- And good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, and for the next half an hour, I'm your personal financial adviser, and hopefully you'll pick up a couple ideas that make your financial life just a little bit better.

We're all about serving you.

So, if you have a question for us, the best way to do it is send the email directly to me.

Works beautifully, Gene@AskMTM.com.

Gene@AskMTM.com.

Whether the questions are about investments, income taxes, estate planning, or business.

That might be a particularly appropriate topic after you watch tonight's show.

If you've got a question about how to start a business, maybe how to run a business successfully, maybe how to exit a business successfully, you might very well want to send those along.

I can't promise you that your emails will be seen in a future show.

We get far too many to do that.

But I can promise you that someone, quite possibly me, from our More Than Money staff will be reaching you directly.

We answer every single email, so please be part of our More Than Money experience and send us those emails.

Often, if we are very, very lucky, we get to invite a guest to our studio who has had that experience that we would like to draw some lessons from.

That experience of starting a business, maybe running a business for a very long time, and then, maybe exiting a business on his own terms.

And Tomias Hinchcliffe is exactly that gentleman.

Welcome to the studio, sir.

- Thank you very much.

- If folks know your name, they may know you from the area for what reason?

- For what reason?

Well, I've run my bike store, Genesis Bicycles, since 1974.

And just in the past month, I've retired from that, and I've sold the business.

- I'm hoping congratulations are in order.

- Absolutely.

I'm really happy.

- Oh, very good.

So, 47 years, and we've already figured out you and I are of an age, so we're right there together.

You were a very young man when you started this bike shop.

- I was.

- How old were you?

- Well, I guess I was 18.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- 18 years old.

- We're going to come back to that in a second, because that's remarkable in and of itself.

In the interest of full disclosure, so that everyone... Transparency is such an important thing in today's world.

We don't want conflicts of interest to go unaddressed.

My conflict of interest is several years ago, my wife brought our entire family to Genesis.

We got completely outfitted top to bottom, great advice, and have enjoyed our bikes ever since.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, we're not just fans, we're FANS.

We're all in.

- I'm so happy to hear that.

Thank you for contributing to my retirement.

- Ah, fantastic!

For me, bikes started much earlier, college, again, being of an age.

When I went down to Chapel Hill, everyone rode a bike.

And up to that point, my bike was something that I dragged out from under the back porch.

And it had no speed.

Well, it had as much speed as my legs could carry.

And I found a wonderful bike shop in Chapel Hill and got my Schwinn.

It had the smallest seat in the world.

It took me weeks not to be in just terrible pain.

- No one loves the bicycle seat when they when they first start riding.

- But I still have that bicycle.

I'm not going to give that up.

- That's awesome.

- It's part of my legacy.

- People get attached.

- Oh, without a doubt.

And of course, I don't ride it anymore.

It just a good memory.

At 18, what caused you to even consider starting your own business?

- Boy, that's a long story.

I'll try to shorten it.

I was working at a bike store in Manhattan.

For $2.25 an hour.

And my sister, Sonia, was married to a fellow here in Easton, and his father, a Lafayette College professor, wanted to start a bike shop for them to run, and for him to retire into.

And the problem was that none of them knew anything about being in a bike shop.

And I had a little bit of experience.

So, my sister said, "My brother would be a good partner".

So, my wife and then two kids, and I moved to Easton.

And we didn't really have a plan.

It was just organic development.

At 18, very few of us have a plan.

- No plan.

- And you came with your wife and a young family.

- A young family.

Right.

- And did the relocation basically on faith.

- Completely on faith, yeah.

- How did that initially work out?

You're in business basically with your brother-in-law.

How did that all...?

- We got started that way.

Within less than a year, they decided that a bike store wasn't what they wanted to do, and they moved west.

I ended up the sole owner of the business.

I've had a lot of good fortune in my life.

At that time, the business was absolutely tiny.

Absolutely tiny.

But I loved it, I worked really hard at it.

It didn't feel like work.

I don't feel like I've worked.

But it grew and grew, and... As I say, I've been very fortunate.

- 47 years ago, Easton was a very different community than it is today.

- It really was.

It was very desolate.

- But you stuck with the city all these years.

- Is there a philosophy?

Is it just good fortune?

- How do you describe that journey with the city itself?

- Well... You know, in the early days, I didn't really know to expect any different.

