Opening up a small boutique HiFi shop in retirement?

[CleanSound]

Ok, first off, I am far from retirement age. But I am day dreaming of what I will do in retirement should I be fortunate enough to be able to retire given the ridiculous cost of living.

One of the things that comes to mind is maybe I can open a small boutique HiFi shop. I would use this shop to (1) make new friends who shares the same interest in the hobby, generally a way to shoot the breeze and enjoy passing time (2) use the opportunity to educate others the technical how's of how audio equipment works, perhaps explain spinaroma, how speaker measurements correlates to listening experience; understanding I can only go so deep as I'm no expert in th field. But it gives me an opportunity to save a poor soul from the snake oil vultures, (3) make some extra money to subsidized retirement.

But starting any business is obviously not easy and there are of course risks.

For those who owns a shop, please share your experience, would you have chose the same path if you could do it all over again? What is the hardest part of owning and running a HiFi shop? What challenges and headwinds you foresee in the coming 10, 15, 20 years in the HiFi industry? What is the competitive landscape looks like? And how hard is it to keep your shop open and make a decent living?

 

[GD Fan]

@fivepast8 faced a similar conundrum that spawned a very informative thread a couple years ago:

Advice wanted: Taking over an HiFi Store

Dear Forum Members I'd like to get an hear some advice. I am based in Zurich, Switzerland. I am in my mid fifties and was recently retrenched. The past 20 years I have been the managing director of various small to medium enterprises in the high tech field including medical electronics with...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Whatever you decide let us know - you might get some visitors either way.

 

[ryanosaur]

The fastest way to make a small fortune is open an audio store with a large fortune!

Sell cables online... And Isolation feat. Enjoy business trips to all the audio shows.

 

[JSmith]

What is the hardest part of owning and running a HiFi shop?

Making money.

What is the competitive landscape looks like?

Unless you also have an online store that is competitive, you probably wouldn't compete on price... so would have to offer a more boutique services and product range IMO.


JSmith

 

[Doodski]

What is the hardest part of owning and running a HiFi shop?

Getting out of bed everyday on time very well rested, soap up good, rinse even better and iron your clothing then arrive at the shop to open the door on time everyday and do not... I mean do not get burned out and become exhausted from the repetitiveness of the operations and customers with the same questions, same issues and overcoming their objections. I ran a small shop for years. I preferred working for a very large retailer with ~74 employees in the building, all I did was sell home audio and make lotsa money because like I said... I got out of bed everyday on time well rested, soaped up good, rinsed even better and ironed my clothing then arrived at the shop on time everyday and I did not... I mean did not get burned out and become exhausted from the repetitiveness of the operations and customers with the same questions, same issues and overcoming their objections. OK yes, I did get burned out after 9 years but that was my fault for not taking holidays other than CES in Las Vegas every January. So you must take care of yourself and feel you are doing well and enjoy the customers, make friends, be a professional and they will respect you, don't follow the same old groove that everybody follows and if you are in it for the long haul and really do mean well don't slam the customers and make them buy today... Let them walk and then come back when they have more money and will purchase the good stuff. Give them your time and business card so they know who you are and remember you and do lots and lots of demos in store of the good stuff just to show them what the good gear can do even if you know they are not buying today. Do all of that and know your product inside and out and in 3 years you will have more customers walking in the door to lay down their moola than you have time for... That's how I made my money in audio sales while the others thought I was walking customers I was creating a following of loyal people... You need them and you must work hard to get them to respect you and to want to buy from only you. You will make a lot of money if you can do that reliably for years and years. You will have customers wanting you to visit them for dinner etc just because they want to be your friend. I say do what you want and enjoy the people because you are going to meet some really nice people and they want you to be nice.. So be nice. >@^_*@<

 

[amirm]

For those who owns a shop, please share your experience, would you have chose the same path if you could do it all over again?

We started Madrona with a retail side and custom. Due to former, we had to get space in a retail area which has much higher rent. Then spent $200K remodeling the place. Lost a ton of money and closed that down a few years later. If you listed 100 businesses you could get into, I would rank opening such a shop last! Please, please give this a lot of thought. Running a business of this type is brutal. You could lose all of your savings in a heartbeat.

 

[Doodski]

