Ozarks Profile: Nan Woodsome

Tell us about your company.

It is a motorcycle dealership, in business since October 2003. Right now I have five full-time and two part-time employees. We are new dealers for Victory motorcycles, which are made by Polaris, and Big Dog motorcycles.

How did you come to be a small-business owner?

We moved here from a small suburb of Denver about three years ago. We moved here with the intent of kind of slowing down and finding our own thing to do and this came up for sale and we decided to buy it, me and my husband, Tim.

Did you already have an interest in motorcycles?

We've been riding motorcycles in fact, that's how we met in college Tim's been riding for almost 40 years, I guess, and I've been riding for probably about 30. It's something that we have a passion for, and we were looking for a business where ... we could share our passion with everyone else ... . We were very interested in Victory motorcycles. They're a new line . This is their sixth year.

What has surprised you most about business ownership?

The biggest surprise in running my own business is how you can never be gone. I had my own business in Colorado. I did contract training but it was just me, so I would work with clients and schedule my time around clients. And the retail environment is very different. Whenever the doors are open, I've got to be here.

What advice do you have for would-be entrepreneurs?

Make sure you research whatever it is that you're wanting to go into business and do. I did a lot of research about three months of research before we decided the motorcycle business would be something we would enjoy doing. Know your market, know if Springfield can carry whatever it is that you're wanting to do.

What goals do you have for the business?

First is to survive the first year (and) we're almost there ... . When we first came to Springfield, I noticed that the motorcycle dealers in town didn't really cater to women unless they were willing to wear very skimpy clothing. One of the first things I did when I bought the store was revamp the apparel line to be about 50 percent for women of all ages, because I think that's a huge market that's being missed. My next goal will be to try and bring in motorcycle lines that will also fit within that.

Tell me about your family.

Tim and I just celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. We have a daughter, Samantha, who's 21, and she's a senior at SMSU. I have a son, Tyler, who's 18. We just dropped him off at MU . We have an empty house. Just us and the dogs.

What about spare time interests?

One of the things we thought when we bought the business was that we'd have spare-time to do the things that we love. We moved down here so that we could go to the lake a lot, and this is our third summer here and we haven't been (to the lake) in two years. We do love to go on motorcycle rides, of course, when we get the chance.