"JUMP AND SEE IF YOU GROW WINGS". You'll hear Ben say that often, and honestly it's how Never Ending Cycles was born. We never sat down and wrote a business plan. No consumer analysis. No marketing objective. But most importantly, NO exit strategy! Just a whole lotta passion, a huge love of all things vintage, a ton of intuition and plenty of trial and error!
Truthfully, whether you have a plan or perfect preparation, curve balls come. A former mentor of mine taught, "Prepare for impact". It's not a matter of if, but when you have to redirect or for that matter talk yourself off a ledge. I want to share with you all the last 10 days here at NEC just to give you an idea of how we have experienced all of the emotions of massive business growth.
The Friday before Memorial Day Jess had a video call to understand how a rather large bill for us came to be. It wasn't how we expected the payment structure to work. It was incredibly confusing, but nonetheless, we owed a large sum and quickly. Late that same afternoon we had some unwelcome visitors. For the last 6-8 months we've been discussing and researching a space to move NEC too. We are busting at the seams in our 3.5 car garage, we find powdercoat dust on the furniture and we never leave our house. We've been a little cuckoo staring at the same 4 walls while we work out, run our business and live. Well, one of our neighbors decided that it was time for us to go and took it upon themselves to let the city planning committee know about it. These strangers in safety vests were here to let us know that we had 30 days to find a proper place of business or we would incur large fines. So now not only did we need to find something affordable, which is a struggle where we live, we need to do it in emergency mode!
We stumbled through that weekend with heavy hearts and very busy brains. We fought, which doesn't happen much and had several breakdowns. It's in the tough moments that you question what you're doing. On that same Friday night we had a very heartfelt conversation. We reminded each other why we do what we do. Emotional and feeling extra Italian passion, Jess said "We do this because it connects us to the root of who we are, where we came from. Because in the darkest of times most of us have seen, we get to offer people fun and freedom. Everyone of our clients has a story and these vintage bikes connect them to thier roots too". Finally we realized we need to sit in the shit and let it come to us, which it always does. We posted a reel on Instagram somewhat bashing our neighbors that had over 50K views and 2400 likes within days. The reminder of our fans and customers gave us a small confirmation that we were exactly where we need to be and that God would reveal what would come next.
THE SILVER LINING. That weekend we looked at several properties. It was a bit like Goldilocks... First one too expensive. Next too much like a scrapyard. Another one perfect, but too far from home. Then a friend reached out and told Ben he had something 10 minutes from home. A beautiful view out the back, no one around to bother, plenty of space and a price we could afford. Prayers answered and anxieties relieved.
We have a crystal clear vision of where Never Ending Cycles is headed. Although we didn't appreciate being tattled on, that visit from the vested vultures was exactly the push off the high dive we needed. This is how it is in business...it's the law of the lid. When you can't grow anymore in the place you're at either physically or mentally, a shift has to happen. The lid has to be blown off. With our new space we can collaborate not just our vintage builds for clients, but the build you want to do as well. We can offer powdercoating for your wheels and bits and pieces on your bike, scooter or whatever you're riding. We can offer parts if you're restoring your vintage motorcycle to original. We will have our own line of NEC electronic wiring systems and a full store of pretty shiny things. We plan to offer winter bike storage and can't wait to host a few events and our new place too. We can expand our staff so we can work more efficiently.
IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME. We spent this past weekend at MotoFest at Road America. It was a goat rodeo in it's own way, but we received a priceless gift that we will never forget. Jess grew up watching her dad Jim build choppers, vintage cars, do incredible paint work and more. Jim and Denise came all the way from Colorado to MotoFest to see what we're up to and spend some time together. Seeing him there gave us so much joy and a reminder of that root we talked about a week prior. One evening we had dinner together in Elkhart Lake and dad said before we left "I have to tell you both, that you are living my dream". BOOM! No better confirmation that we are still growing those wings and that the jump was exactly the plan, whether we knew it or not!
Sometimes the path changes, but the destination is still the same. We're here to get you connected to your spirit of adventure, encourage your passion and connect you to a vintage world that we all want to preserve.
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