Peanut M&Ms

Trojan Magnum XXXLs?

I'm sure he means he made a great deal of money replacing it

Lmao

It's all about knowing your market, maximizing profit, and giving the client what they want.



How about a comparison:


Denon AVR failure rate = 100%

Abus failure rate = 0%


I won't post the actual profit margins. But suffice it to say the Denon margin is a joke, while the Abus margin (for me) is huge.

Giving the clients what they want:

Music in many rooms, and a great "home theater room".

My business model has always been that it doesn't make sense to install a $2,000.00 pair of speakers in a dining room or kitchen, but rather some nice cost effective music in all those rooms where background music fills the need, and then going all out in the "great theater room" where the client gets some serious value and use out of there dollars spent.

So, while my competition went along eking out a living, and then folded up at the first little housing ripple, my business prospered throughout.



I'm just sayin'

its cliche to say but Sonos for me because it makes me a TON of money, the stuff just plain works and when a rare issue comes up sonos is there to advance a product to you.

Anymore it is truly the only product i can get excited about selling outside of doing custom outdoor AV systems.

Outside of sonos it has to be taking a back yard and transforming that into a musical centerpiece. there is just something "magical" (lack of a better term) about bringing something that most people don't have bring it to an area of the home that is usually forgotten. This is truly one of the only things we do that brings a smile to peoples face the first time they walk around the yard.

Beer!


Fantastic amps, damn they make speakers sound good. I've had a few experiences with McIntosh although sadly I'm not a dealer, and they sound fNtastic, parasound Halo is another, just good current, makes a speaker come alive.

sonos by far. Don't care what people think. No service calls.
Yamaha Aventage avr's. No Service calls.

Lutron lighting control and shading has been a focus of mine for the last 9 months with really good results.

Yep +1.

Im not sure why my shop doesnt do more SONOS business though??? Although we are literally sandwiched between tow huge SONOS dealers... Magnolia to our North about 100 feet... and right nest door to Definitive Audio!

Sierra Nevada I.P.A. and Lay's BBQ potatoe chips!

Bourbon. It erases the memories from the day so I get up the next morning and show up to work with all the headaches listed above. ;)

Great thread Bruce,

We love selling:

Yamaha AV Receivers (preferably a730 and above, but we sell plenty of their entry level units)

LG Blu-Ray players

Sunfire Subwoofers

Sonance Visual Performance (in wall/ceiling) speakers

SONOS (a year ago I would have killed myself for saying this...now I make a killing because of it; LOVE incremental revenue), had our first DOA product though, bad left analog output...but 1 in 20 isn't to bad.

Wyrestorm HDMI Distribution

Key Digital HDMI Cables

Sharp 8 series LCD/LED's (with all the crap turned off)

Epson Projectors

URC and RTI control systems - though been bit by a bad run of MRF260's (6) we're currently replacing with new mrf350's.



Clients love
SONOS and handheld controllers for single room systems that are easy to use.

They also love my smile and the systems we design that work within or around their budget.

The majority of our projects are in the 10k range so they are not really fancy...but when I exceed client expectations and they are able to confidently control and enjoy their system its a win for them...and we make a new client and good money on the packages we put together for them so its a win-win for us too.

After thinking about this as I worked through a putting some finishing touches on a decent sized project, I came to some conclusions.

I think back to all the jobs that made me really excited to be in this industry and proud to do what I do. And it really comes down to people. Case in point: 1/5 years ago, we did a really nice house for a guy who moved down from Seattle. $3 mil+ home. Full C4 integration with 16 DA zones, 6 video zones, lighting, HVAC, security, surveillance, pool control, garage doors, etc. Dedicated theater with Stewart CineCurve, Panamorph, JBL Synth, full AI acoustic treatment, etc. I had a blast working on it! It came together brilliantly and we looked forward to going there to work. Well, for whatever reason (irrelevant), this client lived in the home for 2 or 3 weeks and called us up and informed us that he was moving back to Seattle! WTF? Whatever I guess. I am sure he had good reasons. He took a bunch of the gear to upgrade his old home and put the house on the market. It sold within a month to some goofy chinese guy. We went there once to remove the Qualia 004 we had in for demo while the home was being shown, and once again to install this guy's Monoprice HDMI matrix and chinese "apple tv" and mount his walmart tv in the exercise room. It was miserable. Same house. Same gear (aside from the junk he brought with him). But the passion was lost because the guy was not nearly as cool as the other guy.

The clients make it all worthwhile...or make it suck donkey nards.

If I had to choose specifics, SONOS and dedicated theaters excite me. 2.35 screens, anamorphic lenses, acoustic treatments, big subwoofers, etc. oh my. :) I do miss my days with the hi-fi stuff. Setting up a $40k+ set of Wilsons with some massive Krell amps, preamps with big heavy knobs, and garden hose cables that I do not have to hide in a freaking wall sounds waaaay more exciting than 16x16 HDBaseT matrices, apple TVs, curved 4k displays, millions of wall warts and RJ45 terminations. I would give it all up to do 2 ch. in a heartbeat if I could. :)

My favs are Aruba, Ubiquiti, Cisco, JAP, Sonos, Sonance, Parasound, and On Controls. Jeez, I guess I don't like Displays.

Clients love Sonos, and anything I can do to hide the equipment. They also love being able to control their system with their phone. It's so convenient to pull your phone out of your pocket and adjust your system. People Love it. The also liek gesture control in On Controls (or iRule).

Mike