And, you know, in these past years, we've just seen Easton absolutely blossom.

There's been times when I've said to my wife, Stephanie, "Gosh, I wish we weren't retiring right now, "because things are just happening so much".

And I have no regrets about retiring, but there's just so much good energy going into that city, and so many dedicated people.

And it's a bike-friendly city, too, which is huge plus.

- Your wife is a theme throughout, obviously, your entire story, not just your life, but in Genesis Bikes, but your entire life.

- Absolutely.

- Was she active in the business, as well?

- She was very active behind the scenes.

We didn't have any money.

We didn't have money to pay for shipping.

She would drive our car to New Jersey with one or two, or maybe three of the kids with her, and pick up as many bikes as she could fit into the car.

And she was our driver.

And then, you know, she was the consultant.

She heard the stories every night when I would come home, and she was the support.

So, she had a really big part in it, but not that the customers would see.

-Tomias, there are a lot of folks who have already done the math.

If you came to Easton at 18, you were already married, you already had children.

So, you and Stephanie started very young.

- Well, yeah, there's a little side story to that.

- Please.

- So, at 19, I found myself with a business.

Not necessarily in this order of business, a family, three kids, two stepdaughters, and a daughter.

And you spoke of us being married, always have considered Stephanie my wife.

However, about 6-7 years ago, we got married.

And we had a wonderful celebration with our grandkids, playing music, and the mayor of Easton, Sal Panto, marrying us, and 150 friends and relatives from all over the country were there.

What a great way to get married.

You know, we just... it was wonderful.

- So, you have three daughters together.

And your youngest daughter was how old when you got married?

- Well, let's see.

She would've been about 39.

- So, she was 39 when you got married.

So, you do things just a little differently.

- Yeah, there's been a lot of... A lot of doing things in reverse in my life.

A lot of...

I can't figure out why it worked, but it has.

-Well, maybe some of God's good grace is tossed in there someplace.

When you started the business, you mentioned it was very tiny.

It was... Did you have a sense that this was going to be your lifetime's work?

Or was it initially just, "I'm going to start a business and see if it flies"?

- Just never thought that far ahead.

- OK. - Somehow everything has gone really well, but goals were just not in the mix.

- Gotcha.

Gotcha.

- I was just really enjoying what I was doing and wanting to make that better and better.

- Did you have anybody initially, or along the way who you would call a mentor, or somebody that was giving you kind of the inside track of, "Hey, Tomias, you got to look at this," or, "You better be aware of that"?

- You know, over the years, there have been many.

And I've been really fortunate in that way.

My wife has given me great advice.

My older sister gave me great advice.

I, in the mid-90s, hired a fantastic consultant who I worked with for several years.

And just some of the things he says or told me would come to mind on a daily basis.

- Fascinating.

Fascinating.

- If you were requested, asked at this point, to be a mentor to somebody starting a new business, particularly a young person that's starting a new business, what basic advice would you give them?

- I would say... Well, first of all, consistency is really important.

If you get back to people, if you say you're going to do something, do it.

Nothing bothers me more than someone not following up.

Consistent hours, and... Something that I didn't do, and I'm very fortunate that it worked out, make time for family.

It's really, really important, it's easy to get caught up in building your business.

Keep the family in there.

- A challenge.

That's a challenge.

- Absolutely a challenge.

And worth it.

- Oh, for sure.

For sure.

But again, being of an age and having something particularly, you mentioned it early on, you don't really feel like you've worked very much in your life, because you really love what you're doing.

So, when you love something, if you look up and it's already 14-15 hours into the day... - Easily.

- Easily, exactly!

It's not exactly... You're not sacrificing those you love for no good purpose.

It's for a passion.

- Right.

Yes, and I was so fortunate to have a wife... My wife is eight-and-a-half years older than me, and to have a wife who really held everything together with the family, and... - I have seen pictures of your family, recent, that you sent over to Megan.

Your wife is a beautiful woman.

And obviously, you married way over your head.

- I still, all these years later, cannot believe my good fortune.

- That's fantastic.

Now, this is going to sound like an odd segue, perhaps.

Obviously, your love for your wife is an enduring one.

The word "love" is in your business, though, too, 47 years loving what you're doing.

- Absolutely.

- And loving the impact you're making on clients.

