We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trevor Rathbone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trevor below.
Alright, Trevor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
I think so, its a loaded question for sure. I think about having a regular job all the time. I think I would be the best employee, because I work harder than most people need to at a single role haha. I have to do so much and wear so many hats to run a business, and in terms of labor the kind of business I own requires hands on work as well as macro oversight and big picture. The idea of going to work and not taking any of it home with you is appealing, any business owner will tell you, even if your successful you are never really off, thinking about taking a vacation can be stressful. relaying on your partner to have a steady job so you can have insurance can be stressful. Work life balance off working for someone else is constantly appealing. However, I get to do what I love, when I tell people what I do who have normal jobs, they are like “wow that’s so cool! But in my head I want to tell them “don’t quit your day job” I think it has it positives though, it makes me constantly ask what is best for me and how I can improve the business and streamline to have the life I want.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Sure, yeah. My name is Trevor Rathbone and I am the owner of Rathbone Moto works in Austin Texas. We are a full service motorcycle restoration shop and specialize in vintage restorations from about the 1930s on. We have a 4 employees at the moment. Because we are so specialized we serve the Austin community but get bikes from all over the nation. We also have branded merch we sell and are looking at expanding that part of the businesses reach to extend to a more national/ global audience.
A few factors that set us apart from others is our experience for the customer, while we were building our experience over the last 12 years, we have always focused on doing right by our customers. We are very proud of the quality of work we do and the fairness in which we treat our clients. We started off being the most affordable shop partially while we build our experience, the other part of that is we wanted to serve a community from top to bottom of budget, and do what other wouldn’t be willing to work on. As our experience in the field has grown we are switching away from that business model and focusing on our passion of totally restorations of bigger projects and hence bigger budget jobs, in a way it makes me a little sad to grow away from my roots, but one thing Ive always been told by businesses who are successful is you need to lean into what sets you apart, its time for someone else to serve the broader community as I take my experience to the next level and grow my skills even more toward the work I enjoy doing.
Mechanics have quite a bad rap from the car world, everyone has a story of talking their car to the wrong place and getting over charged, I have always made it my mission to buck that trend, in my mission statement it was always clear to me of that stigma to overcome and treat people with respect, let them know i had their best interest and budget in mind. I always say car mechanics can kind of get away with bad service, you might not return if you have a bad experience but everyone has a car so they are on to the next person. With motorcycles its different, I want my customer retention to be 100 percent, the community is small, reviews are important, retention is important, bad news travels fast. I have built my reputation one bike at a time. I come from a service industry customer service back round since I was 16. I have a very old school mentality about how to treat people. I think business like mine are disappearing and getting more rare. Less business care about customer service as it pertains to bottom line. in the repair world things never go right, like never and your have to find the balance of being ethical on how you charge, we do a lot of good faith labor that ultimatley we cant charge for but it comes back aroud through return business, to me its the best way to advertise yourself , certainly better in the long run than a targeted ad.
I have customers tell me, “I was on the subway in NYC and someone saw I was wearing your hat and said oh I used to live in Austin thats where I take my bike” and those stories make me so proud!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Covid. Full stop. I moved my business at the very beginning of covid because they were tearing down my building. I doubled my rent, dropped off everything and the new location, closed for one week to go visit my Dad who was dying. I also had a newborn in the beginning of covid, I took one week of paternity leave. It was extremely hard, I accrued a lot of debt because I took on this new rent an expenses. I didn’t pay myself for a year, to try to minimize my debt and get ahead, I didn’t get much for covid relief and have a big EIDL loan. Its just now leveling out my debt. Sometimes I wonder why I didn’t just quit. I dug my heels in and worked so hard.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I started very lean, I think I had low self esteem about my idea and whether it would work or not. I wanted to take on a loan rather than investors. I knew to some extent it would never be a super scalable business, that doesnt mean that i thought it would fail, its just a very niche hands on business, I was ok with that part. Anyway I was asking for $25k I broke it up to approach people i knew to loan me 5k each, i figured it would be easier than asking for 25k from one person. So the first person who I knew from a shop I had worked at gave me the first 5k. I got a business plan from a friends business he was nice enough to share with me and they were successful so it gave me confidence, because i had never written one before. They didnt want to give me a loan though because they were a new business and told me “you dont have enough skin in the game” meaning i wasnt putting up my own money (they later told me they wished they did after seeing my sucess) anyway I was working at a bar at the time and the owner really liked me and he owned 7 bars, so i asked him to take a look at my business plan to just give me notes. I wasnt asking him for money, i thought it was a faux pas, I just really respected him and wanted his experienced opinion. He floored me when he said, “your asking for the perfect amount of money, its not greedy, i know your work ethic and I know it will work out.” he said “what if I just give you the whole amount” I was floored, stunned I couldnt belive it . It gave me so much reassurance and hope and also I didnt want to let him down.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rathbonemotoworks.com
- Instagram: @rathbonemotoworks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rathbonemoto
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-rathbone-00b174220
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rathbone-moto-works-austin
