Sports Equipment Rental Business Plan

Dan Jalopee received his his Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College.  This is also where he had his first experience in the bike industry, by working as a mechanic in a local shop.

Upon graduation, Dan was unsure about his future. He figured at some point that he would go to graduate school as his philosophy major would not be very helpful in securing him a job.  He was offered the opportunity to continue working at the bicycle shop full time and he accepted it.  It only took him four months before he was promoted to manager.  While manager, Dan ran every facet of the company.  An advantage of working at the bike shop was the ability to take a few months off during the winter to travel.  Since Dan worked in Colorado, it was only natural that he picked up snowshoeing.  Dan had been running for the last few years and decided to pick up snowshoe racing since he had the fitness level, was in the right geographic region, and had time off during the winter.  Snowshoe races were in their infancy and just beginning to get popular.  After doing well in a few races he picked up sponsorship from Redfeather snowshoes, a Leadville based manufacturer.  It was through this racing and sponsorship that Dan developed a good working relationship with Redfeather which he would eventually leverage for Velocipede/Snowpede. 

Dan managed the bicycle shop for three years before he began to get restless.  During these last few years Dan had picked up the majority of skills needed to operate a business.  He was however, growing tired of working for someone else.  Dan finally came to the conclusion that he needed to open up his own business.  After a lot of research, he settled on the rental business, primarily bicycles with snowshoes in the winter.  Dan chose Eugene as it was famous for its cycling.  

6.1 Personnel Plan

Dan will be working full time for VS. During the second month Dan will hire one full-time employee to help out in the store. This employee will initially be working the store-front as well as getting the bicycles ready for the upcoming season. In April, Dan will hire two additional employees. These employees will be seasonal and will remain with VS until the beginning of November when they will be released.