Trouble is you would have to deal with the general public, that would be enough to put me off, people wanting finance, shitty p/ex's, a warranty and just generally wasting your time. A mate of mine dabbled, bought some bikes from dealers and sold on. It was never very glamorous buying Yamaha Diversions with 30,000 miles. Occasionally he would be offered something half decent but they would normally be offered to the 'specialists'...it's all about contacts in buying and selling which takes years to develop.. What about motorcycle bodywork repairs, kind of like a 'chips away' for bikes ...
Building on Nelly's comment, and what others have said, it will be a long haul to build your expertise and reputation. I don't know if the market is large enough to make a decent living, but NineExcellence is a Porsche Indie that I use which was set up by an ex-IT guy that has a great reputation and started from not dissimilar motives. As a technical minded guy, he built his reputation on performance upgrades plus first class servicing which - similar to the Ducati world - appeals to a lot of owners of 911s who love to fettle their cars. He does service only, not sales. So his skill set was sort of transferable, in that he's a technically minded guy. I'd take an honest look at your skill set as much as the market place, and reflect on what motivates you for the long term. Psychologists talk about 3 basic motives: affiliation (ie working with people, being part of a team, building relationships etc), power/influence (getting things done through others, power over others) and achievement/mastery (being the best at what you do, making a difference, getting stuff done). The point is that most people find 1 or 2 of these 3 drivers are dominant for them, and the dominant drivers tell you where your energy comes from. Just reflecting on the activities that give you energy (and drain your energy) will reveal your drives. So for me achievement/mastery is the dominant drive: I have endless energy for learning and mastery. But exercising power and playing politics drains my energy: I can and have done it for years, in corporate jobs, but I need recovery time. The point is simply to choose a path that is going to energise you, and thus will be sustainable and enjoyable. Since customer service is a key part of this type of lifestyle business, people will buy you and who you are, and what you stand for. I think these days people appreciate passion and service from independent businesses, and many new businesses thrive based on it: like restaurants and gastro pubs for example. Not that I'm comparing, they are different businesses altogether. Best of luck with the yoga business. My brother is British national freediving champion (diving to over 100M on one breath!) and his partner teaches yoga at their school in indonesia. They tackle the retreat/holiday market, which is clearly different, but yoga tuition seems a great local business in the right area. Very loyal customers, and (I imagine like kung fu) very addictive...
A "chips away" for bikes would be really good. All the car places round here wont touch a motorcycle tank with a small dent. Also, "hire a spray booth" would be great, where you just bring your own gun and paint/thinners, etc, and hire a booth for 3 or 4 days. Rather than struggling it your garage and losing your temper and covering everything in dust :Bag:.
I don't see how you can sell used bikes without a workshop and servicing facilities, especially Ducatis. I wouldn't pay dealer prices without some sort of mechanical back up from the dealer. Know any factory trained mechanics at a loose end?
Not 100% necessary. I look after bikes for a couple of 'dealers'.... They stick to what they do best, polishing and selling, and farm out the mechanical stuff to me. If the OP has the selling knack but not the technical, then it'd be suicide to try, especially in the onset of starting up.
