Peter Ollerhead, Owner of Cycle Solutions, is a textbook entrepreneur. Against his parents’ wishes, he left university and worked his way from go-to bike repair man at Wal-Mart to owning an award-winning business. Through innovation, community building and elbow grease, Ollerhead has built the Cycle Solutions brand beyond the product. In Cornerbrook, NL, it is an institution that proclaims that cycling is not so much about the bike, but about the experience.

In 2009, Ollerhead, along with seventeen other young Canadians, was recognized for his business savvy at the BDC Young Entrepreneur Awards in Ottawa. This is the first of four articles profiling all the Atlantic Canadian winners.

Cycle Solutions, located on West Street in Cornerbrook, shares the same space as its sister business Brewed Awakening, and offers a full service bike shop with the added touch of adventure tourism and a specialty coffee shop. For Peter Ollerhead, the idea of combining a bike store, coffee shop and the opportunity to explore the local wilderness came about organically. There were no napkin sketches or meetings with wealthy relatives in business suits. Instead, his success grew out of a pure passion for cycling (and maybe a caffeine addiction). Rather than setting out to simply make money or to beat his competition, Ollerhead combined his knowledge of the wants and needs of his customers, success in bike racing, and knack for bike building, to create the ultimate experience for cyclists of every skill level.

ECC reporter Ian Finley reached Mr. Ollerhead by phone on from the Cycle Solutions shop in Cornerbrook Newfoundland.

Ian Finley: What were your career aspirations as a child?

Peter Ollerhead: Well, I didn’t expect to be in this position. I was obviously very much involved with cycling at a young age but didn’t anticipate owing a bike shop. I did a lot of bike racing and was very passionate about that. I was involved with the fine arts for most of my life and was encouraged to do that out of school. I was thinking that route may lead to architecture but [fine arts] didn’t strike me as the most practical thing to do out of high school. I spent two years in university and left that, started working and everything started to develop from there.

IF: How did the business get started?

PO: I was building bikes through my teen years just on my own, fixing what I had to fix in order to go to races and whatnot. Like most kids these days, you end up doing most of the stuff yourself. I started building bikes as kind of a means to making money for department stores in our area and realized that I needed some space. I had a partner at the time who had already been building bikes with the department stores and who also had more tools [than I did]. We put ourselves together and started a business called “Assembly”. From “Assembly” we moved into a shop location and we built from there.

IF: Who or what was your inspiration for getting into the cycling business?

PO: What was that John Lennon quote? “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I’m really passionate about what we do, you know. I still race a lot and do big events and it never dawned upon me to say, “This is it. This is a possibility that can be very big.” It was more like, “I have to do this in order to survive and make money.” It was a fortunate skill that I had, and at some point our business started to grow so much that I realized that I had to make a choice: giving up any other pursuit that was more than hobby-level.

IF: What has been your biggest challenge as a Newfoundland-based business?

PO: The mentality around here is “struggle.” There was another bike shop in the area at the time [Cyclesolutions launched] and they were supported by another partner. Bike stores are pretty common on the mainland, but in Newfoundland they are not seen as the biggest way to make money. Growing was also a struggle: any money you [do] make is forced to go back into your inventory to keep growing the store.

IF: Why do you think you won the Young Entrepreneur award?

PO: I’d like to think that it’s because of what we give back. We don’t just grow our business with a “take” mentality; we organize sixteen to twenty events per year where the philosophy is “give”. Our company slogan is “We make a difference.” I don’t mean to sound arrogant but if we weren’t here there would be a significant lack of community activity in the area. We’ve since opened up a specialty coffee shop and roaster downtown and it provides a really nice vibe with a lot of positive people. We’re a young workforce and we employ twenty people here and people feel good when they come into the store.

IF: Your customer engagement is quite unique. There are not many bike shops who offer ecotourism to retain customers. What led you to go beyond cycling oriented activities in this way?

PO: For one thing, it was kind of how we wanted to start. By no means is it a huge part of our business, but we feel that there was an open door for us to do that. There were other tour companies from across Canada doing a tour up the Viking Trail. And [we asked ourselves] why aren’t we doing that and why isn’t a company from Newfoundland doing that? So we started doing that and doing day trips. We’re very much involved in creating our customers. The more themes you have under your umbrella the more potential you have for your business.

IF: Was this diversification part of why you entered the coffee business?

PO: I grew up in a coffee shop in southern New Brunswick and was exposed to that culture and when we moved to Cornerbrook it wasn’t really there. When we moved downtown and bought our building, we did it to help pay the mortgage. It was a steep learning curve in some respects but now we’re roasting our own beans direct from Guatemala and Peru, and we’ve really got a good quality product. We’ve won the online award for “Hidden Gems in Canada.” It’s not a big award, but it’s cool to have that recognition. The coffee shop is no more than 500 square feet, but it’s in-and-out: we’re quick, and it’s the traditional classic-style baristas, and everybody’s trained from scratch. There’s no push-button stuff here.

IF: I’ve noticed that there are many bike shops in Toronto with varying degrees of customer service. What made you decide to stand out in terms of quality over quantity?

PO: It just seems like common sense. You just want to do the best job you can. If you don’t have that level of quality then you don’t really have much, do you? We’re pretty limited in our area in terms of establishing a large chain, so if you create a following and a network then I think it’s a means to solidifying your business. It’s not all about money. It’s one small entity that comes after you do everything else. Most importantly, if you don’t have quality and strength in your employees and your business then you won’t get it at all.

IF: What’s next for Cycle Solutions?

PO: We’ll see. [laughs] There’s stuff on the horizon, but it takes time. We’re about to expand the bike tours as there’s only so far we can go with the bike shop locally in Newfoundland. From a customer service perspective, that’s where we’re trying to go.

Photo credits: Geraldine Brophy