Over the last couple of years, biking has become a popular leisure activity, and in many cases, a means of transportation for people around the world. As of 2020, 42% of Brits have access to or own their own bike. What’s more, 33% of them have also been cycling in the last 1-year period.
As one of the few positive results of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 saw an excellent bicycle boom. Many people took their rusty bikes out of the garages or purchased a new one during the lockdown. Why did this happen? For a number of reasons: some wanted to have a healthy activity to do outdoors, others choose biking as a mean of transportation to avoid public transport, while other choose using bikes in response to becoming eco-friendlier.
Now, if biking is your passion, this “bike boom” caused by the pandemic couldn’t be any more beneficial to you, especially if you’d love the idea of leveraging your passion. Here’s the good news: jobs for bicycle lovers are thriving these days.
So, how about shifting from biking to work to working with bikes? After all, if cycling is your passion, what’s not to love? Here are four career options for bicycle lovers:
1. Bike sales representative
You know better than anyone the joy you feel when riding your bike to the places you go. So, why not help others get the same excitement with the right bike for them? You can do so by becoming a bike sales representative.
There are certainly a few stores that sell bikes in your area. You can ride your bike there and apply for an open position to work for them. Your passion for this mean of transportation should be enough qualification to convince the owners of the stores that you’d be the right person to make their customers happy.
What’s more, there’s really no better time to start selling bikes as demand is increasing by the day, and bike stores are most likely dealing with some shortage of personnel.
2. Bike courier
Bike couriers have been around for a very long time. You probably know how the postman is pictured in every movie. That’s right! Riding a bike while distributing the latest newspaper. But, this area got a lot more complex than delivering newspapers at people’s doors over the past few years.
Now, hundreds of jobs require bike couriers to deliver pretty much everything from food to groceries, mail, medications, and many others. In fact, since the start of the pandemic, there was actually a surge in jobs looking for bike couriers. As home orders increased exponentially, since people were in lockdown and purchased goods online to avoid going to crowded places, more couriers were needed. And, obviously, bike couriers are the eco-friendliest, and advantageous option businesses have.
Now, keep in mind that being a bike courier also comes with some drawbacks. First of all, know that you also need good physical condition besides your passion. You’ll be delivering goods all day long, meaning that your body needs to be in shape for such work.
Secondly, being a bike courier also comes with the risk of cycle accidents. Traffic jams put you near larger vehicles that can sometimes put you at risk of an accident.
3. Professional bike mechanic
With so many bikes bought lately, there’s a new opportunity that will soon appear: bike repairing services. Bikes, like all goods, require maintenance, and they don’t live forever. There’s always something that needs to be replaced, checked, or fixed for the bike to keep on riding smoothly.
In other words, the more people buy bikes or start riding their old ones, the more significant demand for bike repairing and maintaining services will be. You can leverage this demand and your bike skills.
If you are passionate about bikes, you likely know this transportation means inside out, from the wheels to the smallest part that keeps them together and working. So, why not use your knowledge and skills to help people whose bikes need a “doctor” to work correctly?
As a professional bike mechanic, you’ll perform all types of tasks from checking tire pressure to fixing flats, adjust breaks and derailleurs, cleaning the chain, and replacing broken parts. If you’re mechanically inclined, you can have a real career from fixing and maintaining people’s bikes.
4. Bike business owner
Ever thought about turning your passion for cycling into a profitable business? If not, now it’s time to consider this option.
Best businesses are started from a passion for what they sell. That’s because when you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you work hard without even realizing it, you have a competitive advantage over your industry rivals, and you are more likely to transmit your passion to customers, which benefits your sales. Plus, there’s really nothing better than to see how your passion is bringing you profit.
So, if working in a bike shop isn’t an option for you, you can start your own business that revolves around bikes. What can you do? Anything from renting bikes, fixing them, or selling them. Your business can either offer bike rental services, bicycles for sale, or bike fixing services, depending on what you love doing the most and what’s the demand in your area. You can even sell bike parts if you find this need in your location. Here’s another idea: you can sell bike accessories like helmets, spare tubes, pumps, or tire pressure gauges. See? There’s really no limitation in transforming your passion for bikes into a profitable business. Being passionate about bikes can truly help you build a career if you want to work with or on something that you love. These career ideas can help you ride your way to money.
