The Vault Bicycle Shop · the whole plan in one place

The game plan

This page is for Chris and for Mike. I'm Brayden, Chris's friend. Building and running websites is what I do for a living, and Chris kept talking about the shop, so I went ahead and rebuilt yours to show what's possible. This page is everything I have in mind, in plain English, in order. Nothing here needs anyone at the shop to sit at a computer. The work is mine; the shop's part is a couple of phone calls and a yes or no.

Short version: I already rebuilt the site as a working preview. The shop's web costs drop from $575 a month to $250. And the online store starts maintaining itself, with parts shipping straight from the warehouses to customers.

What the shop gets

The new siteAlready built, already viewable. The rebuild costs nothing.

The bill$250 a month for hosting and upkeep, instead of the current $575. There's a $150 hosting-only option if that's all you ever want.

The catalogUpdates itself every night from your suppliers. Prices and stock stay right without anyone typing.

Online ordersGo straight to QBP or J&B and ship to the customer's door. Tracking emails send themselves.

Your partA weekly email that tells you what sold. That's it. Wrenches stay in hands.

Step one

Put the shop's accounts in the shop's name

This is the part most shops never get from their web company, and it's why leaving one usually hurts. We do it first, on purpose: once it's done, the shop owns everything and can fire me anytime. That's how it should be. Most of this is one call or email to the current web company; I'm happy to be on the call.

The domain name (thevaultbicycleshop.com) goes into an account Mike controls. Whoever holds the domain holds the website. This is the single most important item on this page.
Check who owns the shop's Google Business Profile. That's the Google Maps listing with all the reviews. Sign in at google.com/business and look: Mike should be the Primary Owner. If the web company owns it, request a transfer. The reviews are the shop's reputation; the shop should hold the keys.
Ask about the Google Ads account. Part of the old monthly fee likely paid for ads. If an ad account exists, its history belongs to the shop. Get access to it, or written confirmation it's closed.
WordPress login for the current site. I take a full backup the same day, so nothing can be lost no matter how the handover goes.
Check the recovery email and phone on all of these accounts. They should be Mike's, not the web company's. Five minutes now saves a nightmare later.

And the email? Changes nothing. The shop's Yahoo mail is completely separate and stays exactly as it is. I don't touch it.

Step two

The two supplier calls

One call to QBP, one to J&B. They flip the switches that let the website connect to their warehouses. Chris, this one's yours, and the whole script is written out for you:

Step three

I turn on the machine

Once the accounts are secured and the supplier credentials arrive, the rest is my work. Roughly how the first three months go:

Month one

The new site goes live on thevaultbicycleshop.com with zero downtime. The moment the supplier credentials arrive, the catalog starts syncing itself nightly from QBP and J&B — that's days after the calls, not weeks. The old provider gets cancelled only after everything is proven working, and the weekly email report starts.

Month two

Online orders flow to the warehouses and customers get tracking automatically. Nobody at the shop lifts a finger. We also work out what the site can honestly promise about in-store pickup.

Month three

We grow what's working. The BMX section gets real attention first, since that's where the shop's stock runs deepest, and we chase the race brands from the stores Chris likes. Then we look at the numbers together and decide what's next.

Straight answers

Who is this guy?: Chris's friend. Websites are my day job, and this is the kind I like doing: a real shop that got a raw deal, fixed with real work. Everything I've built so far, you can already click around in. Judge that, not this page.
What does this cost the shop up front?: Nothing. The rebuild is done and it's free. The monthly bill drops the day the switch happens. I only ever charge for things that are already working.
What if it doesn't work out with me?: Step one exists exactly for that. The shop will own its domain, its Google listing, and its site. You can walk away from me anytime and lose nothing. That's a promise the last company never made.
Does anyone at the shop have to learn new software?: No. The whole point is that the store runs itself. Your job is bikes; the website's job is to keep up.
What about the email?: Untouched. Yahoo mail keeps working exactly as it does today, before, during, and after the switch.
What about the stores Chris mentioned, Supercross and BRG?: Not forgotten. Half the answer is already live: the shop already stocks 500-plus items from the same race brands those stores carry (Box, Profile Racing, ODI, KMC, Tioga, Promax), and the new site's BMX section finally puts them front and center instead of burying them. The brands the shop doesn't carry yet (Supercross, Chase, ONYX and friends) are a supplier question: the day the QBP and J&B logins arrive from Chris's calls, I pull their full brand lists and hand Mike a simple answer: which of those brands we can start selling that week, and which need a dealer application with the brand itself.
Is the online store really worth it?: Honestly: it starts small. The win in month one is a better site for half the money. The store grows from there, and the weekly email means you'll always see exactly what it's doing. No promises, just numbers.

— Brayden