Naperville Scooters: Why Scooters? Why Naperville? Why now?
 

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I purchased my first scooter this fall. I bought the bike as a cheap and desperately needed form of transportation, which became a hobby, then an obsession.
It is now a business plan. I hope to open Naperville Scooters, a dealership, by May of 2013.
In short, buying a scooter is one of the best things I have ever done, and I hope to share that joy...




Naperville Scooters. Why Scooters? Why Naperville? Why Now?


Why Scooters?

1. Scooters are inexpensive
   I bought my bike, a 2009 Kymco Agility 125, used with low miles. It cost me $1100, roughly the cost of a new set of tires for an automobile. It is the best money I have ever spent.
   You can buy a nice scooter new for about $2,000.
2. Low Maintainence Costs
   Insurance for a scooter costs about $10/month.
   Most basic maintenance issues can be handled by the owner.
   Need to fill up the tank? It costs about $4...
3. Fun
   I have never ridden or driven anything that gives me the pleasure riding this bike does. I have owned Porsche, Mercedes, and Audi. None are as fun. I often catch myself grinning ear to ar when cruising down the road...
4. Function
   I am blown away by the amount of travel I can do on a bike. I go everywhere. With storage under the seat, and a top case as an optional accessory, one can carry everything they need for the typical day. If you add a backpack, you can even take a scooter camping.
   Yes, it isn't much fun in the rain, and I won't drive it in the snow. However, when dressed appropriately, riding in cold temperatures is not an issue...
5. Green Transportation
   Whatever side of the political scene, we all love the environment. Scooters get between 50 and 100 miles per gallon of gas. Their are also several electric options. So if you are worried about the environment, scooters are for you...

Why Naperville?

Naperville, Illinois is a perfect town for small businesses, especially a scooter dealership...

1. Population
   With a population of 141,857, Naperville is the 5th largest city in lllinois. With Joliet to the south and Aurora to the west, there are almost 1 million people living a short ride from Naperville...
2. Wealth
   The median household income in Naperville is $101,457, making Naperville the wealthiest city in the Midwest (population>75,000).
   
   
   
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3. Commuters
   The Naperville Train Station near downtown has a 10 year waiting list for automobile parking. There is no waiting list for motorcycles and scooters, making a scooter a very attractive option for commuters.
   
   
   
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4. North Central College
   North Central College, a private college located immediately to the east of downtown, has an enrollment of over 3000. College kids, who are often on a tight budget, love scooters.
5. Local High Schools
   There are 5 area high schools serving Naperville students. Most of those kids take the bus to school. Some own cars. I believe many would love to own scooters.
6. Lack of Competition
   There is virtually no competition in the scooter business in Naperville. If you google "Naperville scooters". You will come up with a few results:
   
   -Fox Valley Cycles, a company that sells a few models of scooters but is primarily a motorcycle dealership, is located in Aurora, about 10 miles from downtown Naperville.
   -Naperville Motorsports, on Naperville's far western edge, is a motorcycle repair shop that does sell a few accesories...
   -Mirror Look, a company that specializes on painting bikes...
   
   You will also find a whole bunch of posts about me, my dream, and my vision...
   
   As a scooter enthusiast in a town of almost 150,000, I find it amazing I need to ride 20 minutes to buy a motorcycle helmet.

Why Now?
I believe a Naperville Scooter Dealership would prosper in any economy, good or bad.

1. Gas prices
   At $4/gallon, driving one an automobile can be very expensive. A scooter, however, gets up to 100 miles per gallon...
2. Single car families
   I know many families that are functioning with only one car. Many can't afford the money that a decent used car might cost, or the additional costs of maintenance.
   However, buying a scooter for $2,000 can be manageable, even on a tight budget.
   
   
   
   
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3. Low commercial rental rates
   As a Naperville Realtor with over seven years of experience in residential sales, I have been steadily increasing my involvement on the commercial side. I plan on using my experience to negotiate aggressively and expect to sign very favorable lease terms.
   In Naperville alone, there is a mind boggling amount of commercial real estate sitting vacant. This is a great time to rent commercial space...

Why me?

