BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 5, 2001 ISSUE
FRONTIER -- FEATURES ONLINE EXTRA: A Bicycle Builder Peddles Her Own Wares It's an age-old story for entrepreneurs: distributors fall in love with one product, but won't commit to carrying the rest of the line. So it was for Georgena Terry, the plucky and individualistic head of of Terry Precision Cycling, which began manufacturing bikes specially designed for female cyclists in 1985. When bicycle sales slowed in the early 1990s, Terry launched an anatomically friendly bike seat for women known as "The Liberator," and brought out a line of women's cycling clothing. Unfortunately, cycle-shop owners weren't really biting. "We knew customers loved our products, but were having problems finding them," says Terry, a 50-year-old former Xerox exec who got into the business when she began building custom bikes in her basement. Two years ago, Terry decided to eliminate the middleman and rev up catalog and Web site sales. The strategy has paid off handsomely for the Macedon (N.Y.) company. Revenues have quadrupled from $1.5 million in 1997 to $6 million in 2000, with $8 million anticipated in the coming year. About half that business comes from catalogs, which come out five times a year at a cost of $250,000 for each print run and generate an average sale of $80. Not content to design bicycles, Terry has taken charge of Web design for the company, doing the work on her Mac. It's an appropriate match because Terry considers Apple Computer something of a soulmate: "Formed in a basement, a new way of looking at things, fighting the big guys, and striving to be heard," she muses. Toward that end, she filed a patent-infringement lawsuit in 1999 against Velo Enterprises, alleging that the Taiwanese company knocked off The Liberator. "It's not so easy to push us around anymore," she says. Having ridden out the rough times, she's poised to push back. By Stephanie B. Goldberg _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Where Are They Now? Spin Master Plays to Win Even Cowgirls Pay Their Dues The Art of the Startup A Seat on the Roller Coaster Broken Headbone He's Got Ink in His Veins An Emu in Every Pot? Now He's Talking California Dreaming It Wasn't About the Money The Crunch at Emergency Solutions ONLINE EXTRA: For a Candymaker, Success Is Sweet ONLINE EXTRA: Questing for Profit in Child Care ONLINE EXTRA: A Bicycle Builder Peddles Her Own Wares ONLINE EXTRA: A Web Designer's Minimalist Approach INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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