I am openning a shop. What equipment should I sell

Hi Sounds real audio,
I went down that path myself. In todays market this is a tough proposition. I knew Randy Patton, so I carried a couple of his products. PS, Meitner, I didn't pick up Threshold. I built my own speakers. I came from the old Marcof Electronics/SpeakerCraft, so I actually sold more of my speakers than anything else. I ended up branching into car audio, that helped, I then branched into home theater and Installations. I was working day and night, I finally got the shop up to a break even, but wasn't making any money. I took my share out of the business, signed it all over to my partner, took my name off of everything. They lasted another 18 months struggling the whole time.
You have to be in the right place, carrying a reasonable mix of products and be willing to do this as a passion rather than a big income.... The overhead alone makes this a tough proposition. I believe that it is possible, but with the mix of products available, there is always someone selling a great product on the internet with no overhead and willing to make minimal margins that you can't compete with.
I believe that this is still possible, but it would require a real business plan, knowing your area, knowing your competition and understanding what your customer base will be. Good Luck, Tim

Abucktwoeighty

You are so right. Just sell stuff you have never heard. The reviews say it is good so it must be.
Seriously I think a lot of these on line retailers must do that.

Goldeneraguy

Thank god for food stamps.......people come to listen and I go out to their car and siphon gas....

Not much money but good people and lots of fun...

Having heard Sounds_real_audio's room at a couple RMAF shows, I'd have to say he made some good choices, at least concerning the sound of the system.

(Wasn't a big fan of the Sonist speakers though, especially in contrast to the excellent Wilson Benesch Curve speakers featured last year...although I recognize the value Sonist speakers offer).

I grew up in Albany, NY. A ton of hifi shops have come and gone over the last 2 or 3 decades. Only one has stayed.

Hippo's does things unlike most hifi shops I've seen. They actually advertise in print, radio, and TV. They carry one or two big box brands to get the average Joe's attention, like Sony and JVC. They advertise that stuff at a few bucks less than the big box stores (a Best Buy is about 5 minutes down the road).

When the average Joe walks in, they have to walk past a few McIntosh, Rotel, and Cambridge systems to get to the Sony stuff in the back. No one walks by a Mac anything without noticing it.

They don't bait and switch. They audition stuff like KEF and B&W against near equally priced Sony stuff. They show what a few more bucks will get, and what a few bucks less will get.

They do a lot of HT and stereo sales. They also do a ton of custom home and business installs. And they've embraced the iPod and DACs, rather than fight them.

They have a very knowledgable, non-snob, non-teenaged staff.

These things sound like common sense, yet how many dealers have actually done anything resembling this?

It would seem that there are very few bricks and mortar shops making money on (new) retail high end audio. As several have noted, custom HT installations are now the bread and butter for these businesses. I've been an investment baker advising businesses for most of my career and my advice in this instance would be:

"Proceed with extreme caution." Beyond that, just 2 specific thoughts.

Most small businesses do not fail because they are inherently unsustainable. Rather, they simply run out of money. Make sure that you are adequately capitalized before you jump in.

Keep your overhead under control! This would probably be the first priority, since you face an uncertain cash flow stream. Any meaningful nut could sink you.

Good Luck.

Marty