High End Stores.

[jdohman 10+ year member]

As some of you know I worked at one of the Tweeter's that will be closing down. I will be starting my own company with another guy.

We will mostly be a installation company the works with customers who buy things on the internet and need them professionally installed. We will have a dedicated car installer that is very good and technical. The product we will be carrying will be more higher end stuff. I will be picking up DLS and Polk SR. Probably one more line as well. We will also be doing a lot of home theater sales and installation as well.

My question for you all is this. How many of you all would buy from someone without a showroom. To start with I will not have a storefront. I have 3 Media rooms setup with Polk and dls. I also have 2 car's setup with Polk sr speakers and subs. We will focus on very high-end installation and we have very high standards.

We make sure every connection is soldered and heat shrink is used. All speaker wires are cut to the same length. You know all the little things that should be done but take to much time for normal shops to do.

We have a very large custom portfolio of jobs we have done over the last 3 years. The question is would you buy from someone like us who does not have all the flash or someone who may not have standards and a pretty sound room. I know most of you buy online but I am talking in general.

Please keep this post serious I am trying to make some business decisions and need serious input.

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[fscker 10+ year member]

probably because it is high end. and people who come with theyre equipment to be installed already have it. so why buy yours, when theyre coming in with what they own. if your in a rich area, high end is good. other than that, i dont see you selling much. my local audio shop is a shithole. theyre high end consists of eclipse. nobody buys it because its a poor town. everyone buys theyre kicker comps, old solo barics, etc. they come to get things installed, thats about it.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

You won't do well in the home audio side of things if you don't have a demo room, IMO.

 

[fscker 10+ year member]

if you plan on getting a demo room, then just do what you can until then. maybe youll get a nice reputation out of referalls only. do a few sales/installs for some people. let them talk, bring you business. theyll be coming theyre for your work quality, not your showroom apperance.

 

[jdohman 10+ year member]

You won't do well in the home audio side of things if you don't have a demo room, IMO.

I actually have 3 rooms setup for customers to listen 2. They are dedicated though and you cannot switch between speakers.

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

As some of you know I worked at one of the Tweeter's that will be closing down. I will be starting my own company with another guy.
We will mostly be a installation company the works with customers who buy things on the internet and need them professionally installed. We will have a dedicated car installer that is very good and technical. The product we will be carrying will be more higher end stuff. I will be picking up DLS and Polk SR. Probably one more line as well. We will also be doing a lot of home theater sales and installation as well.

My question for you all is this. How many of you all would buy from someone without a showroom. To start with I will not have a storefront. I have 3 Media rooms setup with Polk and dls. I also have 2 car's setup with Polk sr speakers and subs. We will focus on very high-end installation and we have very high standards.

We make sure every connection is soldered and heat shrink is used. All speaker wires are cut to the same length. You know all the little things that should be done but take to much time for normal shops to do.

We have a very large custom portfolio of jobs we have done over the last 3 years. The question is would you buy from someone like us who does not have all the flash or someone who may not have standards and a pretty sound room. I know most of you buy online but I am talking in general.

Please keep this post serious I am trying to make some business decisions and need serious input.

This Justin? I went to the SLAP show you guys had a couple of years ago. Sorry to hear about the store closing. You guys had at least 1 good installer/glasser. Good luck with the new venture.

Not to take business away from them, but http://www.innovativerides.com knows how to do it right. I don't think they have a current showroom. They didn't last time I was there. Appointment only top of the line installs is what I've seen from them. Maybe an IR Dallas?