1. Financial Experience
   With over 15 years in the financial services industry, I am well versed in various potential financial issues, such as insurance, interest costs, margin rates, returns on investment, etc.
2. Track Record of Sales and Marketing Success
   With over 20+ years of sales and marketing experience, I have had success at every level selling a variety of products, and believe I am what is called "A born salesman".
3. Small Business Experience
   With over 7 years experience running my own small business as a Realtor, I am well aware of both the challenges and requirements involved in running a small business.
4. Passion
   I strongly believe passion is the number one asset of any small business. I wake up thinking about the joy of riding scooters, and talk about that joy to everyone I meet. I can't wait to get started with Naperville Scooters.

Suppliers


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I am looking at several potential distributors, and my two leading suppliers are Kymco USA and Bintelli Scooters. Both offer a nice range of scooters, ranging from smaller bikes to mid and maxi sized scooters. Both have reputations for quality, reasonable pricing, and great customer and dealership support.



Sources of Revenue:
I plan on revenue coming from four main sources.

1. Scooter sales
   The average Bintelli Dealership sells 150 scooters per year. Given the demographics of Naperville and in spite of the cold weather we experience a few months of the year, I anticipate Naperville Scooters to be far more than an average dealership. Their more active dealerships are currently selling 300+ scooters per year, and this would be my target volume in the second year.
2. Accessories sales
   Helmets, goggles, visors, t shirts, jackets, and scooter skirts. As a scooter owner, my Christmas list is filled with scooter accessories.
3. Scooter rentals, both short and long term leases
   I believe the market for short term rentals (less than a week) as well as month or season long leases would be strong.
4. The Service Center
   The average Bintelli dealership does about $50K in revenues per year in the service center. The larger ones do more than double those numbers. Again, I don't expect Naperville Scooters to be an average dealership.

Expenses

I plan to keep a close eye on expenses.

1. Commercial Lease
   I am looking for a small space, perhaps 1000 square feet or so. I hope to keep rent around $1500 per month originally, and believe I can achieve this with the vacant space currently available in Naperville.
   I estimate first year costs of the lease to be $18,000.
2. Inventory
   I anticipate an original inventory of 20 bikes. Enough for the showroom and some inventory to meet sales needs. I expect costs per bike to average slightly over $1000 per bike.
   I estimate original inventory to be $24,000.
3. Employee Wages
   I anticipate being the main employee, handling sales, book keeping, marketing, as well as community engagement.
   I will need to hire a mechanic immediately, but hope to hire one on a part time basis until demand dictates full time or additional mechanics...
   I estimate initial wages of approximately $48,000/year.
4. Miscellaneous Expenses
   There are always additional expenses, and I know my business will have them too. Insurance, Marketing, Utilities, costs of incorporation/legal fees, just to name a few.
   I estimate these costs in the neighborhood of $35,000 in the first year.

I expect total costs in the first year to be approximately $125,000.



Marketing

I would market through various means, traditional as well as new age.

1. Customers
   I believe my number one marketing tool would be satisfied customers. I plan on giving my customers a great shopping experience, whether they are buying a new bike, getting an old one fixed, shopping for accessories, or just browsing for fun. I want my customers to tell their friends...
   
   
2. Traditional Marketing
   My costs directed toward more traditional marketing will be kept fairly modest. I believe there are better ways to market a business. However...
   I will be joining the Naperville Chamber of Commerce in January 2013 to introduce myself and my business to the community. I plan on hosting several high profile events, grand openings, clubs, rides, as well as high visibility signage outside of the dealership.
3. New Age Marketing
   As the owner of Tracy Social Media Solutitions, I consider myself very adept at leveraging social media and its applications in business. I will be focusing much of my marketing efforts here.
   I am currently designing my website, www.NapervilleILScooters.com.
   I already have pages on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Google Places for Naperville Scooters, and have been developing a good deal of interest for a business that won't open for another 6 months.
   I anticipate dominant page one position on Google.

With anticipated first year expenses to be $125,000, I would be extremely pleased breaking even in the first year. I clearly have lots of work to do.

But that doesn't deter me from my goal. Opening Naperville Scooters in May, 2013.

Ken


Follow Naperville Scooters on Facebook

Best of luck for your plans !

Sounds like you've done your homework Kenny, this country needs more optimists like you! I sincerely wish you the best.

BTW-Dont discount Genuine scooters as well. KYMCO is great, so is Genuine...I have personal knowledge of both (As a long-time scooterist I have never heard of Binitelli FWIW)

Keep us posted!

