Help my self startup "The Fr33hub" reach its full potential
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Craig Reade, I have been an artist most of my life and a fully qualified Cytech lvl 2 mechanic since 2015 and I am now the proud owner of The Fr33hub (fr33.uk) which is my own business I run from home built from the ground up by investing, learning and paying everything I have forward for the last 3-8 years.
I lost my job as a cycle mechanic around 3 years ago after I returned to my house while it was being burgled by masked armed youths, the anxiety and stress it caused me meant I didnt feel safe at home and never wanted to be away from home for any length of time and couldn't cope with everyday life. As a result all aspects of my finances have struggled since, I have since been late diagnosed as high functioning Autistic at the age of 32 early in 2024 which revealed a lot to me including why I dealt with the trauma in the way I did. I went into a complete shutdown for over a year and spent the next two years recovering parts of myself I had all but abandoned completely. Despite this I have never let go of my vision as I feel that I have a higher purpose which Im here to fulfill through The Fr33hub.
Without any real source of income except from the universal credit (a mere £280 monthly) I have recieved over the past year I have managed to build my brand and start building a customer base as well as my own confidence back up. I have taken any opportunity avaliable to help my community over the past year in the hopes it would also grow awareness of my business, mostly through free cycle repairs events at the new local Moredon sporting hub for which I am so eternally grateful for the huge opportunity.
There are a lot of things I wish to expand into outside of cycle repairs which I have been secretly working on behind the scenes (such as my clothing brand under the same umbrella) though I am often financially bottlenecked and I am a bit anxious as to whether I can make it to next April/May where the cycle repair trade tends to pick up again.
Money will be firstly invested into campaigning for specific adverts for building boxed christmas bikes, as this is the main source of bicycle trade income in winter and the shops in my locale (such as Halfords) are quite frankly insulting their customers with the setup of brand new bikes and have even started charging to build and trying to convince people to build themselves despite needing a qualified and experienced mechanic to protect their safety and their investment. Just last week I checked at least 8 new halfords bikes incorrectly set up and with loose nuts and bolts all over and so I asked, but the bikes were all PDI'd by halfords staff and considered safe to ride when they were in fact dangerous. I have also looked into starting my own bicycle brand so I can compete at christmas but tend to need a lump sum to buy in the frames and parts from overseas which is a way off, but definitely possible.
My clothing brand seems relatively cheap to start also as I will be investing into screen printing as the quality is high and costs of production relatively low. After all of the adversities I have experienced in the past 13 years, I now dont think anything can or will stop me. But things can definitely slow me down or hopefully speed me up, the lack of real income to invest back has been the biggest bottleneck.
Sorry for writing this much I didnt plan to, if you made it this far I appreciate your time. I never planned to or tried to ask anyone for anything, but I have been asked multiple times while completing free repairs over the past months whether I have a page for donations and I didnt, but here it is.
Thank you so much for any donations in advance! God bless you. Fr33 the world ;)
Craig Reade, of Swindon, UK.
@ The Fr33hub - Bicycle Repairs
fr33.uk
Organizer
Craig Reade
Organizer
England