Let's talk about starting a business and making a living in car audio.

[germanyt 10+ year member]

Since I was mentioned in the initial post.... I'll say that this is a tough subject, as the best advice is, do not go into this industry thinking you are going to make big money if you want to do it the ethical way. Few are able to make a great career out of it while still being honest and having great quality products. You have to REALLLLLLLLLY love audio to do it for a long period of time.

Well my initial goal is to just replace all the prefab business where I live. I'm not in Baton Rouge anymore so a smaller market. I'm 30 minutes east. There are 2 shops that sell prefabs and I'm sure that once people start to hear what a difference a properly designed enclosure can make word will get out and I can scoop up all that work. It'll be mostly two 12, two 15, singe 12, etc type of work but I want to do something different than what they get at the stores. My first is a stained birch and any carpet work will be done with a higher quality carpet and I'll try to better match the vehicle interior. I've also picked up quite a few tips from CAF that I'll try out on scrap wood. Eventually a website and FB page with some shipping. Then if all goes well I'll start with more complicated full installs, deadener, factory integration, etc. Then retail space with a garage and online sales. All in due time I suppose. I'm not rushing it.

 

[germanyt 10+ year member]

Well thinks are off to a slow start but at least it's going. I've hit a bit of a roadblock though. I've sent requests to two companies but received decline letters back from them. They both say they really would like more brick and mortar stores as they are set with online sales. Maybe what I need to do seek out a smaller lesser know company like Vital Power, for example, and grow with the company. I do intend to have a brick and mortar store in the future but without online sales I don't see a path to the capital needed for commercial space. I wish I had some insight. In any case, my website is under construction and I'm operating on Facebook for now.

 

[germanyt 10+ year member]

Some good news. A local audio store that doesn't have a wood shop told me they'd be interested in stocking some of my boxes as long as we can work out a deal on price that is beneficial to them. Since most people don't know a prefab from a custom it's not as easy a sell as a 100 dollar prefab but if they sell a few and word gets out then maybe business will pick up. I'm finishing a 2 12 box this week if I can get over to baton rouge to pick up some carpet. The carpet place is a 45 minute drive and they're only open on weekdays.