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Life and times of Audionutz, pt.7

...So, here comes the "business-partner" offering, to kinda help matters along financially. Here's the scoop on him...
He came and opened the spot next to me about 7 months prior to me wanting to "go bigger" on the shop. He is a friend and his business is upholstery. For the 7 months or so, our customers kinda had a crossover business going on, his people who wanted interior work would see our stuff and be like "dayum! I need a stereo too!" and vise-versa. It definitely had potential to provide business expansion for both of us.
Well, he kinda marched to the beat of a different drum, had different business tactics than I did, went through a ton of helpers, most of which were his "boys", and basically had big dreams of getting big. What he didnt have was good business tactics, but thats neither here nor there. He definitely had the skill and his upholstery work was top notch--from headliners, to new seat, biscuits, crush, landau tops, convertible tops you name it. I figured our businesses would benefit from each other because he was hooked-up with the "homeboys" and I had the high end clientelle, so if we were in the same shop, of course there'd be more customers coming through the doors and therefore more chance to sell stuff.
I agreed to share the space, charging him $600/mo for 1/3 the rent and in turn he got 1/3 the showroom (which wasnt built yet) and 1/3 the work space. I would find out later that lesson number ? could have been learned if I had just followed my instincts about him and left him out of the equation.More on that later.

So, I signed the lease (mentioned in part 6), got the keys, got the landlord to agree to 3 year terms that were "stepped", got the whole zoning issue resolved, what was next? Well, since I am on the opposite side of the main road now, two things happened- first, I am now INSIDE the city limits. Second, I have to change utilities companies from Florida Power to City Of Ocala Utilities.

Recall that Ocala/Marion County is run by crooks that zone,tax,permit,and fee the public to death. Well, now I find out that I need a certificate of occupancy as well as my Occupational Liscence renewed for the new location. In order to do this, I must have the place *inspected* by both the city building code enforcement people AND the firemarshall! Guess who had to pay for those services? All this extra crap just to make sure the building, which was *inspected* when drawn up, *inspected* when built, and *inspected* when designated a lease property, was infact *zoned* properly (a matter of paperwork based on public records!!!!) and built properly (a matter of reviewing previous *inspections*!!!!). What a joke!

Then, it was the firemarshall's turn >
one smoke detector per 1500 ft^2
one 10 lb. fire extinguisher per 1500 ft^2
one emergency flood light with battery back-up
one LIGHTED "exit" sign above every exterior doorway

I was like DAMN! It wasnt this complicated in the other place, what the hell!?! Well, the City has all these additional hoops to jump through, so guess who had to go get all the exit sign bulbs replaced, get new extiguishers, replace the batteries in the detectors, get the frekin extiguishers CERTIFIED by yet another damn company ($50 each just to say they were "ok to use" ARGHH!!!) ...? Mind you all, this is not just a simple one-day deal. THis maneuver was strung out over several days b/c the FM said "fix this and I will come back", then was like "these extinguishers need to be certified, I'll come back", etc. THis crap was about $400 of headache and very frustrating.

Blah blah blah. Finally, I am OK to be in the building. I need power so I go to City of Ocala Utilities, thinking I will just drop a deposit and be done. WRONG! They do "commercial property" differently for leased buildings...they base the deposit on THREE FREAKIN MONTHS worth of the previous tenant's average monthly bills! YIKES! This place was a copy center before, tons of electric equipment running all day, two AC units, etc. Their previous bills AVERAGED $750/mo!!!!!! Thats $2250 these A_holes wanted for a deposit for all you scholars out there. NO F-in way!!!

I was paying $75 to$125/month at the old place, running the air ALOT. I would have the same tools, just double the space. NO WAY was I gonna use anywhere near 750/month, thats ridiculous! I went round a round with them, pleading my case of "small business trying to expand, soaked with all these fees, inspections, re-zoning, rent deposit, etc" and pointing out the fact that the previous tenant ran up the power bills with all this copy,fax,and signage business. All I had was some assorted hand tools, lights, and AC to use. After much debate, I got them to re-assess the actual power usage in the building by a "normal" tenant and refigure their "estimated usage", citing the previous shop used a fraction of the power. So I faxed them my bills from the other shop for a few months, and got them to agree to 350/month avg (1050 deposit). I was STILL bummed at the price, but what could I do, we had to fork it out and I guess it is just the nature of the beast around here---commercial property is a MOFO to get into in this area! DAMMITMAN!

OK, so I'm in, the lights get turned on. We are still doing installs at the old shop, it is me and Scott with part-time help from Gimmick. I have the landlord agreeing to giving me two months to make "necessary renovations" rent-free, which is a blessing for sure. During this two months, me, my dad, Gimmick and Scott, sometimes the upholstery guy, and a couple other friends in construction remodelled the place> 1) opened up a doorway into a large drive-thru opening from the back bays to the interior 2) build new wall making a partition to cut the showroom in 1/2 from 2K+ ft^2 to about 950ft^2, making install area able to fit 4 cars plus workspace 3) build workbenches, shelves, woodracks, new router table, carpet shelf, countertops 4) run new electric in the new wall for multiple outlets, 5) add an 8foot removeable sliding glass door in the wall for passage into showroom and driving a car INTO the showroom (WOOHOO!), 6) add 220 outlets for welder and air compressor, 7) add electricity to rear "bays" overhead for drop-lights and outdoor outlets, 8) add security lights to protect garage doors and back doors, 9) add outdoor floodlights for same reason on the side of building, 10) reconfigure previous countertops and work benches from the copy store (a BLESSING!)to create a bad-ass display counter complete with drawers, display shelves, under-counter lighting, computer and phone outlets, etc.

