Here's good advice for anyone in business — don't stand still.
When you're in the business of selling bicycles, it's an even more fitting mantra.
“The secret is to keep evolving. You don't stay in the little store and do the same thing every year,” says Trevor Morris, who switched to an easier gear with wife Jenny when they retired from their cycle business My Ride in July.
Their slick, modern cycle shop on Goulburn Valley Hwy in Kialla is the third incarnation of the Morris family business which began when the couple took over Don Ash Cycles in Shepparton's High St 28 years ago.
Since then, they have moved three times and re-branded four times.
“It's a risk — but it was never detrimental to the business because we still had customers saying how much they enjoyed coming in. Our philosophy in retail has always been to treat people the way you want to be treated,” Trevor says.
Trevor and Jenny had three young children and a mortgage when Trevor decided in the early 1990s that his work as a technical officer at Goulburn Valley Water just wasn't pumping his tyres anymore.
“I was working up to 10 hours a day, and we decided that if I was going to work that hard for somebody else, I might as well work for myself,” Trevor says.
Trevor was already riding a bike to and from work, and he'd just started fitness riding. But his bike history goes back much further.
“I'd always been a tinkerer. My dad was a self-taught mechanic. He and I used to play around with bikes in the shed to keep them going. I knew I could use my hands,” he says.
“I've always been a fitness person too. Playing squash and running — when my feet got sore I started cycling,” Trevor says.
When Don Ash Cycles came up for sale in High St, the chance for a new beginning was too good.
The couple went into partnership with friends Colin and Sandra Dosser and bought the long-established cycle retail business at 134 High St in 1992.
However, things didn't exactly get off to a racing start.
On their first day of trading, they took a grand total of $250.
“It was scary, but our sales got better as people got to know us better,” Trevor says.
While Jenny ran the till and wrote everything down on paper, Trevor talked bikes and used his spanners for repair work.
Jenny said things often became interesting with three small children in tow.
“When we were busy, the kids went out the back and made caterpillars out of the delivery boxes and rolled around inside them,” she says.
So began an emphasis on family life that continued throughout the Morrises’ business career.
“Families are always buying bikes. You get a two-year-old on a bike who upgrades at six and then eight years old before a first adult bike at 10. It's always been a family oriented business, rather catering just for the elite cyclists,” Trevor says.
Jenny says they now see generations of cyclists coming into the shop.
“The kids we used to sell BMXs to have now got teenagers of their own and they are coming in to buy bikes for their kids,” Jenny says.
When their business partners returned to Melbourne in 2000, the Morrises branched out on their own.
By then, they had already moved to larger premises at the old Gas and Fuel shop at 126-128 High St.
From the BMX craze of the 90s to bikes for fitness riding, bikes for commuting, bikes for bush riding, bikes for track and trail riding and the fitness surge of the 2000s and beyond, the Morrises have ridden the crest of a myriad cycling gear changes.
Is there a secret to running a successful business?
“There's no real secret — just the people. We've had some beautiful customers, coming back time and time again, right through their families,” Trevor says.
“They'd even drop in at Christmas just to say hello,” Jenny says.
The Morrises have done all this while keeping their own family at the centre of the wheel.
Daughter Laura's time spent making caterpillars from cycle boxes paid off. She and husband Nathan now run the family's My Ride shop which opened in 2017.
