i buy used or get like discounts on new gear. if you can keep the doors open offering 30-50% discounts on everything you should do ok, otherwise nah.
Starting my showroom again
Hello, audiophiles. I would like to get your honest feedback. Back in 2022, I had to close my business in Nashville owing to a series of unexpected occurrences (several deaths in the family, a rapid move to assist my mother-in-law, and a brain operation); all of this necessitated that I close the store in a matter of weeks. It was now a two-hour trek to Nashville. I worked as a glorified gate operator at a chemical company because that is all was available in our small town. I received an opportunity to become national sales director for an audio company, which would provide some income—not much, but enough to go back into the hifi business at the bottom level.
So now you know the incredibly brief version of the story. Here's the question: there is a little town about 30 minutes away that is booming and gaining more expensive retailers like Ulta and StarBucks. So here's the question.
Do you believe a small town like that might support an up-and-coming hifi business that sells receivers, speakers like PS Audio, KEF, and other manufacturers at a lower price point until the store can handle more expensive items? The closest "electronics store," Electronics Express, is nearly an hour and a half away. I have had an audio shop since 2003, beginning in Florida. Thoughts?
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Several serious questions for you. 1) How are your finances and specifically your retirement assets? 2) A small shop like you are describing is what I call buying a job and, in this case, buying a marginal job at that. 3) Can you really open a shop and sell $10k-$15k of gear per week, at a minimum? From that, if you do it right, you might net $1k-$1.5k per week as your pre-tax income. That’s a solid business and yet, a lousy income.
You should search for a local, well paying job with 401k matching, health insurance, paid time off, and an income that will build up appropriate credits for your future social security benefits.
No offense intended but its ok to love hifi, you just cant let it blind you. You have around 20 years to prepare yourself financially for your retirement and you wont get it done, zero chance, from the business model described. The very fact that you had to scramble in your recent past should have been a wake up call that your chosen vocation was ill-advised financially. Think about it for a moment: you have been in the industry for 20 years and when a moment where the economy burped and life happened, your business was too fragile to be viable. And here you are again, thinking this time will be different? Seek out a new career, enjoy hifi as a user and set your self up up for financial success.
The only thing that scares me for you more than your stated proposition would be to read your post from the year 2045 when your financial future is 100% reliant on Social Security when youve paid in very little because your income record is meager. Small business owners quite often do everything in their power to drive their income as low as possible to mitigate income taxes, only to discover later that they didnt/couldnt save enough to set themselves up for a financially secure future.
Just because you like hifi doesnt mean it owes you a living. If making a solid income from the hifi industry is hard today, what on earth makes you believe it will be easier going forward? Think about it for a second, you were in the business for over two decades (and while it might not have been your fault given health, death, etc) you had the worst timing in the history of hifi to shut down your business for the several years where the hifi retail business was at its apex during the pandemic.
You’re going to do what you are going to do but if you don’t already have seven figures put away for your old age, you are behind and you need to be responsible and get a job so you can build a career. |
+1 @ghasley |
not everyone should get a boring corporate job with possibly little to nothing to contribute to society. I know I am naive and a dreamer but when you retire, what would you rather have behind you, 20 years in an "office space" cubicle or 1000s of happy clients and lasting friendships that often come with this passion? |
@grislybutter I said nothing about boring, corporate or cubicles. Its a choice to be responsible, to save, to ensure a secure future. To do otherwise is flat out financially irresponsible and dangerous.
Dreaming and hoping for a secure future? Knock yourself out. I have 300 co-workers and it isnt very hard to figure out who is setting aside for tomorrow and who isnt. |
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