FlyRyde

Hey all. Some of you may be in the loop about FlyRyde, others may have just witnessed a little bit (more than likely the ugly side) of issues I've had with FlyRyde in the recent past. I started the company, tried to be a hero, and just got in way over my head while I was developing the software the manages FlyRyde. Long story short, I took on plenty too much, mismanaged startup money for projects, and had a nasty 4 year trail of debts and flame wars over FlyRyde. All of this was my bad, and to say it was a learning experience is almost laughable.

Having said that, I wanted to get some ideas and opinions from you guys about my new approach to really building this business up. This time around, I'm not thinking huge and complex, with giant promises for everyone, but instead a simple approach to success. I want to make FlyRyde a fully automated, streamlined process for tuners to be able to log on, check out some entertainment sections of the site, and be able to look up and purchase a few quality lines of parts.

My focus is:

1. Timely Shipping and Responses to questions about products
2. Great Pricing
3. Only selling products that are ready to ship, in stock with my suppliers, which I will NEVER see or lay my hands on.


I think number 3 is the biggest for me, versus 1 being the biggest for customers. I'm restructuring my accounts and suppliers to only those that will ship same or next day, on product lines of top notch companies. I've had quite a few cheap Chinese lines of products, including tons of knockoffs and stuff I just added up to fill the categories of products. I'm dropping all of this stuff. Most all of it, is never in stock, and never will be again unless its selling like hotcakes and the chinese owners see enough profit in it to do another massive run of those products. I'm just gonna focus on brands that great suppliers keep in stock, and I only want suppliers recommended from the manufacturer directly. This should in turn, keep my time free of ever picking up a part, shipping it myself, or taking a while to reach the customer.

I'm cutting myself and my time out of the picture, not hiring any employees, and ditching "the dream" of owning a nice shop in town with all the toys and goodies to sit on shelves collecting dust while my rent piles up. The new name of the game is Zero Overhead (aside from my expensive web server, lol). Never again should there be a reason that a product didn't ship for a while, or that a customer has to wait and hope that they didn't just throw away their money. I'll never run FlyRyde again on full manual mode, where I have to answer calls, pick up parts, manufacture parts myself, pack and ship all products with my two hands, or do any other work that sponges up my time, which takes away from customer service, which will in turn be my only job, and single priority.

So what do you think?

What brands would you like to see?

Any advice for media you'd like to see on the site? (videos provided from manufacturers of events, Racing Schedules for Time Attack and Drifting Days, pics of car shows, etc.)

Thanks all smile.gif

majik

For those who aren't familiar, FlyRyde started in Blacktibs' garage making headlight angel eyes, air vent haloz, and miscellaneous items. He worked hard to get products developed and supplied for Hyundais, and sacrificed his show car for the test fitments and being torn apart. He got burned by a few companies, some of which closed up shop in the middle of R&D, leaving his car sitting on jack stands. Because of this, he wasn't able to deliver on time, and some products that our community funded were scrapped by the manufacturers. It took time, but he was able to repay everybody and work something out. As far as I know, he has settled his debt with dozens of community members.

I give him props for sticking with it, being driven to succeed, and being ethical. He could have left people hanging, but he settled his debts and worked hard to make good on his obligations. His biggest success was providing us with the Equal Length Header available through FlyRyde and KFX.

I support Chris 100% and feel he's proven that he's trustworthy. I encourage everybody to support him as well. Enough blabber, here's my suggestions:


Website Media - simplicity. The images/trends can become out of date fairly quickly, such as drifting, NOS, decals, etc. Make it automated on the database side, and make it simple and un-dated on the interface side. Flash is great, but personally I'm tired of seeing your car pictures on that little flash square. nana.gif I've memorized where all the LEDs are.

Products - Diversify, provide as many universal products as possible to hit as many markets as possible, and get in with suppliers that can work with a wide variety of makes and models. Be diverse and mix your inventory to include both trendy and stable. You'll have people looking for the 'hottest' new thing from Fast & Furious, and you'll have people looking for basic I/H/E. Stock up with heavy hitters, such as turbo parts for the AWD crowd.

Customer Interaction - whether web-based or e-mail driven, keeping contact with customers is the best and only way to get positive customer feedback. If you're wanting this to be driven by word-of-mouth, it has to be a positive experience for everyone. People want to know status updates, whether good or bad. Bad news is better than no news. If there's a mess up with customs and it takes an extra week, communication will ease the customers' mind instead of wondering if they've been ripped off.

Returns/Damages - Cut yourself out of the equation as much as possible. Have something set up on your website for items damaged in transit or wrong part numbers. It will happen, your suppliers aren't 100% reliable, so consider this ahead of time. Find a way to get the customer in touch with the supplier and resolved - it's YOUR image that will be damaged, not the supplier/manufacturer.

How are you going to differentiate yourself? Low cost (hard)? High availability and maximum coverage? Fast and reliable? Aesthetically appealing? What can you do that will keep me from buying through your competitors?

Successful places to consider when building your ideas:
www.MonoPrice.com - only the 'in' crowd knows, but they're the cheapest thing out there. It spreads like wildfire across forums.

bizchair.com - started by a high school kid, now millionaire a couple years later. Streamline, even if you aren't the cheapest. Get their products to them as fast as possible.

Ericy321

Focus on the main brands that sell to start off with.

Eibach, Garret, Tial, Greddy, Apexi, AEM, Injen, etc.

Decide if you want to do wheels and tires.

Basically start with the basic stuff and work your way out. That seems like the best way to make sure everything works.

purpletib

Since all(or most) of the issues in the past have been cleared up, I would be willing to still do business. I'll be ordering the headers in a month or two here. Have to take the time later to see what else I'd like to see you have available. The full exhaust would be nice, what ever happened to that?

majik

purpletib - I appreciate your support of FlyRyde, but please keep product inquiries in other threads. This needs to stay on-topic for website suggestions.

lilo shark

stay with what's hot or going to be hot. see if you can stay above the game.

REDZMAN

I would do business with you again Chris, without hesitation, as long as you follow these...

1. Communicate.
2. No excuses, no long drawn out explanations, nothing.
3. Have the parts in hand or available. Prebuys and the like are history.

If you can handle those 3 things, I'd buy everything I need from you.

Jmans

I'll talk from from the perspective of someone who wasn't there for all of the drama the first time around. Looks like it was rough, I read the threads, but from what I've read I'm inclined to trust you, especially with the other members vouching for you. If you offer up some cool products with solid shipping, I'll be there.

Oh yeah, and make sure the site supports firefox, it's not 100% there for me right now.

majik

What isn't working for you on the site? Tables not lining up? Flash not supported?

holeshot69

Hey man, I like some others here work in the industry. Automotive is a grind day in and day out. The biggest thing I would say is stay over organized and super focused. Have your office looking like a library with everything backed up and easily findable.

If you are going to just sell parts the biggest area there is communication! I hate to make people wait an extra day or two for a part when my supplier is telling me : " ya ya any day now".

Best of luck my man, it isn't to make it but when you do it's alot of fun to be involved with this industry.