Seems simple, eh? LOL! It was a rough 2 months. I should've realized then that the upholstery dude had piss-poor work ethics b/c he helped me maybe 5 days the whole time! Anyways, my dad, gimmick, and I did the bulk of the work while Scott stayed at the old shop doing installs and packing stuff up and whatnot. YOu guys are probably like "Steve, why did you go through all this just for that building? Why not get an old service station or another old stereo shop?" THe answer is that the building itself was bad-ass and relatively new, in a nice area, busy road, and NO OTHER stereo shops on this side of town! I didnt want another location to possibly be associated with another shop that used to be there or a run-down old location that Joe Public takes for granted everyday during his commute. I wanted fresh, new, exciting, nice parking lot, etc etc. Would this be a bad thing....you decide later.

Next on the agenda...SECURITY. Yes folks, it's a known fact> Car stereo shops get broken into. Why? Every thug-punk-wannabegangsta on the planet wants boom in their whip, and they will do anything to get it. THe one thing that has always been in the back of my mind from day 1 was to prevent these dipshits from victimizing me...too bad I didnt use the same mentality on a certain road-trip to Finals in KC one year, but thats a different story LOL!!
Anyhow, I used ADT before at the old shop. Good stuff. Free system and install with a 2 year signed contract. You cant beat it. SO I had them come in and transfer my services to the new place, installing a new system with additional battery backups, glass break sensors, motion detection, and ALL entryways monitored. Additional cost of sensors was like 300 extra, but worth it. 3 year contract at 49/month. NECESSARY EXPENSE folks.

But, there is something drastically different from the old shop now...WINDOWS! Big, juicy, throw-a-rock-thru-me windows all along the front a side of the showroom. What to do? Surely someone could heave a brick thru and do a "smash-and-dash" if they saw something they liked. Well, I needed security bars installed, there was no denying it. Not that my area dictated it, simply to make people think before they took the chance. Visual deterents are very effective against thieves. Luckily, my Step-dad ponied up the bars as a "shopwarming gift" for me, $2500 for 3/8" square steel tubed grid bars installed with tapcons into the block over all the glass surfaces, including the front doors. Awesome!!!! (of course, I took the liberty of ordering a roll of window tint and paid a local tinter to come drop some shade on all the glass prior to install...cost for tint and labor $800) Did I mention its a assload of glass?

Next up, locks. Not trying to be overkill or anything, but I figured if some picklesniffer was gonna get into the shop, I'd make it awfully hard for them to get out, and since ADT would call me and I lived 1 mile away, I'd hope to catch them inside for a little "vigilante-beatdown" action. I installed deadbolts on every door that were all keyed differently, and you had to use a key on BOTH sides! I used heavy padlocks on the garage doors on the inside, and made the rear doors "key-only" opening as well. So, once inside, if you didnt have a key, you either had to go back out thru the bars or hunker down for the upcoming lead-shot shower you were about to take from a very pissed off shop owner. Either way, it wasnt gonna be easy.

So how'd we fare security wise? Not a single break-in (knocking on wood) from 2000 to now. Part of this is the ADT. Part the bars and locks. Part the lighting at night. I also think the area played an important role b/c you have houses directly across the street, a nice housing development directly behind you, a heavily-patrolled road providing the only ingress and egress from the place, and the Marion COunty Sheriffs Dept has a stick in it's ass for burglaries, so they actively hunt for this type of activity in the area. I havent got a single complaint with the security or thug activity at either shop, except the punk-ass skateboarders we'd always have to run off, and someone stole my favorite roll-up hose from out back of the building recently....those cokcsukcers!

So, back to the move in! I am now the proud owner of a $4500 Home Depot crdit card bill for the renovation materials, electrical supplies, drywall, lumber, new table saw (gotta have a new saw for the new shop, right?), etc. So including the credit card, I am over $10K just to move in. I also got my first glimpse of a work ethic trend from the upholstery guy, and possibly other employee, that I didnt like, I am broke again, relying only on inventory and labor charges to re-grow Audionutz revenue, Oh, I forgot. I had to have nice signage for the new place, or people wouldnt know wtf it was, right? Enter another friend in the sign biz who has done all my vinyl lettering and install logos...he hooked me up with a HUGE building sign with nizzle logo AND a crane truck to come out and put it up. All I had to do was put a h/u, 4 speakers, and an amplified bazooka tube in his ski boat---DEAL!!!!
We also got another guy to hook up a road-side sign on a 4X6ft white background, really nice, with all the companies logos and whatnot very professional looking, anchored by LONG 4X4 posts on each side. It held up nicely and is a pain in the ass to move every hurricane season lol! THis was $300 plus a set of speakers. Owning a shop does have perks sometimes...hehe.

WOW. I am a long-winded mo-fo. Hopefully this isnt too boring. Next installment will deal with those pesky dollars and cents we are all waiting for and more companies, vendors, reps, etc.

Peace out!

 

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