Amanda Brown

Brown answered the following questions about her unusual company and how she juggles being an entrepreneur and holding down a full-time job.

What is your educational background?

"I have a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Louisville with a major in accounting."Brown is a senior accountant for Cotton and Allen PSC, one of the area's largest accounting firms, where she has worked for almost two years.

You have a full-time job and run your own business?

"Cotton and Allen was very receptive to me having my second job.My experience as a small-business owner helps me service my clients at Cotton and Allen and vice versa."Brown works about 50 to 60 hours a week at Cotton and Allen during tax season, spending about 10 hours a week at Scootopia.The rest of the year, she works a regular 40-hour week at Cotton and Allen and puts in about 20 hours a week at Scootopia.

Amanda Brown, CPA

Cotton & Allen, PSC

Even before the fallout from Enron would claim her job at accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Amanda Brown built something to fall back on: her own motor scooter business.

"I've always liked motorcycles, and I've always liked the fact that scooters are more economical, they're more efficient, they don't pollute as much," the 27-year-old Louisville native said."It's a nice, economical way to get back and forth to work and to school."

Helped by a strong June, the best sales month in her venture's short history, 1-yearold Scootopia has turned a profit on $100,000 in annual sales from Brown's initial $10,000 investment.

Juggling her small business with her new job as a certified public accountant at Cotton & Allen -- Andersen laid her off in May when its Louisville office was sold -- Brown made it through the always stressful first year only to face another challenge.

After finding what she thought was the perfect location, an affordable and hightraffic space at 3135 Preston Highway, "we're having zoning trouble."

Brown has learned that her property is not zoned for "motor vehicles," a requirement if she is going to sell the largest and most powerful scooters from her current location.

"They don't actually have a separate classification for motorcycle dealers," she said."They have one that's called motor vehicles -- a car lot.Everything falls into that one big catch-all."

She sighs, exasperated.

"This isn't a car lot.
...
It's a store," Brown said."I'm either going to have to move or spend a lot of money to get a variance."

Scooters have had an awkward time fitting into zoning codes and society alike.After a boom of popularity in the late 1980s, cresting in 1987 when 150,000 units sold nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency began cracking down on them.Now that cleaner-running models are on the market, Brown is riding the wave of a comeback.

With most models priced in the $2,000 to $3,000 range, she says, college students have found scooters affordable and practical.Retirees also are discovering them -- some even put them on the backs of recreational vehicles.Brown says she knows of a group of Louisville homemakers who get together and ride.

Brown came across scooters after her initial market research told her Louisville had no room for another motorcycle shop.There were no scooter shops, however, and she said some motorcycle dealers tended to treat the few scooters they had as an afterthought.

"A lot of people who like scooters are intimidated about going to a motorcycle shop," she said."The scooters would be in the back corner covered with dust."

She started researching scooter brands.

"Honda and Yamaha, they've al-ready got motorcycle dealers and ATV (all-terrain vehicle) dealers who are required to carry those two lines," Brown said."I started looking at the European dealers.There are several models I looked into before we came across Malaguti."

The Italian firm was new to the U.S. market in 2001 -- and hungry for dealers.For Malaguti and Brown, the timing was perfect.She has since snagged the local franchises for other European scooters, including Aprilia and Derbi.

After forming Scootopia in July 2001, Brown sold a vehicle she owned to finance the purchase of her first six scooters, which arrived two months later.

"Sadly enough, we actually made our first scooter sale on Sept. 11," she said.

The scooters can travel, depending on the model, from 35 to 75 mph, though the fastest, most powerful ones need to be licensed as motorcycles and require a motorcycle operator's license.On average, the scooters can travel about 200 miles on a 2-gallon tank of gas.

A graduate of the University of Louisville's College of Business and Public Administration, Brown has kept in touch with her network of former professors, to whom she sometimes turns for advice.

"The most difficult thing to get is financing for a new person owning a new business," Brown said."A lot of people don't want to lend money until you have been in business for a year.My full-time job helps to subsidize my business."

It also makes for some long workweeks.
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Brown also sells parts for the scooters, but it's the body work that's been an unexpected source of business.Some people are a little rough on the scooters and bang them up, she said.

Her parents also have been a source of instruction and support.

"They were business owners, failed a business, and I learned a little bit from their mistakes," she said.

One lesson she's learned from the annals of failed businesses is to be patient and not worry immediately about expansion.

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