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Mate of mine in Berlin started up back last year as a mobile mechanic. Repurposed the kiddie trailer and spent a good part of the summer fixing bikes for cash. Everyone wanting to avoid crowded public transport means he has a steady stream of commuter bikes.
Could you set yourself up something similar and advertise in local shops?
Last job I did I got 10 an hour waiting tables.
Some graduate salaries don't pay as well, fwiw (and it's not that far away from the average graduate salary).
https://www.savethestudent.org/student-jobs/whats-the-expected-salary-for-your-degree.html
The problem with selling second hand cycling gear is the profits - if you want to maximise them - aren't instant.
I bought a used bike at the start of lockdown, with the intention of sprucing it up and putting it to use. My circumstances changed and I didn't have the time, so I stripped it down, cleaned the parts up and listed them all on ebay with buy it now prices. To my surprise, I more than doubled my money (and that's after binning the stem/seatpost/bars), but I did have to wait a while for some of the less desirable items to sell.
Something else that seems possible to make good money on is cycling shoes. I bought a pair on a seven day listing for fifteen pounds, they arrived, and after testing them for a week, I found them to be a less than perfect fit. I put them back on ebay with a buy it now and made fifty quid.
I think if you're savvy enough, then there's definitely money to be made, likely more than you'd make at Evans/for less work.
Yes I think the stripping down business will have to be put on the backburner.
Job waiting tables was a limited time opportunity and an informal job (paid in cash)
I think I will still take the job even if it is minimum wage, 4.55 is better than nothing. I will be able to do more hours once summer holidays come so there should be more opportinity for work there.
Good luck. Let us know how you get on.
I’d definitely go down the Evans route. Don’t underestimate the importance of ‘dealing with people’ in any future career plans you have!
@belgianwaffle1 - didi you take the Evans job, or are you still looking?
It's a bit of a silly story really, took the evan's job with CV in hand on the day which they had asked me to come in on and the manager shouted from the back that he was busy and he would contact me.
In the end they never did, my contact details were correct on the document so I couldn't see why they didn't.
In the meanwhile I've done some odd jobs like trying to help a lady get her huge palm tree out of a pot it had been in for 7 years. Strength is not my strongest point so I had to recruit some people off of the street to help me.
Otherwise I repaired a few bikes for some friends, including a huge overhaul on one bike which had been neglected (chain, bb, tires, inner tube, grips, indexing).
The big bike hasn't needed much so I've got a DJ frame on order from a guy who is painting it but unfortunately he just broke up with his missus so that's on the backburner. Hopefully it will arrive in time for the end of exam season.
If anyone in KT area has any odd jobs, please PM me! 🙂
There's a guy in Andover who buys and sells bikes, well, he's about 20sih. He bought our Embolden off us in trade in for £550 and listed it for £750.... so £200. I don't know the figures on the others he sells, but i'd guess about a £200 mark up per bike is about his margin. When you think about what can happen when buying in a bike, even if it just needs a BB or a headset, then the margins will be small.
I'd go for the Evans job myself. It's an income, it looks good for future CV and you don't lose the income by bad luck etc.
Either that or trawling Ebay for bargains.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224500038892?hash=item34453ebcec:g:ObkAAOSwQQhgymdm
That for example ended on Ebay last night for £100, i'd have paid £150 for that .... (almost did actually) so look for badly advertised products... Even if you're making £20-30 a time on things, then you'll soon be in profit.... However it doesn't take much of a 'problem' to get stung and wipe out your profit, e.g You buy a set of forks that end up being broken which costs you £150 which you can't get back.
If you know about bikes maybe try Evans again, they've suffered a massive brain drain over the last few months, so staff who know about bikes are pretty useful. Guessing it was the Kingston store?
Nothing more to add to the above apart from good luck! You seem pretty keen and ready to try stuff and that attitude will go a long way.
I worked my way up from a sales assistant to a operations manager in retail and can advise you that if you are keen and willing to work hard and learn as much as you can - and you can communicate that to the manager it will go down well. A lot of Cvs at your age are similar so try to show that sort of stuff when you speak to that manager.
Retail is hard work but it teaches you a lot of life skills like communication, negotiation, time management etc. Don’t dismiss it as just a Sat job to get some cash in.
If you get the job I can give you some advice on how to stay in that job and get extra hours later if you need them.
A) don’t ever phone in sick unless you are really really sick. Bunking off for an England game or cos your mates are having a day out or you’ve had a heavy night on the Friday is SO obvious to your manager and you’ll soon be out on your ear. You need to be someone who can be trusted to turn in when needed on the busiest day of the week.
B) work hard, don’t assume you know better than the manager but be prepared to suggest things (and be prepared to be shot down too!).
C) learn what you sell and be prepared for the most knowledgable customer to ask hard questions - don’t BS, be honest if you don’t know. I’m always astonished at what sales people don’t know when they can put a little work in and sell so much more stuff if they do.
D) be honest with customers - don’t try to sell them what you would buy, sell them what they need. If they need a boring commuter with mudguards and a rack sell them one, and sell them all the add ons too. Don’t sell them a road bike or MTB if they don’t need one. Face to face sales are hard at first but you soon get used to asking questions and listening to what people really need and fulfilling that need. Then they’ll come back time and time again. I lost so many sales as I was honest when I said we didn’t stock what they needed - I could have sold them what we had in stock but if it wasn’t right for them I wouldn’t do. Theres no way I would let management pressure make me sell stuff to people who didn’t want it.
E) turn up smart every day to work and smile and be positive no matter what has happened to you the day before.
