Building businesses
Enjoying the ride
Boyd Johnson
www.scbizmag.com
B 38
oyd Johnson knew that he wanted to ride his bike to work every day. The professional cyclist turned entrepreneur launched his cycling business in 2009 with his wife, Nicole. In May 2012, they moved Boyd Cycling from their home into their current location along the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville. The building, a former meat packaging plant that had been abandoned for years, was in disarray. The Johnsons could see past the broken windows, graffiti-covered walls and dripping pipes. They renovated the bottom floor into a manufacturing and retail space. They have since expanded the space twice in two years. Boyd Cycling manufactures and sells bike wheels for both amateur and professional riders and then ships them all over the world. In the back room of their 3,500-square-
Boyd Johnson, above and at top, is a cyclist turned entrepreneur who manufactures and sells bike wheels. (Photos/Ken Osburn)
foot bike shop, the couple work alongside their eight employees to design and build bike tires, adding and tightening the spokes based on the riders’ capabilities. Their shop is visible from the 17.5-mile
Swamp Rabbit Trail, a multiuse greenway that connects the downtowns of Greenville and Travelers Rest. Walkers and cyclists stop in to check out their bike business, as well as the cycling gym upstairs, the new Greenville Cycling Center. Johnson said the trail provides grassroots marketing and interaction with potential customers. While the face-time is a major perk, he said the driving force behind locating their business along the trail was simply to incorporate the active lifestyle they crave into their daily lives. “We can leave our house, hop on the trail and ride into work. All of our employees commute on the trail as well,” said Johnson, who installed a shower in the shop for the bike commuters. “When we moved to Greenville, we wanted that option to be a part of our lives.”