Becoming an AV entrepreneur

[Nagaraj S]

Hi all,

This is probably the most important thread (for me) that I would be starting.

I have been gravitated to sound ever since I was a kid - and today as well. To keep the story short, by just saying that I am passionate about audio - the question I would like to ask is what is the prospect of becoming an audio-video entrepreneur in Bangalore?

I am already in a well paying job, but I think often that life is too short to be miserable thinking that you should have done what you really love.

This is why I want to be an AV entrepreneur

1. Passion for sound, and AV in general. I am not an audiophile with a golder ear with expensive tube equipment. But I know my type of sound and visual experience and get lost in it when I think I have found it.

2. Knowledge - I have not built any amp or speaker in my life, or sold one. But I have religiously followed the world of AV over the last 15 years.

3. I love to talk about AV! My friends often call me to get advice on which AV gear to buy, and I love to help them buy (I already have few satisfied "customer friends"

4. As an extension of the "3", if I were to run an AV store, I would love to help a customer buy what he thinks is best for him/her. I would let him have that contended feeling that he has bought something he likes, not being plainly sold.

5. Not for the money! I know it is a wrong move to AV entrepreneurship for money. It sounds poetic, but the the wisdom all over the Web advises to work on something a person is passionate about. I am sure there are other profitable ventures, but AV is what I want to do.

6. And probably the most important "feeling" - I dream often of brightly-lit, large 3-storey AV undertaking of my own, and the brightly lit digital sign of my company - and I am immediately filled with happiness. Sounds romantic - but most often real entrepreneurs are driven for the love of what they want to do

Whether the question of leaving a well paying job and starting off on this journey may not fall under this forum, now the question I would like to ask the forum

1. How to start, and where? I do not have any industry contacts, I am still researching the AV entrepreneurship atmosphere in Bangalore.

2. I would like to start small, perhaps a small AV dealer. What would be the investment for such a project?

3. My long term vision (say 5-7 years) would AV system integration as well for corporates and commercial establishments.
4. is there any AV entrepreneurship forum in Bangalore?
5. Competition - is it fierce? Will it kill a budding AV entrepreneur?
6. And the most important question, can I find an AV entrepreneurship mentor who can guide me?

I know this is a long thread, but as I said this is one the most important threads I have ever posted.

Your thoughts, answers, advice, guidance would be most precious to my understanding on how to begin my AV entrepreneurship journey.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards

Nagaraj

 

[GeorgeO]

Hi Nagaraj

Is it possible for you to initially do this over weekends and as a part time activity to test the waters so to speak?

Good luck

 

[venkatcr]

1. How to start, and where? I do not have any industry contacts, I am still researching the AV entrepreneurship atmosphere in Bangalore.

Unlike other businesses that would require a business plan, AV dealership does not necessarily need one.

2. I would have a small start, perhaps a small AV dealer. What would be the investment for such a project?

Ignoring the rental, manpower, and your own expenses, you should be looking at 25L minimum in terms of stock and demo units.

3. My long term vision (say 5-7 years) would AV system integration as well for corporates and commercial establishments.

An AV dealership is completely different from system integration for corporate and commercial establishment. The latter is a much tougher market with fierce competition. There are a number of established players and shaking them would be difficult if not impossible. Yes, if you know Azim Premji personally, you can get all his business.

4. is there any AV entrepreneurship form in Bangalore?

Nope.

5. Competition - is it fierce? Will it kill a budding AV entrepreneur?

Absolutely. There are hungry tigers prowling all the time. Just joking. Competition will be fierce, but if you have the determination and the willpower, anyone can succeed

6. And the most important question, can I find an AV entrepreneurship mentor who can guide me?

Me. Seriously, jokes apart.

 

[srinisundar]

Nagaraj,

It is an nice intiative to become an AV Entrepreneur. I enjoyed the transformation of Sumit and Ashish into AV Entrepreneur here. They started here sharing and gathered information and fell into the AV business because of their passion and love toward AV.

Now they are an sucessfully running Lakaozy, Delhi Franchisee. My sincere advise is to be in touch with Ashish and Sumit whom are very friendly to share you what they encountered the trouble till they start and now facing to sustain in the market? So you will get an clear picture to decide upon

Regards

 

[srinisundar]

Hi Nagaraj

Is it possible for you to initially do this over weekends and as a part time activity to test the waters so to speak?

Good luck

I sincerely not advise to do this, since the passion and love should continue till we get sucess or end-up in total failure Already he know about how to go then no need of testing the waters.

