If you were a new dealer......

[emillika]

What product lines would you carry?
What would make you different than the 'guys' down the street?
Would you open up in a retail zone (strip mall) or more like a tech center (single story building with cheaper rent and less traffic)?
What services would you offer?
What policies have you seen from dealers that you have enjoyed doing business with?

As you might have guessed I am contemplating a career change from a Sr level IT position to owner of a home theater dealer/designer. I currently have a good job that pays well with multi-national conglomerate. I am at a point in my life were I want to 'build something' and quite frankly I don't trust corporate America anymore.

I hope you don't mind the questions... they will be seriously listened to and hopefully sometime in the near future you can walk into the store and see and feel something special.

Thanks.

Elmer

[jaakan]

What product lines would you carry?
if biz is local and makes a good product support them first.
Polk Audio and Def-tech are local to me

You can't cover all makes.
have at least two makes in each level
ie: Polk Audio and Def-tech, Yamaha and Marantz, Sunfire and Proceed, Rotel and Rega, Lexicon and Classe, Magnepan and Thiel,
Plus Front projecters and Sim2. Watch out for Dogs : stuff that will not or very hard to sell even if it's highend and/or "cool".

What would make you different than the 'guys' down the street?
Find out what people want, teach, inform, and help them with problem with their current system, instead of trying to make every sale.

single story building is a plus ( a mall = junk and over priced )

What policies have you seen from dealers that you have enjoyed doing business with? What you sell is what you service, it will save you headaches. Package deals, if someone has been buy stuff from you for long time give them a better deal than the guy who just walked in.

What services would you offer?
HT/hi-fi setups and installs
In house demos

Good in store demo/setups will sell a product with very little talking on the sales man side of thing.

I can go in to more detail.

[emillika]

Thanks for all the constructive feedback. If I thought there was already an existing store/company in the area that provided AAA customer service and good product at a good price I would not be wasting my time on this idea.

Does anyone have a truly outstanding A/V store near them that they recommend I visit? I am not adverse to travel so don't let location stop you from suggesting something.

I am also curious if anyone has heard of, or dealt with, Lifestyle Technologies. They have a presence in Atlanta, in North and South Carolina, Maryland, Houston and Dallas.

I also understand that the design/installation end of the business is truly the bread and butter... very similiar business model to the information technology companies I have worked for in the past. Buying a 100 pc's or routers is fairly cheap compared to the consulting, installation, administration and maintenance costs.

One more thing, we all congregate and gain knowledge on these vary web sites... why not take the ideas and lessons learned and educate others to the benefits and advantages and make a buck in the process... ie. HTPC's, webtabets configured to control a theater with good software that is orders of magnitude cheaper than AMX and Creston.


Thanks again,

Elmer

[Lex]

I admire your interest in making a bold life change. I can't say that I blame you. But please do approach this with caution during these relatively tight economic times. I won't say it's not doable. Obviously, a lot of local market factors come into play as to the success of a store in addition to product selection, staffing, etc...

I've considered doing this myself as one part of my A/V business. Startup cost is a major stumbling block for me at this stage. My web business has much less operating costs. Perhaps at some point, my current business will pave the way for that to happen though.

I do know someone that recently started a home based AV business. He moved houses to have a great area for it at his house, but then saw how difficult it was to get people to come to his house to audition, and made the move to open a store. I think he's still working on getting the doors open. While he doesn't have much time, perhaps I can put you in touch with him to maybe learn something about his trials and tribulations of this venture.

Lastly, a MatrixAV.US line of cables would be a nice start to something different, something out of the ordinary! :B

Note, the signature.

Lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[Foxman]

Well I have a couple decent stores in my area, but let me share a story about a turn off. One of the stores in my area is called NOW audio video. I call NOW in one town to ask about interconnects and they tell me one thing, I call NOW in another nearby town and they tell me something differant. The first NOW store is the same store that sold me the wrong custom sub cable about 6 years ago and I have never felt like since then they really knew whats going on in the world of HT. So, after getting all that I went to the first NOW just to check on the price of some Klipsch stuff, in the meantime I mention I am getting a SVS sub...the guy asked, is that a brand? He was serious. My point is, if you do this make sure the people that speak to customers know what the heck they are doing, know their competition and are not just interested in a quick sale, but rather finding the needs and whants of the customer and then presenting them with the optioins that may best suit them. I am in sales and have been my whole life, it is the ONLY way to do business. What attracts me to that store is, it is nicely laid out, professional looking and has seperate rooms with various levels of equipment wich I also recommend.




You just can't fix stupid

[Lex]

We also have a now audio video store here. while it's a step above your best buy and circuit city type store as far as a/v gear, they are still a ways from high end. it's going to be difficult to have qualified fully knowledgable people paying them 15 grand a year. Sure, some now folks are able to make pretty good money, but they are fairly focused in what they sell only, not the entire market. The now here, is laid out pretty well, with several listening areas, but as I said, it's not quite high end. We also have a high end store with top names, and some nice midline gear. In the past, this store wasn't very organized, successful in spite of themselves. Today, someone seems to have them a little more focused on marketing their merchandise. I'm sure it's helped the store some.

lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[Madd]

Rotel,Denon,Marantz,B&K Anthem & Arcam Audio wise.
Speakers: Energy,B&W,Paradigm & PSB.
Video: Marantz,Rotel,Arcam,Pioneer
TV'S : Mits,Hitachi,Pioneer Elite.Runco projector
No strip mall.
Ht is the biggest bussiness as of right now despite the economy!Alot of money being made of HT design/Installation.
One shop I know of is so busy they are only open on Sat/Sun the rest is by opiontment only. Now I would say that is a pretty good bussiness not to be open all week because they are that busy.
A shop would have to be neat and clean professional looking with staff that has knowledge. I sometimes find this to be lacking in the product knowledge area of what they sell. Most of the time I know more about a product they sell then they do. That is from me just doing some online research not even dealing with the product inside and out everyday! The other problem is carrying more then one or two models of one maker, most lacking in that area too. Trade up policies are nice too,along with free upgrades to name a few. One thing to offer is ISF calabration, not many people do this sort of thing, hard to find someone out there that is ISF certified.




Never argue with a fool,one may not know the difference!