.. also some stuff to get you started and not waste time and money.
Find a good sales course that requires 3 or 4 days to attend and they cost $ for the good ones but you will double or triple your sales within weeks of experimenting with the sales techniques and with the life skills that you will learn. Don't even bother opening the store before taking the sales course because you will not be prepared for what you are about to encounter and you will be learning instead of selling and closing etc. It is imperative that you do not waste a single encounter with any person that walks into your store not matter how they dress or their hair is etc. You must like them and treat them as a fellow human with value. To waste a single customer to some sort of unprepared talk or bad attitude is the worst thing you can do... the worst.
Buy the good clothes because the middle priced stuff and the cheap stuff does not last, fits poorly, looks like crap and you need to be attractive to people and dress well. You can do the golf attire, the casual cotton un-ironed style if you can pull it off but the classics are best and those require ironing and nice shoes and not desert boots. So wear nice pleated and cuffed pants with a expensive belts and expensive shirts with very expensive ties that look amazing. You will spend much less on clothes this way than if buy crappy clothes. If you are a proper nice person and work hard the people will not think badly of your nice clothes and they will take a interest in you. Always smell slightly nice or not at all, keep yourself in tip top presentable condition so you never ever feel off.
Shoes... you gotta be comfy and look good. I wore patent black shoes, oxblood wingtips, black or reddish leather looks amazing with black or colored pants and people do like it if you have lotsa fresh style and show them how it's done. Out dress your rivals and workmates always. make them see that you are the best dressed peep in the room unless of course a customer or sales rep comes to visit you and they are even better dressed then learn from them and steal brains.
Eat well... I mean as well as you can and if possible go out for lunch and dinner to spoil yourself and rest between work periods. You will need to baby and pamper yourself to keep up the effort and pressure and maintain that, waste no customers vibe. >@^_*@<

 

[Doodski]

We started Madrona with a retail side and custom. Due to former, we had to get space in a retail area which has much higher rent. Then spent $200K remodeling the place. Lost a ton of money and closed that down a few years later. If you listed 100 businesses you could get into, I would rank opening such a shop last! Please, please give this a lot of thought. Running a business of this type is brutal. You could lose all of your savings in a heartbeat.

@amirm is 100% correct. I am of the positive thinking vibe and I was operational in a boom period of audio sales so I had a opportunity but you might have it rough...

 

[diddley]

Be prepared at people coming asking you all kind of questions, and then go home and buy it via internet.

 

[Doodski]

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are not selling vacuums, cars, houses etc. You are selling entertainment stuff that are luxury items and people don't actually need them. So you got to make them want the stuff. Many do want it and simply need to find the right person to get them through the journey of buying the gear. Your task is to make you be that person they use to get the buying done. It's not as easy as using a scripted method and thinking that works every time on time on demand. Each customer is different and requires individual treatment. You will meet so many people it will make your head spin and you're going to be really excited some days at the awesomeness of your lifestyle that you created for yourself by being dependable, wasting no customers, being responsible and taking care of yourself and the customers. You will live, eat and breath the job and that's all life will be about if you want to really really be good at it and succeed.
In my experience the staff success rate was about 15% made good money, the top 10% those made lotsa money and the top few % had too much money and no time to spend it. The losers came and went near monthly and they starved themselves trying and all of them where nice people that either had no style, no drive, no money to get started up in the business, wasted customers and did not value every one and where not able to ask the right questions and feared rejection. Losers included university educated geniuses and people that really thought they had it together only to find they where useless to the operations. I've seen carnival workers come to work and in a month they are top 10 material and I've seen a geneticist starve and not want to quit but had to eventually. All sorts of people try the business and few succeed. Myself I started from age ~15 working in audio stores as a box boy, inventory shipper receiver, car audio installer and did all of those all in one day everyday. By the time I went out and bought dress clothes and tie and shoes I was well on my way of being very familiar with the environment and knew the sales reps and how things worked. You do not need to start at the bottom. Start at the top and be that man the people want.
If you can do all this and still want it then you can do most any sales because you are s sales professional and a closer of epic proportions and deserve respect because you create economy where they was none, you created a job from this air and depended on nobody to do that. You will love yourself for it seek others like you because it's awesome to do that. Does any of this stuff I stated in the comments of this thread interest you? If it does then you might be a professional wanting out or if not then you best stay away.

 

[GD Fan]

There have been a few threads like this in the past few days that have reinforced my positive impression of ASR and the extremely helpful members here. @Doodski has always been one of the best and shows it in spades here.

Bravo, ASR.

 

[Doodski]

There have been a few threads like this in the past few days that have reinforced my positive impression of ASR and the extremely helpful members here. @Doodski has always been one of the best and shows it in spades here.

Bravo, ASR.

It's funny. When I was the box boy I wanted the sales job so bad and I had not even a inkling of how much money was to be made. I just wanted to be on the floor with the good gear. I wanted to play with the all the speakers, the Carvers, the car audio amps and head units and I realllly wanted to go for lunches and dinner dates with the boss and the always present sales reps who I thought where gods of industry. The dinner dates and lunches meant everything. LoL. After a few years of successful selling efforts I ate out everyday all day for years and took my workmates and such to lunch everyday. >@^_*@<

 

[Rednaxela]

What would make me buy anything from you?

What would make you buy anything from someone who is doing what you are dreaming of?

(Open questions.)

 

[Doodski]

LoL... If some of you guys think I am sooper stoked about audio gear sales you would have really found intriguing the guys and gals that created me, gave me the opportunity and let me take that opportunity, gave me encouragement and praise and then made me this way in their image..LoL.. I'm talking very very intense people from all sorts of backgrounds. The best leaders, movers and shakers that retail sales has to offer anywhere from anywhere in the world. That's what it takes if you wanna make the dough, be popular with customers and have enough money to afford the lifestyle because making money is required to sustain the life you will lead. You gotta make the money and be very comfortable and healthy like I said before.