However selling in the market may be tough on coming days since online buying is the currently trending one, may be later for services like installation also fall too in this trend

Regards

 

[thatguy]

... and the brightly lit digital sign of my company ...

Aaargghhh ... another of those ipod kids. Analog. Yup. Analog is the way to go if you want real ..

Jokes aside. Except for one point, the whole post is about *you*. About what *you* want out of the venture. Nothing wrong with that, but that isn't what is going to get people into your shop.

What problem are you trying to solve that the current breed of AV dealers aren't solving?

 

[srinisundar]

Aaargghhh ... another of those ipod kids. Analog. Yup. Analog is the way to go if you want real ..

Jokes aside. Except for one point, the whole post is about *you*. About what *you* want out of the venture. Nothing wrong with that, but that isn't what is going to get people into your shop.

What problem are you trying to solve that the current breed of AV dealers aren't solving?

Please allow one entrepreneur to arise

 

[docd]

Nagaraj,
All the best. There is nothing in the world better than your hobby and your career being the same! Wish I had the guts to do the same!

 

[Shivam]

Get in touch with Prithvi of Absolute Phase. He is good and is from Bangalore.

 

[corElement]

I wish I could become one!

 

[square_wave]

I wanted to share one thought. There various paths and each have its own business model and associated attitude. Figure out where you belong first. See if such target demographic has reached critical mass in India. If you can figure this out and go with the right attitude, you will win.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Hi all,

This is probably the most important thread (for me) that I would be starting.

I have been gravitated to sound ever since I was a kid - and today as well. To keep the story short, by just saying that I am passionate about audio - the question I would like to ask is what is the prospect of becoming an audio-video entrepreneur I Bangalore?

I am already in a well paying job, but I think often that life is too short to be miserable thinking that you should have done what you really love:

This is why I want to be an AV entrepreneur

1. Passion for sound, and AV in general. I am not audiophile with an golder ear with expensive tube eqiupment. But I know my type of sound and visual experience and get lost in it when I think I found it.

2. Knowledge - I have not built any amp or speaker in my life, or sold one. But I have religiously followed the world of AV over the last 15 years. I

3. I love to talk about AV! My friends often call me to give them advice on which AV gear to buy, and love to help them buy (I already have few satisfied "customer friends"

4. As an extension of the "3", if I were to run an AV store, I would love to help a customer buy what he thinks is best for him/her. I would let him have that contended feeling that he has bought something he likes, not being plainly sold.

5. Not for the money! I know it is a wrong move to AV entrepreneurship for money. It sounds poetic, but the the wisdom all over the Web advises to work on something a person is passionate about. I am sure there are other profitable ventures, but AV is what I want to do.

6. And probably the most important "feeling" - I dream often of brightly-lit, large 3-storey AV undertaking of my own, and the brightly lit digital sign of my company - and I am immediately filled with happiness. Sounds romantic - but most often real entrepreneurs are driven for the love of what they want to do

Whether the question of leaving a well paying job and starting off on this journey may not fall under this forum, now the question I would like to ask the forum

1. How to start, and where? I do not have any industry contacts, I am still researching the AV entrepreneurship atmosphere in Bangalore.

2. I would have a small start, perhaps a small AV dealer. What would be the investment for such a project?

3. My long term vision (say 5-7 years) would AV system integration as well for corporates and commercial establishments.
4. is there any AV entrepreneurship form in Bangalore?
5. Competition - is it fierce? Will it kill a budding AV entrepreneur?
6. And the most important question, can I find an AV entrepreneurship mentor who can guide me?

I know this is a long thread, but as I said this is one the most important threads I have ever posted.

Your thoughts, answers, advice, guidance would be most precious to my understanding on how to begin my AV entrepreneurship journey.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards

Nagaraj

Some of my thoughts,

1. If you have enough money as backing to take care of the first six months to a year.
2. Buying an AV product is a long term affair for many people and are not in a hurry to decide. People always settle for best bargain and not the quality of the product. More over buying a AV product is not always a priority for many of the visitors. Hence it could be frustating in the intial period unless you have many people walking in your store.
3. Trend is towards home theater for the novice and you can hardly sell any high-end towers even on a weekly / monthly basis.
4. You should have some winning product to keep the ball rolling as you are going to do this for a living and now its not going to be hobby or passion anymore. Its a different ball game to do a hobby and being a enterpernuer. You need good support system from family and friends (both moneterialy and emotionally).
5. You will need good contacts, good marketing person (direct & indirect) who can sell your products. Just having the best products will never help you to get customers towards you. You need to make noises about that too.
6. Never try to satisfy a audiophile, because he is not your customer. He will always find a excuse evertime you fulfill his need. Your customer should be common man who walks in the street and not the one who will fill you with lots of technical jargon who himself does not understand. Else you will waste time doing a lot of demo and the end result is no sale. This is kind of a important tip that i am throwing at you. The audiophile will always take pleasure in wierd brands and which you will not be able to display.

