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<blockquote data-quote="Silas Pradetto" data-source="post: 48053" data-attributes="member: 34">Re: Becoming an equipment dealerMany good points here. I am a contractor dealer for a couple lines, but I don&#039;t remember which. Harman doesn&#039;t do &#039;contractor&#039; or &#039;regular&#039; dealers, as far as I know. Just recently (like the end of last year), all the Harman brands went from being individual dealerships to one larger &#039;Harman&#039; dealership, with a combined central office, instead of many separate offices. This is really nice because now the free freight and discount programs can run across different lines; before, Crown would have different promotions than JBL, etc.I do live and work in the middle of nowhere, so there really aren&#039;t any dealers or sound companies anywhere near me. There is no market anywhere near me either, so I&#039;m not sure being the only guy around is actually any sort of advantage.I don&#039;t have a showroom and I never did. I don&#039;t even have an online store; after much market analysis, there is no way to run an online store and be competitive with the &#039;big brands&#039; because online markets are not price markets (MAP), they&#039;re essentially SEO markets. So I can&#039;t compete. I have no idea how NSL sells below MAP and doesn&#039;t get dropped by everyone. I used to keep some stock when I had a warehouse, but I went through a downsizing phase last year and now run much leaner and make a LOT more money. I place large orders and might have stock for a month, but not much more than that at a time.When I first started out, I was working out of a friend&#039;s basement. When the first rep came out and saw my operation, I think he was pretty skeptical; I was barely 18. But when I declared that I needed $6000 of speakers and had the money ready, that made things happen. Now, any rep I meet with knows within about two sentences that I mean business, and that they&#039;re only going to make commission by signing me up.Like Tim said, it doesn&#039;t make sense to become a dealer for everything. I&#039;d much rather give my small orders to another dealer that can give me really good pricing, like Mike Pyle, so he can place a big order and get even better pricing. And it seems like many on SFN do the same for me.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Silas Pradetto, post: 48053, member: 34"] Re: Becoming an equipment dealer Many good points here. I am a contractor dealer for a couple lines, but I don't remember which. Harman doesn't do 'contractor' or 'regular' dealers, as far as I know. Just recently (like the end of last year), all the Harman brands went from being individual dealerships to one larger 'Harman' dealership, with a combined central office, instead of many separate offices. This is really nice because now the free freight and discount programs can run across different lines; before, Crown would have different promotions than JBL, etc. I do live and work in the middle of nowhere, so there really aren't any dealers or sound companies anywhere near me. There is no market anywhere near me either, so I'm not sure being the only guy around is actually any sort of advantage. I don't have a showroom and I never did. I don't even have an online store; after much market analysis, there is no way to run an online store and be competitive with the 'big brands' because online markets are not price markets (MAP), they're essentially SEO markets. So I can't compete. I have no idea how NSL sells below MAP and doesn't get dropped by everyone. I used to keep some stock when I had a warehouse, but I went through a downsizing phase last year and now run much leaner and make a LOT more money. I place large orders and might have stock for a month, but not much more than that at a time. When I first started out, I was working out of a friend's basement. When the first rep came out and saw my operation, I think he was pretty skeptical; I was barely 18. But when I declared that I needed $6000 of speakers and had the money ready, that made things happen. Now, any rep I meet with knows within about two sentences that I mean business, and that they're only going to make commission by signing me up. Like Tim said, it doesn't make sense to become a dealer for everything. I'd much rather give my small orders to another dealer that can give me really good pricing, like Mike Pyle, so he can place a big order and get even better pricing. And it seems like many on SFN do the same for me. [/QUOTE]

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