 

[Mnyb]

Get a coffe machine have magazines in the shop ,

One I went to often had hifi magazines stuck behind the pipework at their toilet , just the way a workshop would have other kinds of magazines in the past ( p0rn )

If this for a pastime in your retirement , dimension the operation to brake even or only lose a small amount.
Small shop small costs of operation. Ideally it should pay it’s rent . Then you have coffe and a listening room for “free”.

Depends what kind of commercial space you can rent for what cost ? If you live somewhere expensive you migth have no choice in making it a very competitive business to even get by .

Having a mail order side .
You could easily outdo for example blue jean cable if you design a home page that does not look like 1990 and sell reasonably priced but good custom cables for example ?

 

[Doodski]

If this for a pastime in your retirement , dimension the operation to brake even or only lose a small amount.
Small shop small costs of operation.

The small store that I operated after it was operational/stable cost ~24% of margins to operate after expenses. That is a pretty average rate for a small business. So plan for 22% up to 35% dependent on rent, wages, loan to own inventory or purchase it outright. The big store that I worked at with ~74 employees had a big inner city mortgage and that was paid off in short years and was a big part of the business plan for global world domination...

One I went to often had hifi magazines stuck behind the pipework at their toilet , just the way a workshop would have other kinds of magazines in the past ( p0rn )

The big store that I worked at had the biggest CD retail sales inventory within several hundreds of miles+ radius or more. The traffic flow from the CD sales dept was into the millions of people per year and most of those where repeat customers and even from far away areas. So... We used that traffic flow and offered/gave demos to people that where not even buying, to show off all the real expensive gear and treat the people to the good stuff and get them involved and have a good time in the store before they left and went out to the pub and told everybody about the stuff. They in turn created excitement and that brought more traffic and the long terms sales outlook was awesome in that we where creating more customers, creating excitement, creating cash flow, creating economy, creating jobs and more commissions for us so we could feel awesome and do it again and again over and over. Some days at work it felt like I just arrived and then the store was closing for the day. The faster the day goes means the more money is being made.

Get a coffe machine have magazines in the shop ,

One I went to often had hifi magazines stuck behind the pipework at their toilet , just the way a workshop would have other kinds of magazines in the past ( p0rn )

Those are things that are really personal and might or might not be effective. The sales floor space is very expensive and the name of the game is audio gear sales and the product makes the money and so it's best if the floor area is crammed with gear/product from the floor on up to eye level or more. make it really interesting and lotsa stuff to see and do for the customers. Change things/merchandise around in the store like every month at the least and maybe even every 2 weeks so the customers keep coming into the store to check it out. Like I said before you will be working hard, the customers will see that, that expensive clothing can take it and is now your personal protection equipment as well as your snazzy attire. If there is a display window to the sidewalk change it out every week at the least for sure with new stuff. There is no free ride... Work is there needing to be done and after one sees how things work the sales peeps will see the critical need to keep busy and merchandise the store alll the time...

 

[GD Fan]

Doodski is offering a masterclass here tonight!

I've definitely learned a lot.

 

[Doodski]

Doodski is offering a masterclass here tonight!

I've definitely learned a lot.

Haha... I can start-up and manage an audio store, build a proper effective sales team and manage that, technically train the sales staff and give advanced training seminars for sales pros on many products, recruit staff, create a advertising strategy and marketing outlook, meet with and develop business plans with reps and suppliers and go out for dinner and drinks and entertain the staff and reps and get them all involved so they come in on time the next day and are effective and killer sales people that are loyal to each other. Back in the day that was a pretty good paying job with huge perks and bonuses. For sure make more than a average engineer makes. I keep hammering this information out there because for @CleanSound to contemplate his own store he will do all of this and more. If he is not physically active and capable he will for sure require a younger person(s) to do stuff for him so he can save his energy and time for other stuff. There is a lot of work required and there is no way to avoid that stuff. It is sink or swim for sure. I hope @CleanSound is reading this stuff before he jumps into the deep of the pool and and is required to race to the finish line everyday.

 

[beeface]

This idea of sinking my own money into a hi fi shop makes my stomach turn into knots tbh

 

[Doodski]

This idea of sinking my own money into a hi fi shop makes my stomach turn into knots tbh

In todays market I would be scared sheitless on the opening day. But I believe it can be done in a major sized city. Somebody is prolly going to loose a business in the area to my efforts because of competition and market saturation possibilities but if it happens so be it. Business is like a psychopathic personality. There is no mercy and there are only winners and losers in the AV world. One needs to be right on sharp alert with the intention to be the winner 100% of the time and take advantage of every single advantage that comes along. Not wasting a single customer for any reason whatsoever. With that in mind I am confident that in 2-4 years time a steady reliable flow of cash heavy customers will be loyal shoppers at a new audio/AV store.