Quote Originally Posted by conorb View Post
Hey Dave,

I really enjoy looking at your stuff.

As you made the transition from Waterford to self-employed what was your process of going about setting up your business?

Sure you had to come up with a name, design some decals, get a website up and running, etc., etc., but how did you go about getting the "word out?"

Additionally, did you work with a business consultant or anyone to provide advice on branding or marketing?

Lastly, you mentioned a drawing program. I presume this is for frame design. Is this something that you designed and built yourself or are you using an off-the-shelf program?

Thanks,

Conor
Conor,

Thinking back to the start of Ellis Cycles is a bit of a blur, those first couple weeks and months were a chaotic. I was literally on the phone the day I left Waterford, finding suppliers, getting some of the first parts and tools I would need. Thankfully, I had a good friend who had always promised to buy one of my frames if I ever set up my own shop. He got a call the first night and he didn't let me down. So before I even had the business set up, I had at least 1 order!

In the first weeks I had contacted an attorney to help me draw up and file for Incorporation. I also knew I needed to have liability insurance set up before anything went out the door. I managed to find a salvaged steel table that worked perfectly as an alignment plate, I just needed to have some parts fabricated for the bottom bracket post and other parts. I enlisted a couple friends to help get the 500 lbs+ plate into my basement and onto it's final spot on the pedestal I had built, not easy!

When I contacted Don at Anvil about a fixture, he had quite a backlog of orders before he could fill mine, so I ended up borrowing an old fixture from a friend of a friend in Milwaukee. I had never met Jason Sanchez before, but I'm glad I did. Not only did I borrow his fixture, he's also the guy who paints all my Ellis frames.

My brother Steve is my secret weapon when it comes to the website and decal design. I had originally wanted to do a much more elaborate head tube logo with an iris, and it just never worked out. I even worked with an artist on this, but it never really came together. Steve designed the current head tube logo as something simple so we could make up a few t-shirts to wear at local events, and it's stuck.

Getting the word out was/is the HARDEST part of getting the business set up. I set up a blog pretty early on, and there was word of my split that popped up on the Serotta forum as well, so that got some notice. My brother got the website set up pretty early on as well, and he's done an awesome job of making sure it gets found too. I left Waterford about a month before the NAHBS, so I knew there would be no way to display there, but I set my sights on the Cirque du Cyclisme in June as the first "show" I would attend. It was serendipitious that I would have a really fancy customer bike to display there as only the second Ellis that I had built and it won for "Best Track frame". I also had the luck to meet James Lalonde at Ben's Cycles where I was working part time. He asked if I would be interested in sponsoring him for the upcoming cross season and I hesitantly agreeded. Little did I know that James is fast! He went on to take the Singlespeed Cross National Championship in Kansas City. Finally, to follow that up with my first NAHBS in 2009 and the award for "Best Lugged" has really helped get me on the radar for more and more folks. I'm really glad they're liking what I put out there.

OK, I've rambled on long enough, to answer you final question, I use BikeCAD for drawing all my frames.

Cheers,
Dave