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After graduation in 1972, I decided to take a bike tour through Europe. To finance the trip, I sold my old Volkswagen bus for $1,500. Three months into the tour, after riding from Amsterdam to Milan, I met a Swiss woman at a hostel and started talking to her about biking. She knew a few Italian cyclists and said she would help me land a meeting with key person at Cinelli, one of the biggest Italian bicycle manufacturers. Up to that point, I had been traveling in a pair of jeans and a sweater I hadn't washed in a couple of months, so I spent some of my remaining money on a suit so I wouldn't look like a bum.
Plug in that bike
Sitting with legendary component maker Cino Cinelli, I exaggerated a little and told him I was connected with all the top riders in the U.S. He seemed taken with my appreciation and enthusiasm for his products, and I used my remaining $1,200 to buy as many handlebars and stems as I could - exotic parts not readily available in the U.S. When I returned to San Jose I had no money left. I stored the products under my trailer so they wouldn't get wet.
In Italy the artisans who craft lugs, frames, and tubing are considered specialists. I named the company Specialized Bicycle Components after them because I wanted to have a connection to that European passion and quality, something that would distinguish my products from the mainstream bikes popular at the time.
I didn't have a car, so I came up with an efficient way to market the components: I outfitted my bike with the parts and rode to nearby stores. The first few dealers were skeptical; they had no idea who I was and didn't know if they could trust me to deliver additional inventory. But they bought the products and waited to see if I could deliver more.
I sold out the first shipment but didn't make money. My bank wouldn't give me a loan, so I tried another tactic: I went to the bike shops and told them that if they gave me a cash advance for additional parts, I'd sell to them at a lower price than if they insisted on buying from my inventory. For the shops that agreed, I used a markup price of about 15% more than what I paid wholesale. For stores that waited until they saw products, I'd tack on an additional 10%. That is how I financed the company for the next year and a half.
It wasn't always easy. I insisted that the stores pay COD, because I didn't have extra money. One time a $1,000 check from a store near San Francisco bounced. When I called the owner about it, he gave me some big story about how he'd eventually get around to paying it. I knew he was lying, and he refused to return the merchandise. I sent my roommate up there with a check to buy the shipment I had just sold to the store and then had him cancel my check. I called the owner and said, "That great sale you made? Well, that was my roommate, and now my check has the same value as the one you gave me." |
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发表于 2009-7-17 13:43
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