July 27, 2005 -- It's become one of the most popular hobbies in the nation, has thousands of die-hard followers, and could be considered more of a recreational pasttime than strenuous work.

But for Jerry Covington, owner of Covington's Cycle City, building custom motorcycles is a passion and a profession.

"I've always had a love for building motorcycles," Covington says.

Covington's small business has grown from the ground up. It all began before Covington even started college. He began working on motorcycles when he was 17. He kept his hobby throughout his college and early working years, but never put it to any kind of profitable use until a little more than a decade ago.

After going through college at the University of Southern California and working for a custom car dealer, he decided to rev up his motorcycle building skills and hit the ground running with a business.

He now owns one of the more popular chopper joints in the United States.

Start-to-Finish is a Long, Difficult Race
Covington said it wasn't an easy path to his present-day destination.

"It's a lot of hard work, and it takes time," he says.

Covington's involvement in the custom motorcycle business began somewhat by chance.

After opening a Harley store in the small northwestern town of Woodward, Okla., Covington began to make custom motorcycles for himself, and his customers took notice of the sleek, silky-smooth bikes.

"I'd build my custom motorcycle and somebody would want it; I'd build another and somebody would want it," he says.

At the time, he only had three employees, but that would soon change.

With the interest in his motorcycles skyrocketing, his business started to escalate rapidly. He started to build custom motorcycles at an accelerated pace while teaching his employees his trade secrets.

"We really got into building them," he says. "We trained our employees to build the way we want to build. It worked out pretty good."

Today, he has 18 employees - 14 that actually build and maintain the bikes, and four that work office jobs.

But despite his company's growth, it was still struck with adversity along the way.

One of the problems Covington encountered was his location. Exposure and recognition didn't come easy since he was not in a major city. Covington and his crew, however, had a plan.

They started to regular various motorcycle shows and conventions around the nation.

The events featured bike builders and owners from across the nation, most of whom entered their bikes in the showcase contests. Covington didn't usually enter his bikes, however. He was only there to show off his product to potential customers.

"We just finally had to bring the people to us; let them know where we're at," he said. "We worked vendor deals at all the major motorcycle events, including Daytona Beach Bike Week, Myrtle Beach Bike Week, and the Houston Autorama and Bike Show."

Air Time and Ad Time Payoff
The cycle shop had a huge gain in notoriety when it was featured in a motorcycle-building contest that aired on the Discovery channel. Covington's gang won the contest, and Covington said business has picked up ever since.

"It helped with the recognition more than anything," Covington says. "That's one of the things we've noticed most from being on national TV - people now know where we're at."

Advertising has always been a big part of his company's budget as well. Covington says besides the publicity his company received on television and various magazines, it also spends a substantial amount of money advertising in those mediums.

He started advertising in 1997 with a small budget of $1,500 a month. That budget has now increased to $10,000 a month.

But Covington says the most effective advertising for his business has been customers showing their bikes to others with the same interests.

"For the most part, our custom bikes are word of mouth," he says. "A lot of our customers have friends that are in the same league as they are, and when they see their bikes they've got to have one."

Covington says marketing and advertising have helped his company immensely, but the key to success is patience and diligence.

"You've really got to start at the bottom and build your reputation before you can actually build your business," Covington says. "I really think the long hours of hard work is what really pays off. That's the overall deal on all of it."