We were lucky to catch up with Shayna Meikle recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shayna, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Ive owned a roller derby league and a roller skate shop for 10 years. When the pandemic hit the roller derby came to a screeching halt, however roller skating took off! Everyone wanted to skate in 2020 and it went viral. So I swapped my roller derby business which only served about 100 skaters into a roller rink business which has served over 90,000 individuals since we opened in 2021.

Shayna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started roller skating in 2007 when I got recruited onto a local roller derby team in Santa Cruz, CA during my university years. I loved it so much that when I moved back home to Los Angeles to start my teaching career I joined the local roller derby league. They were so impressed with my talent and leadership that they gave me my own team to Coach and made me Captain of their All Star team. So I taught 7th grade science during the day and played roller derby at night. Not happy with the league’s management and inclusivity I started my own roller derby league nearby in 2012. My first business! Then after two years of teaching I realized my passion was not teaching science but teaching roller skating. I quit my teaching job and opened a roller skate shop in 2013 which was supported by my roller derby league and the growing local outdoor skate scene. I ran my shop during thew day and my derby league at night. When the pandemic hit in 2020 roller derby stopped. In late 2021 I swapped the roller derby aspect of the business into a more public service aspect of the business, a public roller rink!

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I purchased the skate shop that I own. It was originally called the Moxi Skate Shop and it was owned by the brand manager of Moxi Roller Skates. They had a sublicense to use the Moxi name and they sold it to me. I was a sponsored skater of Moxi Roller Skates so I had a previous relationship with the shop.
The Moxi Skate Shop was in peril when I was asked to take over ownership. Empty shelves, closed when it should be open, people’s orders not being fulfilled and horrible customer service. Because the shop was in such horrible shape it seemed fun and easy to turn it all around into a lively and activated place for the community.
I kept the name Moxi for a few years but ultimately rebranded to Pigeon’s to better represent the entire skating community as we were retailers of all brands and not just the Moxi brand.
While taking over ownership helped bring excitement to roller skating I think it was very confusing to the general public on who owned what. I owned the Moxi Skate Shop, a corporation owns the Moxi Roller Skate brand, and the brand manager who sold me their shop sublicense is an employee of the corporation but is labeled publicly as the owner. Many people thought we were partners in owning the skate brand when in fact neither of us owned the skate brand.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

After a boom is a bust. There was a roller skate boom during covid and a huge bust afterwards. During the bust we were essentially liquidating assets to cover payroll. Thats when I applied for the Federal Employee Retention Credit (ERC). The ERC was awarded to us, retroactively as a credit, a portion of the money we paid in federal income taxes during 2020 and 2021. While many businesses laid off staff during that time, we hired more people and paid them well. The ERC is essentially rewarding businesses for doing things legitimately during covid as many businesses were doing shady tactics then.
This helped us and hurt us. It has helped us because we were essentially in debt and at the end of our rope as a business in transition during a bust. It has allowed us to stabilize and we will be able to maintain stability for years to come. No more jobs will be lost on our end. On the other hand it has hurt us because the ERC is taxed as business profits retroactive to 2020 and 2021 (the boom years), even though it was received in 2023(the bust year). This has caused an incredible tax burden as it includes penalties and interest accrued retroactively as well. Lastly the back taxes for the ERC was due immediately. So while it was glorious to get bailed out, we are now in inescapable lifelong debt to the Federal Govt, which is maybe how they wanted it in the first place.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pigeonskates.com www.pigeonsrollerrink.com
• Instagram: @pigeonskate @pigeonsrollerrink @pigeonsrollerskateshop

Image Credits

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