 

[Savstyle 10+ year member]

Its a cool idea but i dont think it would work to well. Since alot of people with systems arent like the people you find on audio forums. Useally they goto shops listen to what they have, and if they like it they buy it and get it installed there. Not to mention if you dealing mainly with high end, your mainly only gonna get customer off referralls and word of mouth. Since not alot of people are ready to toss 300+ on comps and 200+ and an amp for them. I could be wrong because i love the idea

I hope i am

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

There is actually a shop near me owned by a friend of mine with the same basic idea. they dont have a showroom, just basically specialize in installs of audio, security, rims, tires, things of that such. he does very well on about a 3 mile stretch of road where there are 5 quality audio shops.

just after being open three months he is hiring a few more installers and building three more install bays

the guy has tons of business because he does quality work at an extremely reasonable price.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

You might do OK, but I really don't see much potential without a showroom. Unless you market yourself as strictly install-oriented. Besides, with only 3 lines of equipment, i don't see you guys selling a whole lot of stuff anyway. If you want to sell equipment AND install, I would bring in some more equipment and set up a sound room so that people can test out stuff. I've known a few shops that did well with sound rooms no larger than a decent sized bathroom. One shop in particular had their sound display, satellite tv stuff, and sales counter all in a room no larger than my living room. Another shop I've bought from was about the same size and they had several lines of car audio stuff as well as alarms. Both shops did well enough to move to significantly larger premises within a few years. And both shops were in areas that had populations of only ~10,000.

Otherwise, if you don't want to set up a sound room, I would just scrap the sales angle. Build a shop car or two with stuff off the net to show what you guys can do, and market yourselves strictly as installers.

 

[jdohman 10+ year member]

Its a cool idea but i dont think it would work to well. Since alot of people with systems arent like the people you find on audio forums. Useally they goto shops listen to what they have, and if they like it they buy it and get it installed there. Not to mention if you dealing mainly with high end, your mainly only gonna get customer off referralls and word of mouth. Since not alot of people are ready to toss 300+ on comps and 200+ and an amp for them. I could be wrong because i love the idea
I hope i am

I live in a different area. I do 30k a month as well as my partner in mobile business alone. We both only do custom work and our best selling speaker between the 2 of us are SR6500's from polk 799 retail and for entry level 300 bucks for focal's. Those are the only 2 speakers we sell and we do 'did' quite well.

This is aside from the other 70k a month I did in home audio/video not to mention him.

 

[jdohman 10+ year member]

You might do OK, but I really don't see much potential without a showroom. Unless you market yourself as strictly install-oriented. Besides, with only 3 lines of equipment, i don't see you guys selling a whole lot of stuff anyway. If you want to sell equipment AND install, I would bring in some more equipment and set up a sound room so that people can test out stuff. I've known a few shops that did well with sound rooms no larger than a decent sized bathroom. One shop in particular had their sound display, satellite tv stuff, and sales counter all in a room no larger than my living room. Another shop I've bought from was about the same size and they had several lines of car audio stuff as well as alarms. Both shops did well enough to move to significantly larger premises within a few years. And both shops were in areas that had populations of only ~10,000.
Otherwise, if you don't want to set up a sound room, I would just scrap the sales angle. Build a shop car or two with stuff off the net to show what you guys can do, and market yourselves strictly as installers.

I work off 5 years of referral business and so does my partner. So not having any gear to sell people that I have dealt with in the past would be rather stupid. I still have customers that do not shop on the net and want the best you can buy. This is why I have to have something to offer.

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

honestly i think you will do fine. i mean lets be honest, since probably your first system how many of us have bought anything full price from a retail store. why would you when you can get everything more than half off online

 

[Spooby 10+ year member]

It'll boil down to your reputation, marketing and the location of the store. http://www.innovativerides.com has done well doing it without a showroom in the 2+ years its been around, but we are making plans on getting a stand alone building as a satellite location in the near future.

You'll work harder to get the customers in your door, but if your reputation is as good as you say it is then you shouldn't have a problem. You will miss out on most if not all walk-in retail customers though. The experienced car audio customer also knows who to trust and who sucks, regardless if they have a showroom or not. It'll be the money from n00bs that will be a bit harder to come by only because many of them feel a showroom gives them an accurate feel of the speaker's performance.