles you to discount rates on a la carte service.
The bike basedd social network might be interesting, but might be beter concievved o as a way to find people to ride with both locally andon trips. The logistics of finding andd getting loaner bikes seems a bit overwhelming for it to be something many people do often. Few poplw are going to happen to be in a strange city, hapen to need a bike, happen to have the time and saavy to find someone’s house or whatever to get it and return it…it’sjust not something that enough people do to make it worth it.
I started a long and detailed response, but here is the TLDR version:
1-Your target market is only about 1/10 what you most likely have thought. Probably more than 90% of bikes sold in the US are big-box store crap that no bike shop wants to work on for pretty much good reasons unrelated to snobbishness. I fix these things for neighbor kids and homeless people, and if I charged for my time they could just go buy another one for less money. If you don’t have a way to exclude the BSOs (bicycle shaped objects) you will go broke and insane trying to whack-a-mole the problems. If it has a one piece crank and is not a Chicago Schwinn, it is likely not worth fixing. I’ve tried all the brands, and you can’t buy an Ashtabula bottom bracket bearing that will stand up to anyone who weighs more than 150# or so.
2-Even just considering well made bikes, Very few bike shops can deal with a bike more than 10 years old. Threaded steerer? Cup-and-cone Bottom Bracket? Cottered cranks? Atom Freewheel? You can find such vintage things online, but it is not easy or cheap.
3-In places where you plan might succeed, Bike CoOps pretty well serve your market.
4-The one thing I see missing is getting broken bikes to the shop to be fixed. For people that can afford cars, paying for repairs is probably not a big deal. The people who need your service the most are car-free. AAA would not exist if they couldn’t come to your aid when your car won’t start.
It looks like your mission is more concerned with providing funding for community bicycle programs than it is with providing goods/services to paying customers. To me, it sounds like what you really want to do is set up a non-profit organization to provide bicycle education/therapy/activities/etc. Who is running these “pre-existing externally-run community bicycle programs?” Could your non-profit organization acquire and operate these programs while offering something in return for donations/volunteers? I’m thinking of coupon books for bike shops, group ride events, and so forth. As a mentor of mine once said, there is money to be made in non-profit. I think you could have something here, but I would probably not operate it as a 3rd party “AAA for Bikes” that funnels profit to external programs.
Where is your market? Who’s asking for this service? There’s a lot of bicycling enthusiasts, and and an area I don’t know much about, but it seems one of the appeals of bicycling is using public facilities without cost. So where will your money come from?
I’d suggest becoming a consultant and get communities to pay you to implement the kind of programs you’re talking about.