Wishing you all the best and take advise from like minded people before you quit the job. I do belive that you should have some concrete business plan in terms of short, medium and long term and some cash flow scenarios though i am not experienced as an enterpernuer.

Cheers,
Hari.

 

[Nagaraj S]

Thank you all for your kind answers. I can already see a wealth of information in your responses.

 

[avidyarthy]

Some of my thoughts,
6. Never try to satisfy a audiophile, because he is not your customer. He will always find a excuse evertime you fulfill his need. Your customer should be common man who walks in the street and not the one who will fill you with lots of technical jargon who himself does not understand. Else you will waste time doing a lot of demo and the end result is no sale. This is kind of a important tip that i am throwing at you. The audiophile will always take pleasure in wierd brands and which you will not be able to display.
Hari.

My God ..... absolutely true ... have seen it happen a number of times in the last 2 years, at a few hi-fi outlets.

 

[Nagaraj S]

Some of my thoughts,

1. If you have enough money as backing to take care of the first six months to a year.
2. Buying an AV product is a long term affair for many people and are not in a hurry to decide. People always settle for best bargain and not the quality of the product. More over buying a AV product is not always a priority for many of the visitors. Hence it could be frustating in the intial period unless you have many people walking in your store.
3. Trend is towards home theater for the novice and you can hardly sell any high-end towers even on a weekly / monthly basis.
4. You should have some winning product to keep the ball rolling as you are going to do this for a living and now its not going to be hobby or passion anymore. Its a different ball game to do a hobby and being a enterpernuer. You need good support system from family and friends (both moneterialy and emotionally).
5. You will need good contacts, good marketing person (direct & indirect) who can sell your products. Just having the best products will never help you to get customers towards you. You need to make noises about that too.
6. Never try to satisfy a audiophile, because he is not your customer. He will always find a excuse evertime you fulfill his need. Your customer should be common man who walks in the street and not the one who will fill you with lots of technical jargon who himself does not understand. Else you will waste time doing a lot of demo and the end result is no sale. This is kind of a important tip that i am throwing at you. The audiophile will always take pleasure in wierd brands and which you will not be able to display.

Wishing you all the best and take advise from like minded people before you quit the job. I do belive that you should have some concrete business plan in terms of short, medium and long term and some cash flow scenarios though i am not experienced as an enterpernuer.

Cheers,
Hari.

Thanks Hari for you thoughtful response. Is the AV market a bit too overcrowded to allow even a few more beginners? As you have rightly pointed out, an AV equipment is not a necessity, and making a sale could be harder than it seems. And then you have to make the next sale to keep your business growing. But to be optimistic, with growling middle class, perhaps there is still hope. The challenge is to convince a customer to buy a brand, say for example Wharfadale (which the customer most probably has never heard of) than a cheaper Samsung HTIB. I see that most people know only conglomerates like Sony or Samsung than the Tannoys or Denons (could these be the "winning products?". Maybe, in that case, I need to target not just an average customer, but someone more knowledgeable. The challenge of course, is what value I can add, instead of mere discounts, which cannot work after a certain point.

Which brings me to the question - who are the actually the revenue generating customers for well-established AV companies like ProFX in Bangalore? (ProFX has been been my inspiration ever since I started dreaming of becoming an AV entrepreneur)

 

[Nagaraj S]

Aaargghhh ... another of those ipod kids. Analog. Yup. Analog is the way to go if you want real ..

Jokes aside. Except for one point, the whole post is about *you*. About what *you* want out of the venture. Nothing wrong with that, but that isn't what is going to get people into your shop.

What problem are you trying to solve that the current breed of AV dealers aren't solving?

I have never owned an iPOD . But you have asked a crucial question "What problem are you trying to solve that the current breed of AV dealers aren't solving?"
Unfortunately, I don't have "The Idea" that many entrepreneurs are usually excited about - something unique, and has a lot of potential. I am trying hard to figure out though, what and how can I add value to customers instead of merely selling some huge gadgets.

