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Starting a high-end audio shop... Am I crazy?

In my mid 40's reaching that mid-life crisis, which is not a myth. Many of my friends are leaving good jobs to start all kinds of wacky businesses. I am actually thinking of giving up a $120,000 yr job and starting a high-end audio retail biz - both online and hopefully later on a brick & mortar store. Have 20 years experience in sales and marketing, and/or design of software, electronics, multimedia, video and financial products including a few years in music retail and production.

Who can share their experience, or advice? Is the markup, distribution, etc of high end electronics similar to that of regular electronics? Any sources of info or pointers, tips, horror stories etc are appreciated.
gdoodle
jeffjarvis
257 posts
 

People are just one mouse click away from a better price these days.
How can you compete with that?
Post removed 
pmotz
412 posts
 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is have you made any contacts with manufacturers yet? If there are exisiting dealers in your area for desirable lines you will likely not get those lines. You may be stuck with less desirable lines that are harder to move. Opening a brick and mortar store has a lot of up front costs that you stand a good chance of losing if you don't make it. Additionally, the business will become a time hole, you have to be there when the store is open then you have to take care of all the other things like installations, stroking the good customers, accounting, local politics, etc. I don't recall the number, but there is a very high percentage of small businesses that fail in the first year, and many of those are selling much more popular items. High end audio is such a small sliver of the overall electronics market that it will be an uphill battle. I would definitely go with the recommendation of sticking with your current job and doing this on the side. I think many of the small time folks run the business on the side and use it to feed their hobby. I think the bottom line is, how much can you stand to lose? That will determine how deep you should get into this!
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
I agree with Rec and Gregm. The overall customer base is relatively small, there is very little support infrastructure, and something not mentioned by either - a fair number of us (part of your customer base) are natural-born cheapskates. I, too, would highly recommend starting your efforts as a "paying hobby." As Gregm noted, the "value proposition" of high-end audio is "weak." The most successful dealers I have run into have something which makes them "sticky" as counterparts. They cater to their customers like personal servants, they specialize in one particular kind of item (only independent manufacturers, only analog, etc), or one particular kind of sales (low margin high turnover, low turnover but one-of-a-kind (or very rare) items), or they have a personality which drives them to be mavens. In each case, the "value" is in the person offering the goods, not the goods themselves.

As a personal aside... Every now and then I try to think of myself trying to make a business out of my hobbies. I have been able to imagine success in a few different hobbies. Audio ain't one. There is A LOT of competition out there.

That said, dreams are there for a reason... best of luck!
bryanhod
211 posts
 
As someone that started a business when I was 36, although not a high end audio, this thread struck a cord. You have to have a few things to be able to make any startup work. First, you have to either be single or have a partner that completely believes in you. This is more important than anything else in my opinion. The amount of time you will spend on this will be more than your current job. Second, you need to have almost zero debt outside of your mortgage. If you have two car payments, credit cards, student loans and various other debts, you have almost no chance of making this work. A change of lifestyle will be in order. I went from going our to dinner three times a week to about three times a year. Third, you must like and be willing to work 14 hours a day, six or seven days a week for years and not become exausted. The amount of work to get things going is at times overwhelming so be prepared. And then fourth, you must have a passion for the work you are doing. There will be days that you just can't believe you left a great job for what you are doing, and there will be days you can't believe anyone would pay you for what you are doing. Good luck with your endevor.

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