I am openning a shop. What equipment should I sell

Hi Jim,

A quick question: What reasons to you see for moving from a home based
business to a storefront retail store? Expansion? Privacy? More access to
selling different brands?

I know selling out of your home is not ideal and very common. However, with
the current explosion of the Internet and the shift of the High End market to
Internet sales (Underwood Hifi, Music Direct etc.) and factory direct
(Welborne, Fi, Tyler, even Sophia Electric and Cain sell direct), it will become
increasingly difficult to keep running a storefront business. Interestingly
some of the Internet retailers (e.g. Acoustic Sounds) started out as home
businesses. Just a thought...

If you go ahead for a store front business, I would follow Trelja's advise:

As to which brands you carry, I would rely on your own
intuition - sonically, economically, and relationshipwise. It seems obvious,
but selling a brand you don't believe in will not allow you to put your full
energy into the endeavor.

Hopefully you will not get stuck in selling brand you don't like, as Howard
(Boa2) cautions.

Good luck,

Rene

These days, I don't see anyone that is not already a well-established dealer making money on audio. It's home theater, custom installation, distributed music/video, Crestron (or the like) control system and even automobile audio that makes money. Audio is often a dealer's passion, but rarely the bread-winner.

Still, you would need some lines of audio gear. I think a good anchor middle line of electronics is important (e.g., Arcam, Creek, NAD, Marantz). Having a line that covers everything and has a fanatic core customer base may also be a good idea (e.g., Linn, Naim, Audionote).

I also think some good speaker lines are key. With speakers, you can offer your customer real service (setup, auditions, etc) as a reason for shopping with you and there is less internet competition for new speakers. Some good basic lines include Vandersteen, Thiel, JM Labs, B&W, Spendor and Sonus Faber (note, I don't necessarily personally like the sound of all of these lines, but they do represent good value and/or good dealer support).

The stuff I personally like will never be best sellers, but, if you could support a few lines like these, it would be nice: Art Audio, Audionote (u.k), Emotive Audio, Basis, DeVore, Edgarhorn, Gradient and JM Reynard. A few budget lines I have heard that offered promising sound include: Rogue (US tube electronics manufacturer),Consonance and Cayin (Chinese).

Good luck on your endeavors.

A lot of people have gone bankrupt setting up shops and selling their ''favorite brand'' or gizmo they were passionate about. Trouble is, there is often a large gap (and resulting small market) between what the business owner likes as a result of personnal taste, and what his client's real needs and purchase criteria are. And this goes for any type of business, and mainly for high-end items of any type: photography, watches, boats...and high-end audio. The ''higher-end'' the product is, the smaller the resulting market is, and consequently the bigger the chances are that the real purchase decisions have to do with intangibles (like exclusivity, or prestige, or any number of things) instead of mainly product or product performance. Do you really think that people spending 8K thousand bucks on a Rolex ''self winding'' mechanical watch spend all this money for a watch to keep accurate time? Hell, the thing has a variation of + or - 6 seconds a day, and it still says ''superlative chronometer'' on it's dial - while a $ 600.00 Tag Huer will be INFINITELY more accurate, just as a $60.00 Timex for that matter.

There is nothing wrong with selling things you are passionate about. But success will only come if you are willing to sell products that ARE IN DEMAND regardless of the fact that you like them or not. It is the difference between a hobby, where you can indulge in only the things that you are passionate about, and a business, where you have to let go part of that passion in order to put butter on the table.

This is why I feel that extremely passionate people about high-end audio (minus a few exceptions) will do poorly as audio-business owners.

Sell the best equipment that you have never heard!

Maunfacturers are fussy. You can't just say you want to carry B & W and they will open you up.