After graduation in 1972, I decided to take a bike tour through Europe. To finance the trip, I sold my old Volkswagen bus for $1,500. Three months into the tour, after riding from Amsterdam to Milan, I met a Swiss woman at a hostel and started talking to her about biking. She knew a few Italian cyclists and said she would help me land a meeting with key person at Cinelli, one of the biggest Italian bicycle manufacturers. Up to that point, I had been traveling in a pair of jeans and a sweater I hadn't washed in a couple of months, so I spent some of my remaining money on a suit so I wouldn't look like a bum.
Plug in that bike
Sitting with legendary component maker Cino Cinelli, I exaggerated a little and told him I was connected with all the top riders in the U.S. He seemed taken with my appreciation and enthusiasm for his products, and I used my remaining $1,200 to buy as many handlebars and stems as I could - exotic parts not readily available in the U.S. When I returned to San Jose I had no money left. I stored the products under my trailer so they wouldn't get wet.
In Italy the artisans who craft lugs, frames, and tubing are considered specialists. I named the company Specialized Bicycle Components after them because I wanted to have a connection to that European passion and quality, something that would distinguish my products from the mainstream bikes popular at the time.
I didn't have a car, so I came up with an efficient way to market the components: I outfitted my bike with the parts and rode to nearby stores. The first few dealers were skeptical; they had no idea who I was and didn't know if they could trust me to deliver additional inventory. But they bought the products and waited to see if I could deliver more.
I sold out the first shipment but didn't make money. My bank wouldn't give me a loan, so I tried another tactic: I went to the bike shops and told them that if they gave me a cash advance for additional parts, I'd sell to them at a lower price than if they insisted on buying from my inventory. For the shops that agreed, I used a markup price of about 15% more than what I paid wholesale. For stores that waited until they saw products, I'd tack on an additional 10%. That is how I financed the company for the next year and a half.
It wasn't always easy. I insisted that the stores pay COD, because I didn't have extra money. One time a $1,000 check from a store near San Francisco bounced. When I called the owner about it, he gave me some big story about how he'd eventually get around to paying it. I knew he was lying, and he refused to return the merchandise. I sent my roommate up there with a check to buy the shipment I had just sold to the store and then had him cancel my check. I called the owner and said, \"That great sale you made? Well, that was my roommate, and now my check has the same value as the one you gave me.\"
其实SPECIALIZED就是靠卖CINELLI发家的,呵呵!不信大家仔细
看看SPECIALIZED的CATLOG中文的目录更明白!
下面就是这个\"闪电\"诞生的经历(转载):
SPECIALIZED这个专业的单车品牌，并没有如同欧洲的单车制造历史来得悠久，他还很年轻只有36岁。他的老板MIKE在36年前凭着对自行车的喜爱之情，大学毕业后卖掉了自己的旧大众车，准备给自己来上一次环欧洲的单车旅行，在一次巧合中他认识了赫赫有名的欧洲自行车大碗CINO CINELLI，一番述说后MIKE用了最后的1500美元购买了所有可以购买的CINELLI零件，回到了美国，开创了一家小单车商店。这就是SPECIALIZED!
闪电的大老板麦克新亚的经历绝对值得我们很多大学生学习!大学生的创业一定要有方向!麦克新亚他从一个刚毕业的大学生,卖掉他的旧大众车,独自骑车去意大利.偶尔的机会认识了赫赫有名的自行车界大腕CINELLI,用仅剩的一万左右人民币买了CINELLI的东西带回美国开了个小店越做越大,最终成为赫赫有名SPECIALIZED! |
发表于 2009-5-20 13:45:38
楼主
发表于 2009-7-2 20:32:22