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To hear Gary Surdyke tell it, things were pretty grim in the beginning of his motorcycle sales career. In fact, the first 10 years were spent figuring out how to make money in the business.

Surdyke describes the whole thing as being something like a half-dead fish. Not bloated and floating belly-up, and not lively swimming around. Just sort of drifting along with the current, staring cockeyed at the surface. Just sort of being.

Sales at his Festus, Missouri, shop were lackluster, but the sometimes enduro racer and former computer industry executive did not give in.

"We held on. We were stubborn and didn't know any better," says Surdyke.

A smart move on his part. That initial business endeavor is now a family-run empire of motorcycle dealerships. Included in that lineup is Surdyke Off-Road Marine, one of the top sellers of Polaris ATVs smack in the middle of four-wheeler country.

Housed in what was once Surdyke Harley-Davidson, before it moved to a new location, the off-road store is a 10,000 sq. ft. former restaurant with a two-level showroom.

As the main off-road branch of the Surdyke dealership empire--the other a Yamaha dealership in Lake of the Ozarks--the Festus store offers customers an experience entirely different from that of its big V-twin shops.

"We were big ATV dealers before we were Harley dealers and still are," says Surdyke. "It's more a matter we have just kind of maintained the heavy promotion and heavy advertising in our market. Plus, our location is sort of on the way to the (state's ATV) playground." This is St. Joe State Park, the location of the only public areas for off-road riding in that part of the state.

A demo track through the woods out behind the store allows customers to take a spin on a Polaris Ranger to get a taste of some off-road trails, says Matthew Will, Surdyke's marketing director. The trip is often enough to drive them to make a same-day ATV purchase, Will says.

In a similar vein, the store offers several outdoor and off-road themed open house promotions. In April, a free ATV was given away. In November, the store has a Target Shoot for bow and gun, with the winners taking home a new bow and a $500 gift certificate to Bass Pro Shops, respectively.

Will says both promotions were a great chance to directly display the store's products to those who use them most. In both cases, the events brought new customers into the dealership.

Although the store has had a strict off-road focus, the Festus location is taking on Victory motorcycles this year in its first move to anything street related.

"Jerry Glaeser, my manager there, my sales staff there. They're total Polaris, Victory believers," he says. "It's kind of been a little bit of a smorgasbord store, but the consistency all along was Polaris ATVs, always the one to pay the bills.

"We've been very fortunate over the years to have good product and know how to sell it. I mean we're very aggressive in the market."

With St. Louis, Missouri, only 30 miles away, this means directing 70 percent of its advertising dollars to the big city media market where the focus is on radio advertising. Print, classified and direct mail are use in other forms of advertising.

Eager to grab riders on the way to St. Joe's, Surdyke's has a billboard located near the state park.

Going by the dealership's sales figures, this approach has paid off, with a reported $2 million to $4.9 million in annual revenue. Surdyke's Off-Road increased its sales by more than 200 percent in its first six years of operation.

"My philosophy is if you're not changing, not improving, you're going backwards," says Surdyke. "There's no point in time when you can say 'Boy, this is great; we can sit here with our feet up and just enjoy this.

"You might be able to do that for an evening, but believe me, in this business if you're not running ahead, you're falling behind."