Anyone own a music store?

Watching.

 

Cool thread. Is there a coffee stand/espresso place in your town? Starbucks like place? If not, combining a music store with a coffee shop might be a good idea. The margins on coffee are quite good and a little acoustic show

 

You might want to consider all used sales. I think that contracts with the larger companies like Gibson, etc. require a great deal of cash purchasing to let them to allow you to sell their brands. Besides that there is substantial used stock for you to acquire as inventory. Kinda an always been/always will be scenario.

 

A community college?

That's a good market.

You're talking about musical instruments (and media, like sheet music), yeah? Because like mentioned above, big manufacturers like Fender and Gibson want something like $50k up front to be an authorized dealer.

 

@Lonn does...he just runs it outta his basement

 

This is a great idea. Could also do consignments on used stuff at 10% or something.

 

As with any small business it will take lots of money. A willingness to take on huge amounts of personal and financial risk as well as an understand that like most small business you will probably go out of business and lose a bunch of money. There’s a lot more to owning a music shop than just selling guitars and drums. There’s accounting, inventory, budgeting, payroll, insurance, marketing, and staffing to name a few. It’s why most business have separate departments for each of these functions. Not to say it can’t be done but it would be a lot of work. If your not willing to put in 60-80+ hours a week it’ll probably never get off the ground.

 

I got a degree in business administration with the idea of starting a. Small business until I really got into it and saw how much it would really take

 

Yep. It’s harder than ever. To sell new guitars from the big brands, you have to have some good guarantee of quantity of sales.

unless I were easily a millionaire, or have investors, I wouldn’t consider it, to be honest. My local large non GC shop is owned by a multimillionaire who had no problem throwing down the cash to start up. Plus he runs a robust online guitars business to supplement it.

small retailers have to resort to second tier brands quite often. My local small store has Michael Kelly, Gretsch, and a few small brands. No Fender/Gibson except occasional used items of theirs.

I throw them tech and repair business because the owner is great at it . But I can tell they aren’t doing well.

if you go the used route, you’ll be competing with Craigslist, Facebook marketplace,etc. and it’s very tough to compete with their prices and pay the rent on the building at the same time. Plus the trappings of dealing with the usual pawn shop antics.

I hate playing devils advocate. But I think it’s a good choice to consider all outcomes.

 

Do you know how to do repairs?

Do you have capital to buy inventory, pay rent, handle marketing?

Would the shop include a small studio for recording and/or giving lessons? Could you rent the studio out to other instructors?

 

It’s a tough business for sure, even here in Nashville the mom n pop music stores are dwindling. One of the best ones stayed afloat for a long time by having a great music school, with rooms for guitar, bass, keys, vocal lessons etc.

As mentioned getting connected with local schools, marching bands etc would be another segment that might help. Lessons, repairs, rental of PA equipment maybe? Check your local churches too, a lot of them may be doing live music and have some needs there. Would definitely try to diversify into several different revenue streams.

Good luck!

 

the one here died.....

 

It's seems that both Fender and Gibson have a fairly high hurdle for purchase quantity to become an authorized dealer.

As a business, I don't see a lot of cost past inventory. There is some sort of store space rent, insurance (mostly property, short money), and you have to have a way to pay your bills until the store (hopefully) covers it.

But, that's probably a couple hundred thou to get rolling and cover the first year. So you either need a pile of cash, a mortgage on your home, or a well-to-do investor(s).

Honestly... I don't think a community of 7500 is anywhere near enough people to support a business like this.

 

Perhaps a franchise would be a better option. Like a music go round or something similar. With a franchise you have to buy in and give the parent company a cut but work with you to help you be profitable. Because if your not profitable they don’t make money off you.