How does a young business person translate that into their day-by-day "I got to pay the bills"?

- Um... You know, I keep going back to the word "fortune", but I was fortunate enough that what I loved to do did pay the bills.

And taking really good care of customers, and also, vendors, being... really honoring commitments to vendors and treating them really well.

And then, of course, employees, you know?

Employees... treat them like family.

- Because they become family.

- Yes.

- You spend so much time with them, often in the early days, particularly more time with your employees than you do your own family.

- Definitely more waking hours.

Yes.

- Well, and again, going back to the full transparency, when we bought our bikes for our entire family, walked in, and my wife was deeply committed.

So, I was there to write the check and make sure everything was OK.

But the attention to detail that was given us from an employee, and in many businesses now, if you say it's the owner, well, of course, you're going to get special attention.

We've never met until today.

I didn't buy my bikes from Tomias.

I bought it from an individual who clearly really knew his stuff, really was committed not just that we buy a bike, but that we get bikes that, number one, fit us, that fit our lifestyle, fit what we were trying to do.

That's...you can't buy that kind of commitment.

- Exactly.

That's exactly it.

And, you know, I don't... Well, I'm speaking in the present tense, I didn't own a business that was in an industry that could afford to pay employees a lot.

- Of course.

- So, really, the whole thing was finding people who loved what they were doing equally as much.

I was saying about the business, and that is the bike business is a great job if you can afford it.

- I know exactly what you mean.

God bless.

You have been quoted as saying that bikes are really the answer to many of humanity's challenges.

What did you mean by that?

- Well, um... You look at...

I'll just name a few things.

Being on a bike is helping your mental health.

Obesity is a huge issue, huge.

And it goes a long way toward that.

Our environment.

You know, we complain about traffic as we're driving, but we are traffic.

And if you're really lucky enough to be able to ride your bike to the store or to work, do it.

It's just...it's a win-win.

- There's so many things.

- Checks all the boxes.

- It really does.

- With virtually no negative.

I would be hard pressed to come up with the negative of, "Well, if we all rode bikes.

wouldn't it be wonderful"?

Wouldn't it be wonderful?

- I certainly think so.

- And circling back to the topic of Easton for a moment, we're both big fans.

What Easton has managed to accomplish is to make the thought of living in a city so very attractive again.

- Absolutely.

- That when you say, "Well, wouldn't it be great if you "could ride your bike to work"...

Certainly.

Wouldn't it be great if you could work within a few blocks of your home, live within a few blocks of great restaurants and the state theater?

Which, don't get me started how fantastic that is.

And all those kinds of things, again, as going back to my experience, we're thinking about getting bikes for the entire family.

My wife says to a very close friend, "Hey, bikes..." "Genesis."

She happens to be a neighbor two blocks away from your shop.

"Hey, it's the only place to go.

"It's the only place you can trust."

And that's the kind of feel that the city of Easton, the entire city has really fostered.

I know that you were a big part of that along the way, as you were committed to the community as much as they were to you.

- Yeah, I never felt active in the community.

I was so... ...tied up and doing my own thing within the shop, but I tried to make what the bike shop did good for the community.

For example, ice cream rides.

We would have 30, 40, as many as 80 people out riding out for ice cream.

And the Easton Police on bikes would be leading the ride.

It was a popular detail among the officers.

And we had a number of events and rides that just worked out so well.

- Brought everything together both for your shop, for the community, for the community leadership.

Fantastic.

So fantastic.

Logical question would be, why did you decide to retire?

- Well...

It's time.

47 years is quite a while, it's time to try something new for a while.

Don't know what that new is yet.

And it's certainly not going to involve a lot of work, but, you know...

I saw retail, brick-and-mortar retail getting more difficult, more challenging, there's a lot more, of course, online shopping, and, as much as our customers appreciate us, we have to gain them as customers first.

And that's tough when price is such a big issue.

So, there were a number of factors that came in.

And just, the opportunity arose and...

I couldn't turn it down.

- You have three daughters.

- Three daughters.

- We share that, as well.

I have three daughters.

We're a blended family, as well.

So, so fantastic.

I have a daughter on the West Coast, at least for now.

You have a daughter on the West Coast.

Goodness, we've been living parallel lives here.

There wasn't an opportunity, obviously, for family to step in.