F) don’t take nasty customers to heart, they aren’t having a go at you (unless you’ve been an idiot), they are having a go at the shop or they are just naturally nasty. They’ll be out of your life when they leave the store.
G) if it’s a bike shop look out for anyone with a STW shirt on, they’ll be trouble 😂😂
Good luck!!
In the end they never did, my contact details were correct on the document so I couldn’t see why they didn’t.
Ring or call back in person to speak to them. Start the conversation with “I appreciate you are busy and probably haven’t had time to ring me so I’m just getting back to you about the job as I’m really keen on it”.
Maybe ring first to see if that manager is in and ask if you can pop in for a quick chat - first thing in the morning maybe 9:30 is best for most managers, cashing up from previous day will be done and the shop won’t be mega busy yet.
A) don’t ever phone in sick unless you are really really sick
Yep. Your colleagues and customers will thank you for spreading whatever illnesses you have.
Last job I did I got 10 an hour waiting tables. I guess I’ll have to see when I talk to Evan’s again. Maybe the corporate world isn’t so generous xD
I'm guessing this was for a one-off event for a few hours?
Ad-hock work always pays better, as do short days because you're taking the risk that there may or may not be any work next week and a few hours waiting tables stops you from doing a longer day elsewhere. Also in that specific case, the club's alternative was probably paying a catering agency who would have charged more but paid the staff less after their cut so they saved money going direct. You're not going to get £10/hour, the minimum wage is £4.62!
hopefully it will be a saturday job.
You might get lucky, but don't be disappointed if they say no. There's obviously overheads involved per employee (recruitment, training, payroll, HR) that cost whether you do 1 day a week or 5. A lot of companies don't want Saturday jobs anymore, it's cheaper for them to employ someone full or at least part-time and have some of their shifts on Saturdays.
[edit] didn't clock the jump from the thread being 3 months old to 3 hours.
If you want a job as a bike mechanic without and qualification take along something you have done, like a wheel build that usually get people interested and shows mechanical aptitude.
Win some Nat B's and Nat A's 😉
Thanks all for the feedback.
@akira yes Kingston store
I might try again as I know that Evan's have suffered quite badly recently. Going back in to ask about the other job I applied for wouldn't really be an option as that was months ago. I would have to start fresh.
I have recently taken up gardening and have amassed around 30-40 plants indoor and outdoor. I was maybe thinking about a job at a garden centre?
Maybe the wrong forum but has anyone done this?
yes the more spontaneous job was better paid but it was probably because of the anti-social long hours.
Anyways thanks again. Once exams are over in a week the hunt for a job will be resumed! 🙂
I've two sons working alongside two other STW forumites earning £11.50 an hour at the Cv19 test centres. Lots of jobs going with them.
I liked this...
Nothing more to add to the above apart from good luck!
Followed by about 10 paragraphs of good advice. 😁
If you like gardening AND bikes OP, and what you really need is a job, go for both. One might turn up faster than the other, or you might land a couple of part time roles, (balancing the hours may be tricky mind) but either would have useful transferable skills. They are both retail, just a different product.
Have a look at hotels / pubs / restaurants - several are looking for people, all the staff had been put on furlough and have now got other jobs.
A couple of people I know of a similar age to you have just started doing room cleaning at a hotel and are earning more than some of their friends.
Good luck
Quarterly update for anyone interested:
Went into Evans to look for a job again. This time they have changed the name of the job to 'casual' sales assistant. I don't know what the difference is between that and a normal sales assistant but I'm assuming it's something to do with the zero-hours contract.
Regardless they came back to me a few hours ago and have asked me to come in for an interview this Friday. Sounds very promising and looking forward to it.
In other news I have been speaking to a woman about content creation for a woman's photography instagram account. A bit of a different sector as my previous ventures, but I have done a lot of photography in the past years and written a few things online here and there.
Looks like things are appearing just in time for summer!
👍
I worked for Evans for about 4 1/2 years whilst at uni (and for a while after). Started in 2016 and was a decent company at that point. Interview was pretty straightforward, why want to work for the company etc, what can I bring... I had a fair amount of experience at that point though, mechanic / sales in local shop and had done a season in France as a mechanic.
If you can show enthusiam, have some basic knowledge and are willing to learn, I think that goes a long way to make up for lack of experience, as I've found in other job interviews. You don't necessarily have to be technically minded or knowledgable, although it does help. The assistant manager in the store I worked in came from Hobbycraft for instance, the area manager came from Dobbies garden centre and in the time I was there, we certainly took on people who had no bike experience whatsoever but were enthusiastic.
I'll be honest with you, even since I left in November last year, things have gone downhill a fair bit. It's now zero-hour contracts for sales staff rather than fixed contract. This does give you more flexibility though if you're young, at your age I was wanting to ride or go away racing a lot, at that time I was just working in a pub so was pretty handy. Zero hours may work in your favour, especially if it's just a bit of extra money. I had to leave to find a more permanent job after uni as I had bills to pay.
Regarding wages, I was on 5p above minimum wage, not loads but was working there between the ages of 20 and 24 so was already in the wage band above you. It's handy for experience though as others have mentioned, helps with customers and till experience.
In the interview, just relax, be yourself and try to talk about previous experience, your waiting job could be handy as you've dealt with customers before and cash handling etc. Say what you can bring to the business. Always have questions to ask at the end. A handy one I like is, 'what brought you to the company / why did you decide to work here', quite a good one to open up doors for further conversation as you get to know someone's history / background.
Good luck!