|
Bike Courier Idea Pedalled Into Business
Toronto Star, October 14, 1980
By Carol Vyhnak
When Hilda Tiessen realized a couple of years back the jobs she’d tried
weren’t satisfying, the wheels started turning.
They haven’t stopped since, thanks to Ms. Tiessen’s brainwave – a
bicycle courier service.
Now that the 16-moth-old business is going full tilt, at least five of
her 12 couriers are pedaling around downtown at any one time.
And for the first time in her life, Ms Tiessen, like an estimated
30,000 other Canadians who go into business for themselves each year,
is experiencing the thrill of running her own show.
So far the thrills haven’t translated into big bucks – Ms Tiessen and
her partner Barbara Weiner take home only a small salary - but she and
the staff of Sunwheel Bicycle Couriers have their share of laughs.
“All the couriers carry beepers, and the other day one fellow was
complaining about being beeped when he was in the washroom,” Ms Weiner
said. “It seems he felt a little funny about having a woman’s voice
talking to him while he was in the men’s room.”
“Having fun while you’re working is part of the secret of success,”
said the 38-year old former social worker. Like most of the
self-starters in small business she is undaunted by statistics that
show more than six out of 10 go under during their first five years.
She’s in the business not so much to make money as to make a point.
“I’ve been working with the cycling committee since 1975, discussing
the integration of the bike and the car and trying to show there is a
place for bikes downtown,” Ms Tiessen explained.
“I finally decided the best way to make a point was to operate a
business. Once you are part of the economy people respect you more.
Sunwheel began in May 1979, with an investment of $65 for an adding
machine. They share a Spadina office with two other groups and pay only
$90 a month rent.
Ms Tiessen hired her first employees - three students – with a $5,600
federal Young Canada Works grant.
The couriers – there’s now 12 full-time and part-timers – ride their
own bikes, although Ms Tiessen is looking into the possibility of
buying “winter bikes” with wider tires and heavier frames.
She found the couriers through word of mouth and by advertising with
college placement services. “They earn between $4 and $5 dollars per
hour depending on how busy they are,” Ms Tiessen said. Sunwheel is
earning about $250 a day – big jump over the $60 a day it made during
the early months she said.
The business isn’t able to support both women yet – they’re living off
savings partly – but they pay themselves 5 percent pf the month’s gross.
Sunwheel has outgrown its quarters and “we need an accountant for sure
now,” she said.
A $5,200 grant from the city’s 8-month-old community economic
development program - set up to help various groups and small
businesses – will pay the cost of setting up a proper bookkeeping
system and improving the business generally.
Drumming up business at the beginning was a trial and error process,
she said.
We identified about seven types of businesses that could use our
services and had shown themselves to be good customers, such as
lawyers, typesetters, marketing and management consultants and
government and university offices.
“Then we tried to do a marketing study over the phone but didn’t get
far. After that we blanketed buildings with promotional material but
didn’t follow up.”
“It wasn’t done in a very rational way but now we’re much better at it.
We go and see contacts in person and make sure we see the right person
in the organization to handle that kind of thing.”
Ms Tiessen said if she were starting the business again, she’d jump
into it full-time.
“The way I did it, my time was too divided and 99 percent of a
successful business is due to people taking time to make it work.”
|
|
