When is it enough?

Ben Lawrence

Ben Lawrence

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Mar 2, 2011
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To all the Sound Co rental owners out there. When is it big enough or branched out enough? Is there a point you hit where you cant get any larger or don't for some reason. I recall someone on here selling off a bigger sized rig because it was not gaining enough ROI as the smaller deployments. It seems as though I have to consistently acquire gear as I go along. Just an open ended question to discuss and get opinions. You can feel free to reply "its never big enough" or offer some wisdom whatever. I put it in the basement for a reason.
 
Re: When is it enough?

I'd say it really depends on your primary market.

As a very rough rule of thumb, I'll suggest that your equipment inventory is capitalized at the diminished point of return when your in-house gear is covering approx. 80% of your market penetration, and you're subrenting/crossrenting, or referring the other 20%.

Having said that, there's a lot of ways to consider what that means.

It really all depends. I'm aware of more than one (many) equipment inventory oriented business that's basically a support mechanism for GAS and lots of shop time. I'm also aware of some (many) "seemingly gear oriented business' " that don't actually own much more equipment than... oh... a coffee cup full of pens... and they stay seemingly very busy... and throw fairly impressive Christmas parties.
 
Re: When is it enough?

JV answer: I'm a musician that wanted his own PA. So when my PA was big enough for most of our shows, it was enough. I charge my band an equal share for the use of my PA gear which is always a better deal than hiring out. Then I also run sound on off weekends.

I've been frugal and bought used gear on almost everything but my board. Some items I've waited years for the right deal to come along.5 years running sound now and my system has paid for itself almost 4 times over, that's good enough for me.
 
Re: When is it enough?

Jeff Williams said:
JV answer: I'm a musician that wanted his own PA. So when my PA was big enough for most of our shows, it was enough. I charge my band an equal share for the use of my PA gear which is always a better deal than hiring out. Then I also run sound on off weekends.
Click to expand...

Who runs sound for your band?
 
Re: When is it enough?

I'm more on the install side, but every time I think there's a bit of a ceiling a big job or wave of jobs comes along that blows that ceiling out of the water. then a year or more later that seems to be the new standard of busy-ness and I'm looking up at another ceiling that looks crazy and insurmountable.
Things have a way of working themselves out and supply/demand will be your dictator. you might as well keep going until ROI at the next level isn't enough for you, or until you don't enjoy it anymore, then either back off a bit or hire more help and scale yourself back to where you're happy.

Jason
 
Re: When is it enough?

Ben Lawrence said:
To all the Sound Co rental owners out there. When is it big enough or branched out enough? Is there a point you hit where you cant get any larger or don't for some reason. I recall someone on here selling off a bigger sized rig because it was not gaining enough ROI as the smaller deployments. It seems as though I have to consistently acquire gear as I go along. Just an open ended question to discuss and get opinions. You can feel free to reply "its never big enough" or offer some wisdom whatever. I put it in the basement for a reason.
Click to expand...

I dont know. I have not got there yet. At this stage I try to balance expanding with taking home a paycheck. Usually expanding still wins but I have another job. I do sell off anything I am not using or don't anticipate using in the near future if for no other reason than to eliminate clutter. I have the attitude that everything I buy for the company has to make an improvement in sound, service, or bank account account balance, otherwise it doesn't stay around long.
 
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