The has risen out of several recent threads but I'm just going to launch and talk about that later.

I'd like us to talk about the challenges of bicyclemaking as a business. Opinions can range from "Just work at the bench for thirty years and you'll know whats right ATMO" to "I've come to this from completely out of left field having never been involved in this trade but I believe I understand business and I think I have something to offer".

In case you can't guess, I'm the second of these. Once this vintage is over I intend to try to make the transition to bicyclemaking as a business, you'll be able to watch me crash and burn as it happens on my upcoming Smoked Out thread.

To open the discussion with something positive:

In my opinion, the most important question any small business wannabe needs to answer is "Why me?" as in "What will I be offering that would make a customer choose me over the abundance of alternatives?"

Feel free to disagree with, posit alternatives to or illustrate my point.

Your time starts now.