Opening up a small boutique HiFi shop in retirement?

[Purité Audio]

I can only foresee more and more direct selling, or large Thomann type operations, free shipping 90 days ‘trial’ periods.
Increasingly difficult for retailers to justify their existence.
Keith

 

[antcollinet]

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?

The only comment I can make is:

That is not retirement. Not even close to it.

 

[Petevid]

Sounds like you want to run the shop more as a lifestyle business in retirement , as long as it covers costs you’d be happy?

Some very conversative, very rough calculations. Suppose your overheads average out at £250 per day eg shop rental, power light heat, taxes etc in a cheap part of town. If the average selling cost of the kit you are selling is £1,000 with a 25% profit margin (is that realistic?) then you’d have to sell one piece of kit per day every day to break even. Is that a realistic prospect?

 

[Doodski]

If the average selling cost of the kit you are selling is £1,000 with a 25% profit margin (is that realistic?)

Home audio gear that is quality stuff has at a real sell price not retail price has ~34% to 44% (Not points markup but % markup.) markup dependent on whether it is electronic components or speakers etc. That is after all discounts and is good for the customer and the store.

 

[Doodski]

The only comment I can make is:

That is not retirement. Not even close to it.

Yeah. I agree because it is a full time major big commitment.

 

[Doodski]

I can only foresee more and more direct selling, or large Thomann type operations, free shipping 90 days ‘trial’ periods.
Increasingly difficult for retailers to justify their existence.
Keith

I have a lot of respect for you for #1 being a audio specialist retailer and #2 for being able to survive in the business @Purité Audio. I never said it but I think it.

 

[DSJR]

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?

It's all said above by @Doodski and others but I'd add that arguably, you're thirty to forty years too late. Okay, my experience is from the currently cash-poor UK where only fresh newly retired ex-company directors with bulging pension pots seem interested in spending big profitable money these days. Mid to low end? forget it as you'll be 'doing deals' and making feck-all I suspect.

You may find the ex company director clients have fairly fixed ideas on what they want - and objective side be damned - as they may have lusted over a brand such as McIntosh or similar in the US or Naim/Linn in the UK but at the time were just starting out with no money but now they can and do, spending tens of thousands on these brands when arguably and better educated, they could today get far better for less - you know what I mean here..... But it wouldn't have that brand name on it...

These kind of boutique audio clients really wouldn't want to know about spinorama, sinad figures, let alone how 99% of valve/tube amps (or solid state amps designed to mimic that kind of effect on speakers) equalise the speaker response depending on load with masses of added low bass distortion to add to the speaker struggling low down - I've been there just recently with a dear old friend of mine - the fifty year friendship is infinitely more important to me than falling out over a hybrid amp with poor bench performance but a 'charming' tone into many speakers including his own...

Nah, don't put good money into this industry. Maybe you'd get lucky or find a niche, but you'll soon turn into a hard headed businessman (the type who do survive - just) fighting to make a living and all but turning to snake oil to do it!

 

[Purité Audio]

It has been for the most part really enjoyable, it has allowed me to try a lot of equipment particularly loudspeakers.
Having multiple units has allowed me to make valid comparisons, linear power supplies versus standard, burn in, cables, etc etc really dispel almost every audiophile myth.
Passive/active, horns even every type of power amplifier and that experience with Amir/ ASR led me to where I am now.
When I started I believed everything I was told, I knew absolutely nothing ( not that I know a great deal more now)
Sometimes I still even manage to get excited by a new product.
Keith

 

[Doodski]

It has been for the most part really enjoyable, it has allowed me to try a lot of equipment particularly loudspeakers.
Having multiple units has allowed me to make valid comparisons, linear power supplies versus standard, burn in, cables, etc etc really dispel almost every audiophile myth.
Passive/active, horns even every type of power amplifier and that experience with Amir/ ASR led me to where I am now.
When I started I believed everything I was told, I knew absolutely nothing ( not that I know a great deal more now)
Sometimes I still even manage to get excited by a new product.
Keith

Are you surviving by providing in-home services to your clients? Like going above and beyond the retailers usual participation level of only in-store services?

