If I said I was going to open an HT store and/or installation service what would you as a customer want out of it?

Thx
Don

Don, me as your partner!

Larry

The store that I go to here in New Hampshire has a lot of the features I would suggest. Check them out at www.ensembleav.com

Obviously the product lines that you carry are important, but don't underestimate the power of selling quality used items.

I'd definitely want helpful, knowledgable sales/install people. Not the best buy - circuit city type. Someone who can speak easily to give most people an understanding of a/v eqpmt. w/o scaring them away from it by it's complexity or confusion, but be more helpful than those poor guys at local stores. (Especially more helpful than a Sony help-line!)

I would like to walk into a store and not be ignored or not given good service because I look to young to afford the equipment. Yes, I am younger than the average Home Theater buff, but I busted my ass in school and got a good Engineering job that allows me to buy some equipment. I think your sales people sell product to about 90% of your customers and the other 10% already know what they want from reading articles or listening to friend's systems.

P.S. I would like some info on how you are starting this business, I have been doing custom installs and putting systems together for friends for about four years, but besides word of mouth I have no advetising.
And it is hard to sell to people without a showroom, but the reason I save them money is because I have no showroom.

J-Dubb

J-Dubb,

I am very young myself, and agree with your statement.

As far as how. I am not quite sure yet, That is why I am asking. I have been looking into a franchise opportunity for "Smart-Home" and possibly having a Mobile HT unit for demos and shows. I would sub out the builds, but do any installation and/or programming with the help of my partner. We have looked into leasing a small store front/office, and as I said having some kind of mobile unit for a demo on the "Integrated" smart home and HT. Kind of like a mock house. What do you all think?

Thx,
Don

The mobile HT unit is and awesome idea. I want to know the price tag on those wheels once you get it on the road. You might need a U-haul trailer full of power to run it.

I actually have started my company, but it is small and usually do work and order equipment for friends and friend's friends. It is called HTD(Home Theater Design). Hopefully in the near future it will take off a little more. I need it to do so to feed my HT appitite

Later

J-Dubb
P.S. Where are you located?

I've been a repeat customer at a local shop because they allow me to trade-up within two years of a purchase. I've upgraded speakers once already.

Excellent point, Doug. Being able to trade up is like a gift, and one of the big reasons I always shop at the same place. But two years is really very good: I can trade up as long as the product is still viable... that is to say, if it hasn't been replaced with a newer model. In fact, I'm waiting to find out right now if I can trade up my Canon G1 camera; the G2 has just hit the stores, and I may be out of luck. ... Mike

That sounds like a great way to keep a good selection of used eqipment on hand! Thanks

Mike, you're right. Two years does sound like a long time, it may be only one year. I don't remember if they actually document the trade in policy or just do it on good faith. In any case, they have maintained the same lines of new equipment for quite a while(NHT speakers in my case). They also deal with other brands of used equipment. I was just in looking around this last weekend. See, it keeps me coming back!

dkupper, me and my partner started our business back in 98, out of a truck. We started doing installations only at first, as we has limited funds.

We did installations referred to us by the local Circuit City and Rex Electronics. (We both worked at Circuit City, and noticed how much stuff was returned because most people couldn't figure out how to get the stuff the bought to work). We did some up-selling for both stores, and did quite well at it. But it was still hard to work with local chains, because something wasn't sold, or the wrong thing was sold, or wrong information given by the store salesman to complete the job. We started carrying accessories and parts to do the job right, which spawned into other products.

Eventually, we hooked up with some good distributors, and started carrying our own lines. And we started being our own salespeople, which made it much easier to do a professional install. But we still couldn't get the products we really wanted.

Over time, it was getting harder and harder to sell big ticket items without the client being able to demo them. So, in the winter of 99, we started looking at putting a showroom together. We looked for a good location, at a reasonable price, to start the endeavor. We wanted a one of a kind, state of the art showroom to display top shelf products. We even had a NYC interior designer, we worked with, help with some of the design of the showroom. The showroom turned out beautiful. (As you can see from our website at www.domanientertainment.com )

One thing I will say is, don't bite off more than you can chew, like we did. Our fancy showroom ended up taking longer than expected to complete, went way over budget, and almost put us out of business. (To this day we are still feeling the effects of this)

Do your research and make sure your demographics will support your choice of product lines, showroom, staff (if you have any), and advertising. We made mistakes in all those areas! And don't expect to be instantly rich, or even get a paycheck regularly! I know I don't!

I will say, I still love what I do, and would not want to do anything else. I get paid to do what I love.

Just some advice from someone who's been there. Hope this helps,

JJP

JJ, your coupons are a little outdated. Excellent work, otherwise. Good luck!

Larry

Thanks Larry. We're working on updating our site.

JJP

Don,

In the UK there is a company called RicherSounds.

http://www.richersounds.com

They are not HT specialists, although they do carry a lot of AV stock. Mostly end-of-line gear. Anyway, they offer an extended guarantee system which is great. It costs you £20 (about $30) for an extended 3-year guarantee. During those 3 years any servicing is free; at the end of those 3 years they guarantee to give you at least Half of what you paid if you upgrade OR at the end of 3 years if you haven't used their servicing facilities and don't want to upgrade they will give you back your original $30 fee.

As you can see they are VERY succesful being the largest HiFi retailer in the UK I think.

I'm not suggesting you follow everything they've done - but the extended guarantee does it for me.

ATB,

Phil