There wasn't that same feel for the business.

- Two of my daughters in their teens worked at the bike shop.

I have three grandsons, as well.

Stephanie and I have three grandsons.

And one of the grandsons worked at the bike shop for a while.

They're musicians, though.

That's what they're all about.

- Fantastic.

- So, no, you know that...

I saw a show that you did a while back with Chris Martin about multigenerational businesses.

That's so rare.

- Oh, incredibly rare.

I think in the entire country, if I understand right, or if I'm remembering from my interview with Chris, he is a sixth-generation businessman.

I think there are less than 100 in the entire country.

- Oh, my gosh.

- By the way, we've had, I think, five of those businesses on our show.

So, pretty incredible.

So, six generations, one generation done very, very well.

- Right.

- So, we don't know exactly what's going to come next.

But from your perspective, are you doing kind of what you did when you started the business at 18, kind of going on faith?

- Yeah, it's just...

Right now, enjoying options, not necessarily exercising any of those options, just enjoying having earned those options, and that feels really good.

- Travel, I know your wife is a big fan of travel.

My wife is a huge fan of travel.

I'm...I'm enjoying being home.

You know, I have not been home so much ever as I am now, and I'm really loving it.

We have a house that's two miles from downtown Easton, but yet with woods and deer running around the yard, And it looks like something out of a Disney movie sometimes, with all the animals.

And I'm just really enjoying that.

Yes, there will be some travel for sure, but...

I'm content to drive my wife to the airport once in a while.

- And welcome her home.

- Right, exactly.

- Somebody's got to keep those home fires burning.

I got that.

Running a business is very challenging.

Starting a business on faith is almost, again, being of an age where we were in the early '70s, going, "We're kind of loosey-goosey.

Let it roll very loose."

And jump on our bike and be across town, and hang with friends.

And it all kind of evolved.

What did... As you look back now, what one thing would you have wanted to know way back then that you know now, you just didn't know back then?

- That you only get what you ask for.

- Fascinating.

- I shouldn't say "you only get what you ask for", but you need to ask for what you want, rather than just accept what's offered to you.

In business, that's been really, really important to me.

- There are some incredibly wise folks who have had that same message expressed in slightly different ways.

Some will say you get exactly what you ask for.

Some will say you attract what you're asking for.

And by the way, if you're not getting what you want, it's because you're not asking for the right stuff.

You're focusing on the wrong thing.

So, in your life, that's been a lesson that you've evolved into?

- It was almost something that I consciously picked up on probably in my 30s.

It's like, I don't really have to accept the terms that are being offered to me by this vendor, or this business associate, you know?

I can ask for what I want.

And if I learn to ask for what I want properly, I'll probably get it.

And it's worked out beautifully.

- The word "properly" is a very important part of that.

- Oh, my gosh, respect is... You know, you brought up something about being at work more than being at home.

I wanted to make that...

If I'm going to spend all my time there, I want it to be happy.

And I wanted my relationships to be good, and... Just that respect is really, really important.

I don't know how else to say it, but kindness is key.

- I think you're saying it incredibly well.

We, in our financial advisory firm, have laid claim that our biggest advantage in competition against other advisors... we're really nice.

- Right there, you have it right there.

If you're nice and you follow up, that's 80% of it right there.

- Tomias, you've been obviously very nice for a long time.

47 years, both in your work and with your family.

And it seems to have worked out rather well.

I want to absolutely thank you for being part of our experience here on PBS.

- Thank you.

It's been really a pleasure.

- Thank you.

I turn to my audience and say, gosh, if you didn't pick up half a dozen things that you wanted to write down real quickly, don't forget, you can watch this on rebroadcasts, and you can check it out on our website here shortly, MoreThanMoneyOnline.com.

We post all our shows right there because you're going to want to watch this episode again.

And of course, if you have questions, if you have concerns, how to start that business on more than faith, how to have those lessons that are offered up to you that you can make your business thrive maybe as well as 47 years, and then, enjoy that transition to whatever comes next, all you have to do is ask.

Send me those emails, Gene@AskMTM.com.

Gene@AskMTM.com.

And, as your very first lesson in the world of entrepreneurship, be nice, be kind, be courteous, be respectful, enjoy the ride, and be nice to people along the way.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.

We'll see you next time right here on More Than Money.