Where are we now, where are we going ...

[Admin]

Based on the last 6 months it seems to me that it takes about 6+ hours of volunteer time for each bike we get ready for sale. That is not to say that it takes 6+ hours of working on the bike (although true in some cases), but rather when you add up all of the time spent on set up, clean up, helping customers, training new volunteers, shop upkeep, writing logs, etc and divide by the # of bikes, then it seems to me to be on the order of 6+ hrs/bike. Let's call it 7.5 for now.

Currently we have 2 work stations being used approx 9 hrs/week, = 18 hrs = 2-3/bikes per week, say 2.5/week. Crudely speaking, that's about 130 bikes/yr, which given that we sell them for just over $50 on avg, that would mean $6,500 in revenue/year. Since our expenses currently run approx $6,000/year that is clearly sustainable even at this low level of activity.

So far so good, but a long, long way from great. As it is we:

• - are too reliant on a few volunteers; if anything were to happen to even one of them it would be a big hit and drop us below sustainability;
  
• - have no space (work stations) for DIYs or new trainees which undermines our ability to increase our volunteer base as well as promote bike maintenance skills generally;
  
• - are not keeping up with bike donations, never mind all of the bikes we could be saving from the dumpster if we were more proactive;
  
• - are not able to meet the demand for affordable bikes even though we scarcely advertise;
  
• - are not able in the long run to afford even minor increases in expenses (eg rent or services such as getting a phone and/or internet access from the shop);
  
• - are not building the base to expand our vision, be that by getting a store front, hiring a staff person, offering courses, or whatever seems the best way to go.
  

Options

Obviously we need more volunteers, but as it is we are limited in having them fix up bikes or even training them given the lack of work stations. More shifts doesn't work until we have more volunteers able to act as shift supervisors.

So, I believe that at this time our main obstacle to moving forward is the number of work stations available. More work stations would allow for training more volunteers, which in turn will allow for more shifts. For more work stations we need space, so finding storage for our excess bikes, at least for the medium term (4 to 6 months?) has to be the priority.

Longer term

In theory we could have two weekend shifts of approx 6 hrs and four evening shifts of 3 hrs each. With 4 work stations and assuming full use (ie sufficient volunteers) that would mean 24 shop hours times 4 stations equals 97 hrs/week.

As such Recyclore has the potential to be fixing up something like 12 bikes/week. That is a lot of affordable bikes kept out of the dumpster and back on the street. It would also put our revenues at close to $30,000/yr which would give us a lot more options for how else we want to promote our work.

[Admin]

Modifying the above slightly ...

It looks like with the UHaul our expenses are more on the order of $7000/annum. To meet this we need to be selling 3 bikes/week avg. As per above, we have no problem selling that many IF we have them available for sale, and we seem to have no problem getting that many donations. If anything, there is every indication that we could get many more if we wanted.

The limitation is how fast we can fix them up. Limiting this is experienced and trained people (with the notation that we are short of volunteers generaly; there is no glut of untrained people that would solve the problem if we got them trained).

As for the UHaul, it is costing us the equivalent of 2 sold bikes/month, or 24/yr. I would argue that it is well worth it in that it:

1. Allows for 1 (and soon 2) extra work stations which allows us to process bikes faster (2 - 4 bikes/month even with our current shift schedule, more if we add shifts);
   
2. Allows for more shop space which will improve volunteer retention (ie better volunteer satisfaction & experience);
   
3. Allows us to accept more donations when people are donating (spring & autumn) and have them available when people are not (winter);
   

Be that as it may, at this time we are NOT avging 3 bikes/week (maybe 1/2 that) and while we have the reserves to keep going at this rate for at least a couple of years (up to 4 yrs in theory), the bottom line is that it is not sustainable in the long run and planning must address that.