Originally posted on KultureBlog.com November 2011
This is the first Bingo’s View I’ve written in quite awhile and the very first for the GarageBoyz Magazine/KultureBlog.com site. My views, circumstances and approach, have changed quite a bit since the day I started GarageBoyz Magazine a few years ago, and wrote the first Bingo’s View. I am however still passionate about bringing awareness, unity and preservation to our gasoline soaked, ink covered life of Kulture.. The constants that do remain are my desire to provide a magazine or e-zine for the Kulture Community as well as to build a company that provides a living for me and others within this community doing what we love.One that highlights and works with other local Kulture businesses, artists, people, cars, bikes and all the things that make up our Kulture and to offers a place for this Kulture to thrive. Having finally drawn my line in the sand and making the new format GarageBoyz.com the direction of the website, I can now get back down to business, and boy has the business ends of things changed. I left the motorcycle dealership where I had worked for the last 10 years, in July of 2011 . I am currently employed by my own company The GarageBoyz Group LLC full time. By employed I mean in a chief, cook, and bottle washer put in a ton of hours for no paycheck type of employed. With this decision I found an abundance of time and a very long path ahead of me. Depending on how the day, week or month is going, this time is the most valuable resource in the world, and this uncharted path seems ripe with endless possibility. Some days the curse of not having the essential other resources… like a steady pay-check, slips in to remind me of the cost equation of life. I believe that The GarageBoyz Group LLC will one day be an important part of the Kulture Community as well as a thriving company. One that people will want to support, be a part of and that gives back to the kulture. One that is built on Passion, Kulture, Tradition and the belief that the love of cars, bikes, tattoos and other kool stuff is meant to be enjoyed, preserved and is a big part of who we are as a country. Currently, I have the pleasure of chasing this belief in exchange for the discomfort of uncertain circumstances. Right now this blogazine is the only tangible I can actually create and offer to the Kulture Community. It is still all FREE, with no paid advertisement and is solely supported by whatever money I can personally throw at it. Making money from the magazine itself was never the primary plan. The bigger part of the “plan” is the opening of a sustainable brick and mortar retail store/GarageBoyz offices/koolest place in the universe GarageBoyz Group shop. I am painfully aware that I cannot accomplish this all on my own. It can only happen when the right set of people and circumstances meet the right connections. Finding harmony with the right people, perfect location, proper business model along with finding available financial resources in the middle of a national economic meltdown is no small task. Some days it feels as though I am getting closer to pulling it all together. It seems like I have found the right people to partner with, or the right storefront to hang my shop sign and a business model that can work. Often after digging in a bit deeper and doing my due diligence ,the problems with taking those particular paths become glaringly obvious and its back to step one. Other days I just want to get back to having a job in the motorcycle industry again and I seek out the familiar environment and employ of the old dealership. The lure of stability and having a steady job that at least provides me the resources to serve the motorcycle community while paying the bills, often seem like a logical decision. It also makes financially supporting the website a lot easier. Most days though, the life of an unpaid editor of a local kulture community magazine and founder/president of a struggling Kulture based company feels like the top of the food chain career wise.
The building of The GarageBoyz Group is what I have been working towards my entire life , it feels like the most natural and purposeful way to spend my life, serving the Kulture Community immersed in the things I love and doing it on my own terms. That truly is living the dream.
Proudly Serving The Kulture Community... Rich "Bingo" Fournier (Bingo@Kultureblog.com)
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