logged
Strap food down with used bicycle innertubes
The first time I invested in my own business I was 22.
I was also a broke college student.
The only money I had at the time came from my part time work in a local coffee shop, and what didn’t go to food or rent often went to expensive whiskey and organic cigarettes.
But still I found ways to prioritize investing in myself and my ideas.
At the time, every other job I had in life was crap, even the good ones. The bad ones were obviously bad. But the good ones, like working in this coffee shop, where I basically got paid to hang out and drink coffee with semi-famous local celebs, had zero future potential for me and my big ideas.
So it was time to start thinking about monetizing something I was really passionate about.
At the time, that was cycling.
I built my first adult bike by hand at a place called Back Alley Bikes, and from that moment on, I was hooked. My friends and I religiously rode bikes over driving cars everywhere we went. Even through ice and snow. It was thrilling, and healthy, and we loved it.
So my buddy and I started the first modern bicycle powered food delivery service in the city of Detroit.
The idea was simple.
We rode so fast and reckless that we could beat the cars riding from downtown to midtown, never had to pay parking or auto expenses, and could pocket every delivery fee, tip, and dollar of overhead for our bottom line. It was a mixture of our early-twenties invincibility and the lawlessness that came from living in what used to be one of the richest industrial cities in the world.
Only problem?
We didn’t know how math worked yet.
At least not in business. Which basically meant, we spent more on gear than we ever earned delivering coney dogs. And in hindsight, there were far more lucrative bicycle powered business ideas that I wish I thought of. Like for example, “pedal cabs” that would net riders a handsome nightly haul on top of the cut that went directly to the owner.
Anyway, all to say we invested what little extra money we had into our bike powered food delivery idea.
Which wasn’t a lot, but were resourceful.
We reclaimed the sturdiest bike racks we could find, got plastic bins from the hardware store, and bolted and bungee’d them together to get as much food carrying space as humanly possible. We even cut up old bicycle inner tubes and used them to strap down people’s food during our rides.
When these bikes were loaded up, you could barely move. Our ideas of fast and furious were out the window. And our two-and-a-half dollar paydays just weren’t cutting it.
But I made back my investment in other ways…
I learned to talk with local business owners and connect them with solutions to solve their lunch-hour problems. I learned how to market to hungry office workers and get meals into their hands long before Uber Eats and smartphones… back when delivery was limited, offline, and barely existed for downtown lunch crowds.
All it took was making that initial investment, and I learned a ton.
And if you think it’s for a little investment to get yourself over that next hump and into the next phase of bringing money into your business, consider grabbing an Email Marketing Audit with yours truly.
Here’s the link:
Talk soon,
Kevin Hood