August 2022
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SIT DOWN WITH SUCCESS
Shifting Gears: A Conversation with Tommy Reagh of Trailhead Inc. Sit Down With Success is a feature of the Huntsville Business Journal on entrepreneurs and their keys to success. To read the full story, please visit the Huntsville Business Journal Website. Huntsville native Tommy Reagh (pronounced “Ray”) wants you to know that he’s a bicycle person, not a businessman. Despite his lack of business training, Reagh is enjoying success as the CEO, founder, and co-owner of Trailhead Inc., a popular bicycle shop founded in Five Points and now located on the Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment campus at 2211 Seminole Drive SW, Studio 1000. He graciously took time out of his busy day to discuss his experience as a local bicycling enthusiast-turned-entrepreneur. Tell me a little about the history of your business. What inspired you to start it? I was a cycling enthusiast like a lot of folks and in the early 90s I started racing mountain bikes, and training for mountain bike racing led to road bike riding and the dominos started to fall. Out of necessity I started to work on my own
bike so I wouldn't have to wait in the middle of the season like we’re in right now…I started getting fairly proficient at working on bikes. It was something that I really enjoyed doing–I just loved everything about cycling. I worked at NASA, and then offsite later for another company, Advanced Optical Systems, as a graphic designer and eventually art director. That’s my vocation. But as things were winding down with Advanced Optical Systems I was kind of seeing the writing on the wall and thought ‘this might be a good time.’ And I had some friends dreaming around the campfire, playing the ‘what if ’ game. That ‘what if ’ game became more of ‘I think I might could do this,’ you know? What is your favorite part of owning your own business? I work with some really cool people and we get to bring our dogs to work. Generally speaking, people are coming in here, they want to buy a bike, they want to buy some parts, or they want to get their bike fixed and they’re happy and excited about it. Well, they’re not excited
that their bike’s broken but they’re happy that it gets fixed. It’s a pleasant experience to deal with some people that are looking for…you know, maybe they’re a bit of an escapist and they really want to do some big adventure stuff and it’s exciting to help them tool up and equipment up to achieve that so we can live vicariously through what it is that they’re trying to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s somebody that just wants to ride through the neighborhood. We like to ride through the neighborhood too…we just want to help people have the best experience— whatever it is, we want to do it right and be true to our customer and truly help them out. What advice would you give someone considering starting their own small business? I would say have your processes and procedures so you and your fellow coworkers can all be on the same page and you can be streamlined. Count your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves. But if you just provide hon-
By Dawn Suiter / Photo by Steve Babin
est to goodness good customer service, treat people like you want to be treated. We made this decision early on that we’re going to treat people good. We’re going to give them the customer service they’re not seeing and experiencing out in the world, and if we can’t succeed in doing that then we’re going to shut down and not do it. It’s just not worth it…I’m going to tell you straight up the truth about everything and be upfront with you and if it’s good enough, it’s good enough, and if it’s not good enough, it is what it is. I don’t know what else to do. w