 

[Doodski]

It's all said above by @Doodski and others but I'd add that arguably, you're thirty to forty years too late. Okay, my experience is from the currently cash-poor UK where only fresh newly retired ex-company directors with bulging pension pots seem interested in spending big profitable money these days. Mid to low end? forget it as you'll be 'doing deals' and making feck-all I suspect.

You may find the ex company director clients have fairly fixed ideas on what they want - and objective side be damned - as they may have lusted over a brand such as McIntosh or similar in the US or Naim/Linn in the UK but at the time were just starting out with no money but now they can and do, spending tens of thousands on these brands when arguably and better educated, they could today get far better for less - you know what I mean here..... But it wouldn't have that brand name on it...

These kind of boutique audio clients really wouldn't want to know about spinorama, sinad figures, let alone how 99% of valve/tube amps (or solid state amps designed to mimic that kind of effect on speakers) equalise the speaker response depending on load with masses of added low bass distortion to add to the speaker struggling low down - I've been there just recently with a dear old friend of mine - the fifty year friendship is infinitely more important to me than falling out over a hybrid amp with poor bench performance but a 'charming' tone into many speakers including his own...

Nah, don't put good money into this industry. Maybe you'd get lucky or find a niche, but you'll soon turn into a hard headed businessman (the type who do survive - just) fighting to make a living and all but turning to snake oil to do it!

What he doesn't need is a competitor sales Dood like me coming along all aggressive like and making his business's sales life hell. That takes the wind out of the sails pretty quick. There is so much money at stake!

 

[DSJR]

I have a lot of respect for you for #1 being a audio specialist retailer and #2 for being able to survive in the business @Purité Audio. I never said it but I think it.

I only know Keith @Purité Audio from the forums but am I right in that you work from home sir? How does the family fit around you if so?

My local audio salon started out in an extension of the family home (a bungalow in a nearby village - nice setting - ) and a few years ago, took on a de-consecrated catholic chapel which does make for a great venue for higher end mostly UK made stuff (plus Accuphase which looks quite at home there ). Lord knows the overheads, but they're one of a tiny number of £165k Naim Reference-Amp dealers in the country and they have sold a few I gather, maybe split over two sales with pres first maybe and power amps added later? They rely on large ticket sales now it seems and the likes of Rega, Q Acoustics and I'm going to say even Quad (if they still have the brand) are arguably secondary to flesh out the ranges... Not criticising, but they have their niche which used to be clients from out of county although that had changed a few years back. I don't visit now as my vibe regarding high end has changed, but they usually do an annual show which I 've attended to catch up with trade contacts I once had.

 

[Purité Audio]

Yes I reasoned that I had to offer something more than box shifting, and speakers like the 8C have to ( really should be) properly installed, measured adjusted discussed.
But even that can be accomplished remotely of course.
In terms of sales I should have stocked the heavily marketed ‘traditional’ products but I just don’t see the point in ‘second best’ ASR mde explicit the correlation between fine measurements and sound quality.
Keith

 

[Purité Audio]

I only know Keith @Purité Audio from the forums but am I right in that you work from home sir? How does the family fit around you if so?

My local audio salon started out in an extension of the family home (a bungalow in a nearby village - nice setting - ) and a few years ago, took on a de-consecrated catholic chapel which does make for a great venue for higher end mostly UK made stuff (plus Accuphase which looks quite at home there ). Lord knows the overheads, but they're one of a tiny number of £165k Naim Reference-Amp dealers in the country and they have sold a few I gather, maybe split over two sales with pres first maybe and power amps added later? They rely on large ticket sales now it seems and the likes of Rega, Q Acoustics and I'm going to say even Quad (if they still have the brand) are arguably secondary to flesh out the ranges... Not criticising, but they have their niche which used to be clients from out of county although that had changed a few years back. I don't visit now as my vibe regarding high end has changed, but they usually do an annual show which I 've attended to catch up with trade contacts I once had.

