A Not-for-Profit Business

Jake's Bikes financial accounts and charity support

Jake's Bikes is run as a not-for-profit business. This means that we cover our costs and try to pay ourselves decent wages and reinvest some money in the business, but we do not exist to make a profit. (If, by some terrible mistake, we do ever make an operating profit by accident, it will be donated to environmental and/or pro-cycling charities who share our ethos).

The fact that we are not trying to just make money means that we can be much more open about our costs and prices (see financial accounts below). It also means that we can offer impartial advice on products and bike repairs: very often we advise customers not to have some work done on their bike if we think it's not worthwhile for them. When we do advise you to pay for something, you can be sure it's because we really think it's the best option, and not because we're trying to turn a quick profit.

In support of our claim to be a not-for-profit business, our annual accounts are available for download:

Jake's Bikes Accounts 2009/10 (PDF document - 75 KB) 

Jake's Bikes Accounts 2010/11 (PDF document - 78 KB)

Structure and Ownership

Jake Voelcker started Jake's Bikes in early 2008 with £2,000 of personal savings from his previous job as a freelance web designer. Over the next 18 to 24 months, almost every penny earned was reinvested in new stock and tools, at a total cost of approx £20,000. During this time Jake lived (very frugally!) on personal savings, and then claimed Working Tax Credits for some months. No bank loans, grants, or external private finance has ever been used, so Jake's Bikes is and can remain entirely independent and true to its original aims.

In June 2009 Pete Harding joined Jake, and an informal co-ownership arrangement was set up whereby Pete earns shares in the business in addition to wages. Yael Ben-Gigi, who joined the team in early 2011, is now also part of this unofficial shares scheme. In February 2011 we moved to our new location and Jake invested another £9,000 in stock, shop fittings and equipment. At present (November 2011), Pete and Yael are each paid a fixed salary, Jake is now paid a salary on most months (depending on cashflow!), and any money left over is reinvested in stock or tools.

Legally, Jake's Bikes is simply a limited company owned wholly by Jake Voelcker. Currently Jake's Bikes is too small to be worth registering as a cooperative, and for now Jake is reluctant to do so because it would mean losing his £31,000 personal investment. However, if more staff are employed they will also become part of the informal share scheme, meaning that over time Jake will effectively own an increasingly small portion of the whole. In the future we will look again at formalising the employee share scheme, perhaps becoming a worker-owned company or a cooperative. For now we remain an ethical, not-for-profit business aimed at doing good stuff rather than making money.