Starting a bike business..anyone done it?

Hey guys! I'm looking for your opinions on here, maybe someone can help? A friend of mine had the idea to set up his own bike business for some time and recently we decided to do it...so we set up a little bike shop He's taking care of the bike-related things, which is great as I'm less clued up about that, and I'm dealing with promoting the business etc and things like that. We've now got our own website but when I was doing some research into bike shops I found that there are loads...so the competition is though. We've been looking at promoting our site to get ahead of the competition and that's where I need your help. Anyone who has set up their own business, do you know the best ways to get the word out about it? I know that Facebook and Twitter are good...but I don't really know how to use them for business! Should we set up both Facebook and Twitter accounts? I've also come across things like this http://blog.icontact.com/blog/eight-things-to-help-your-business/ but not really sure what to make of it. Anyone here know a thing or two about having a bike-related business...and how we can get the word out about ours? Any help would be great, or if you just want to comment on the idea, feel free! I'm always looking for suggestions or advice. Thanks guys

 

do you have a link to your website for us to see ? if you have a personal page on facebook you can also add a facebook page dedicated to your bike shop, they have the option for business pages, then you would insert the facebook logo on your website linked to that facebook page that you are gonna create, so your facebook bike shop account will function the same way as your personal account, people will interact there, upload pictures, etc all for free, so your internet budget is only needed for the website, for a physical bike shop two things are expected; 1) stuff to sell (bikes and accessories) 2) mechanical jobs and bike repairs and maintenance do a good job and you will get repeated business from loyal customers, then you get going ! good luck

 

Thanks for all the advice guys! You seem a lot more clued on than I am haha I'll definitely do the Facebook link and then maybe Twitter as that seems to be a good one for a business. Thanks again for the info and your opinions

 

By "marketing" you mean spamming, right? If your company was honorable it would pay for marketing instead of sliming bike forums with spam.