 

[Nagaraj S]

Unlike other businesses that would require a business plan, AV dealership does not necessarily need one.



Ignoring the rental, manpower, and your own expenses, you should be looking at 25L minimum in terms of stock and demo units.



An AV dealership is completely different from system integration for corporate and commercial establishment. The latter is a much tougher market with fierce competition. There are a number of established players and shaking them would be difficult if not impossible. Yes, if you know Azim Premji personally, you can get all his business.



Nope.



Absolutely. There are hungry tigers prowling all the time. Just joking. Competition will be fierce, but if you have the determination and the willpower, anyone can succeed



Me. Seriously, jokes apart.

Thank you venkatcr, for your response. I was under the impression that to become a dealer, one must already have established professional credentials - and it would be at least 5 years before I can become a dealer for well known product. That's the reason I mentioned as starting small. Or, perhaps is becoming a dealer the right way to start? If so, what would the correct way to go about it. And 25L, I think for me is not starting small Is there any hope under 10L? Which also brings me to another question: will starting as a franchise help? I can already imagine it would probably much more to invest on being a franchisee than starting solo.

 

[Nagaraj S]

Nagaraj,

It is an nice intiative to become an AV Entrepreneur. I enjoyed the transformation of Sumit and Ashish into AV Entrepreneur here. They started here sharing and gathered information and fell into the AV business because of their passion and love toward AV.

Now they are an sucessfully running Lakaozy, Delhi Franchisee. My sincere advise is to be in touch with Ashish and Sumit whom are very friendly to share you what they encountered the trouble till they start and now facing to sustain in the market? So you will get an clear picture to decide upon

Regards

Thank you srinisundar. I looked up Lakozy, and man, how inspiring they are! They seem to be dealing with some real high-end AV. I am looking forward to getting in touch with Ashish and Sumit.

 

[entsurgeon]

hi.
1. stocks worth 25L??? how about finding a like minded individual who wants to open a dealership in some other city or shake hands with some good samaritan dealer. you will need few high rolling (read cheaper)products in showroom (maybe @ 10L in total)but high end stuffs could be shared between showrooms reducing risks of dead stocks as well as giving you high inventory.
2. add used deals in your kitty.
3. try contacting some builder friend of yours to throw in a well furnished home theatre room in their flats like they do with modular kitchens etc. will give you advantage of group buy as well as add to display products in your kitty.
4. bring in small , single product sellers with no big showroom to add to your showroom profile on profitsharing basis in lieu of providing them good display space.
5 on 5-7 yrs horizon, try to develop a good in house service support for products which aren t here on large scale. good service centre that is authorised by various brands will give you much more revenue then sales per se. and you get to serve cribbing customers and their ailing equipments too. - healthcare services for audio components and their owners.
if you have a really good showroom at strategic location with good gentry of customers, few people may be pursued to provide you with their products for display foc. maybe lyrita, sonodyne or cadence: brands that want to expand here and eat into denons and rotels sales.
one thing i dare suggest, you dont really need too expensive a showroom space on the mezzanine. huge costs of large showroom with good listening space wil cost prohibitively high and wont be easy to break even, even an year or 2 down the line. if you keep real good inventory with real good listening rooms, people will flock you at your 4th floor sprawling space with decent publicity. will save you a big big lot on rental costs. try claiming a good office shutting shops in some good commercial building.
as for inventory, most showrooms i ve visited have not too expensive an inventory on display. starting with sub 15k htibs, they usually display 3-5L worth of speakers and same amount of amps avrs etc. usually the expensive products on display are those which are brought on order, are already sold out and are displayed for few days prior to delivery generating further enquiries/intrests. 25L-35Lwill get you a state of art inventory boss. i ve been to showrooms in mumbai and pune. chain stores like next e zone etc are pathetic for high end audio. their benchmark seems to be the micro mini combo systems that were a rage last decade. for them a sub 50K entry level avr with satellites/front bookshelves or anything from bose is high end . for us its the bare minimum.

 

[cha_indian]

I think starting a manufacturing business would probably be more rewarding than being 'mere' a dealer. Outsourcing the manufacturing part in China and then probably shifting off to India later is the current trend. Just take the example of Norge. You can make similar products and probably sell better than Norge if you concentrate on why Norge is not so big than what it can be. Like someone said in an earlier post, Audiophiles would always be interested in a unknown brand/product..... more the unknown ... more exotic it becomes