Finding Their Own Business Cycle

Opening a bike shop let this couple turn their passion into a new career.

- Patricia Mertz Esswein

PROFILE

WHO: Diane Cutler, 53, interviewed, and Andy Zivinsky, 47

WHERE: Bryson City, N.C.

WHAT: Owners, Bryson City Bicycles

Why open a bike shop?

We are lifelong bicyclists. I rode across the U.S. when I was 20, and Andy was an accomplished BMX racer as a kid. Andy had mechanical prowess and friends who owned a bike shop, so he thought a shop would work. I was against it. I’d been in bike shops my whole life, and I was never treated with respect. It was a “boys’ club” kind of thing. But Andy said we could be inclusive.

How did you pick Bryson City?