I'm excited for you also. It's great to see such enthusiasm. I'm following along on facebook also.
Sean

Hi Tork, Gogordy, and Greyhound. Thanks! Genuine would have been great, being just outside of Chicago, but are only accepting experienced dealerships at this point. Kymco I like for many reasons. Bintelli new distributor based out of Florida. Sell bikes made out of Znen mfg. in China (yes China). Have heard great things about them (two year warranty, etc).
Thanks again guys!
Ken

Glad to hear you are following your dream and have a well thought out business plan - best of luck to you!

(this was posted in another thread but I wasn't sure if you saw it)

Kenny, this is the scooter to which I was referring in my PM to you. For everyone else; I recently took a trip to France. In Paris, I think scooters/bikes are almost as prevalent as cars (about a 60/40 car-to-bike ratio). Scoots and bikes are allowed to filter and lane-split. Rush hour is basically a stop-light drag race (that is, crazy/nuts). I'm willing to bet that if you ride a scoot/bike, you're easily home an hour before your neighbor who drives.

Most, if not all, scooters have hand mitts and skirts. I bought a pair of Tucano Urbano hand mitts and put them on my Reflex. They are awesome and have allowed me to ride, with my mid-weight gloves, in 20º F morning temps since my return. The skirt stays in place when you ride, keeping you warm (out of the airflow) and dry (if it's raining). There must be helmet laws in France because I did not see any helmet-less riders. However, they do not seem to like to wear any other moto specific gear (jackets or pants). A lot of women ride scoots as it's common to see riders with fur-rimmed hooded jackets and high-heeled boots. Both Tucano Urbano and Bagster (a French company) make hand mitts and skirts (among other accessories). The TU hand mitts seem to be most popular while the Bagster skirt is most often seen. I know Bagster's US distributor is in Naperville (I contacted them when I was searching for soft luggage for my TransAlp).

Since scooters seem to have a reputation as being "summer" transport, if you could make them a little more weather impervious, they might be viewed as a viable three season option.

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Here in Southern California we just turn the heater to "high" in the winter :rofl

Seriously, good advice and I know several riders (also here in So-Cal) who use those when it gets really cold. You know, like in the mid 60's!

Hi Soboy and Bronco. Thanks!
Bronco, I will post this today on Naperville Scooters Facebook Page! Interesting. Love options to keep us warm in cool weather! Something else to sell in my dealership too!
Thanks again!
Ken

Kenny- you have passion and that's a key to success. Really like the idea of including Kymco's in your inventory if you can swing it- they are a widely recognized and respected brand.

I will admit in all my years of riding I've never heard of Bintelli, but then again I hadn't heard of SYM until about 2 years ago, so what do I know...

Best of luck with your plans- Naperville is a great community and you'll have lots of opportunities to leverage the many events they have to show off your scooters.

Anything I can do to help, just ask. Don't forget that my wife is a small business owner, in Schaumburg. You may pick her brain if you see the need. Her business has grown 5-10%, each year, over the last 10 years. To do that well in a crap economy is pretty impressive. Have a good business plan in place, stick to your guns and you should be OK.

With experience in the scooter industry I would say do not carry Bintelli or any china scoots. They are bascially just like any other chinese scooters, ie a marketing company here in the US buying from a chinese manufacturer with their own specs (colors etc) and slapping the Bintelli name on basically the same chinese scooters that everyone else has. All the talk about quality control is BS..they all claim that but the reality is that is not the case. The $50k service number is also BS too...maybe true if that includes all of a shops service and not just for the Bintelli brand. Stick with Kymco, SYM, Genuine..basically any of the Taiwanese brands and you'll be okay. I personally know and worked with one of the largest chinese scooter importers in America..the guy imports thousands of chinese scoots a year and is one of the main distributor/suppliers of various chinese brand scoots. He pretty much supplies most of the West Coast. Anyways enough of my ramblings, I just say that as a shop there is no profit to be made with chinese scoots.

Same opinion as DaBinChe.
Focus on quality (Kymco, Honda & Co) exclusive_or on cheap. But any mixture will detoriate towards the lower quality.

And at least in the EU: selling is nothing without competent service. Warranty is a legal obligation.
Do you have a qualified master mechanic too?

Very exciting, brother. Very exciting. You have answered most of my questions. I'm still going to call and chat a little bit. Maybe next week.

If I were you, I would also entertain a business case that includes time rentals or sharing. ZipCar is already established and is growing by leaps and bounds in college cities.

It's another revenue stream that makes sense especially in a region whose sales might be affected by climate (snow).