We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matthew Sims. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matthew below.

Matthew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The start of the business is just a piece in the start of my life. Which only really started just over a decade ago. My life was directionally headed the opposite way of success, I didn’t make good choices, I spent a good portion of time incarcerated and in places, no one would be comfortable. I had hundreds of opportunities to do good with life and make a change, but, just couldn’t figure it out. I had hit that lowest point in my life, and decided it was time for something different, I wasn’t happy with my current life. So, I worked my tail off for the next few years figuring out how to live an honest life, a productive life, a happy life . I found great joy in helping others and learning new things. I think I figured out that there might be a bottom to life but, absolutely no top, you can go higher and higher if you want to. so, I did just that. I spent many years learning and teaching how to reach new heights in life, professionally and personally. I have always had an interest in and a draw to motorcycles. I rode them, I worked on them, I read about them, I loved two-wheeled machines. My draw to them and my hunger for knowledge led me to think what more could this be? I have always wanted to be a business owner where I can decide exactly how perfect it should be. With the help and drive of my beautiful wife Robyn, we decided to make this dream/hobby a business. I knew from the very beginning that if I chased this I would be successful because I won’t give up. Now that the idea is there, how do I do it? I started asking questions to people who own or have owned businesses. I went to school on how to work on all motorcycles. I spent sleepless nights reading about repair and parts shops to see what might be best for us. I visited these other shops for ideas I became friends with them and asked all the questions I was curious about. We needed a name. My wife used to cutely call me monkey, and then one day she said Sims Motorcycle Monkeys. I knew that was the name of our business. A good friend of mine Fred saw our dream as we did and helped any way he could. He let us rent his garage on his property as this thing grew. I spent the day working at my full-time job and nights working on bikes. The first thing we did was register our name and build a profile so people knew we existed. When people started calling we made sure we took care of them and their motorcycles. Honesty, transparency, and timely, quality service. This was the foundation of our idea. After that, it grew naturally. We made money and put that right back into the growth of the business. Now we are looking at renting a larger shop in town, with a storefront and it grows. We talk to the right people about taxes, insurance, licensing all of it. It continues to grow as long as the principals stay the same.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into working on motorcycles when I was a young kid. I just loved motorcycles. I was really into Harley Davidson and custom choppers. Not only did I like the bike, I was interested in how it got to that—the craftsmanship. I was always into how things worked and fixing things. No matter where or what I was doing, I fixed it when needed. I was in the Navy and I fixed things, I worked construction and I fixed the equipment, I fixed cars, trucks, motorcycles, and ATVs I just loved mechanical function. Now that I am on a growth path, I see my goals more clearly and strive towards them daily. It made sense to do what I loved and make a living doing it. So we set our goal and moved towards it daily. We now have a shop that offers motorcycle repair, service, sales, parts and apparel. Our shop is not like all shops, we welcome everyone and have an environment to hang out and relax. We thought of having an inviting shop where people feel comfortable hanging out even if they’re not getting bike work. We guarantee honesty, accountability and quality.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My side hustle started out as just a hobby. I loved to work on motorcycles. I was constantly learning as much as possible. That included putting myself through motorcycle mechanics school, just to learn more and hone my skills. I would work on my bikes, friends bikes then it was friends of friends bikes, I was fixing everyone’s bikes in addition to having a full time job. It was starting to get to be enough that I thought of the business even if it was just small and part time. As things grew I wanted to make sure that I was doing things right with insurances and taxes I didn’t want anything to happen to my little business. So, I would look up online what it would would take to start a business, to have insurance how to sell motorcycles and get a dealers license. Over a period of about two or three years I would cross the things off the list one by one. I ran into many obstacles, and when I was told no I would ask the question, how do we get to a yes. And with enough drive and patience It would always happen. I just never gave up.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding was difficult. My wife and I saved as much as we could over a couple of years. When we decided that we were going to do our business full time and quit our jobs, we knew that the saving would not be enough. We made the decision to use a chunk of our 401k, against what we wanted, but we knew we had something that was going to be successful. We didn’t have a bunch of money or funding, we just had a strong will and desire to reach our goal.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @simsmotorcylemonkeys
• Facebook: robyn sims facebook or sims motorcycle monkeys facebook
• Other: [email protected] You can call anytime at 385-222-1694 or 801-505-3936

Image Credits

Matthew Sims
Robyn Sims