David yes the two reception rooms of the ground floor of our townhouse are demonstration rooms.
I have some fancy RPG membrane traps and the speakers we sell don‘t require massive room treatment, a shop with the floor space we needed would just be incredibly expensive, how many hi-fi shops do you know that have shut, every town used to have at least one didn’t they.
Keith

 

[Doodski]

I only know Keith @Purité Audio from the forums but am I right in that you work from home sir? How does the family fit around you if so?

I am retired now. 9 years home audio AV gear sales, 5years of straight commission no base salary home audio equipment sales and then I studied electronics and then worked as a bench tech for ~15 years and then I went into electromechanical oil and gas industry heavy equipment manufacturing and the into oil and gas drilling technology downhole electronics tools technology.

 

[Doodski]

How does the family fit around you if so?

My life when in sales was sales. I was rarely at home, ate out everyday all the meals, attended sales and product training every week for years and my workmates where like family. I rarely saw my wife and we had separate lives for the most part and merged for nights, work functions and to go out dancing sometimes.

 

[Doodski]

how many hi-fi shops do you know that have shut, every town used to have at least one didn’t they.

Yes, very true. I used to drive down Kingsway Ave and there was a AV store every few blocks and sometimes across from each other. After several years of aggressive sales peeps like me and my workmates we closed them all down and then we closed too as a major sized retailer. The same happened with electronic repair shops. I was one of the last to go too.

 

[Doodski]

Yes I reasoned that I had to offer something more than box shifting, and speakers like the 8C have to ( really should be) properly installed, measured adjusted discussed.
But even that can be accomplished remotely of course.
In terms of sales I should have stocked the heavily marketed ‘traditional’ products but I just don’t see the point in ‘second best’ ASR mde explicit the correlation between fine measurements and sound quality.
Keith

I think personalized service is a good technique and sets one apart from the usual limited service providers that only work in-store. People do pay more for that and they are very loyal I found after they find the personalized service. More Moola!

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Make sure you are well capitalized. I would not start such a thing without 2 years of operating expenses in the bank. If I could not make it self sustaining in 2 years, I would fold.

I would also think more in terms of not losing money, rather than making it. Profit if you can, of course. But I would want to minimize sunk costs like inventory.

I think personalized service is a good technique and sets one apart from the usual limited service providers that only work in-store. People do pay more for that and they are very loyal I found after they find the personalized service. More Moola!

I would say going almost all service makes sense. Here's what I mean, thinking about how I would do this thing I would never do.

Have a few systems set up, but use them for diagnosing tastes. A warm, neutral, and bright speaker set up, 3 amps to switch with the 3 speakers. Ideally you would want different price points, so maybe super cheap/$500 (so you can help any young people who wander in), then 3k and 10k. The specifics are not important. One of your services is "taste diagnosis", terrible name but it would help people avoid mistakes.

You can also sell that gear to walk ins.

Offer to construct build sheets to fit the taste and budget. This way you can get money from people who will buy online.

Offer to buy the build sheet, likely on a cost plus basis. Offer to install it.

Offer room measurement and system optimization services. (another way to get money from people who will buy online).

Ask what they have used, what music they listen to, room size, any limitations on design (no black, likes wood finishes, etc). This could be a start, a web form, a paper form to fill out, q and a in person.

Sell your knowledge and service.

Good luck!

 

[CleanSound]

Thank you all. Sometimes, even grown men have romantic dreams. But with your help, I quickly woke up.

Back to the drawing board to think of other retirement careers.

 

[CleanSound]

David yes the two reception rooms of the ground floor of our townhouse are demonstration rooms.
I have some fancy RPG membrane traps and the speakers we sell don‘t require massive room treatment, a shop with the floor space we needed would just be incredibly expensive, how many hi-fi shops do you know that have shut, every town used to have at least one didn’t they.
Keith

@Purité Audio so you use your personal space as your show room? I'm sure that saves you a lot of overhead, but does that interfere with your day to day personal life?