Home Theater Consultation Services

[Toby Jack]

Aside from my passion/obsession for home theater, another very important thing to me is sharing that passion with others. I love nothing more than lending my help to those looking for & setting up home theater equipment. Last week I guided my brother-in-law through the process of locating & purchasing a system that suited his individual needs. I made him spreadsheets, PDFs & even collected customer reviews of the various pieces of equipment I recommended. I was able to condense the overwhelming amount of information out there into a package that he could analyze and understand. I offered him concrete features that would be useful to his unique situation. Most importantly, I enjoyed every second of it!

Therefore, I have been considering turning this into somewhat of a side profession. There has got to be a market of people who are seeking basic advice on the purchase/set-up of HT equipment that don't want to hail in the Geek Squad & pay a ridiculous amount just for a 1-time visit. I was thinking maybe I would charge $20-$30 per person for a full assessment of their home, recommendation of products, & set-up. I couldn't imagine doing anything more fun.

How would I go about starting a service like this? Is it even feasible?

[chadnliz]

Helping friends and family is VERY different then working on this for strangers and just remember the best way to kill a hobby you love is to make a business out of it.
I think many of us have done what you did and even thought about taking it further, after 20yrs of doing this surround, every disc format, Projection, being and Audiophile, reading all the magazines, flying to the shows, owning some test gear,having a $30,000 system, building up to $80,000 systems for friends and family I like the idea of this aswell but it aint gonna happen for me.
I am flying to Orlando next week to set u[ a theater but again its for a friend, once you deal with strangers it s entire no ball game (husband wants this, wife hates that).......then factor in how cheap folks are, how they just want to go to Best Buy and even more challenges its a hard thing to make work.
What your thinking of charging is too little aswell, its gonna be alot of work, then if you charge what its worth nobody will agree with what you bill them. It is either you lose or they dont like you. If you can make it work God Bless but I think its best to hook some friends and family up, network with those who know them and just keep it fun.
I was going to go to THX video school for calibration, I had the cash and time aswell as passion, I did my research and found 3 stores around my area sold a total of 5 Projectors last year and a few more flat panels, just no way to market this idea so I didnt go to class, I wanted to but it didnt make sense. I figured I already knoew the audio side pretty much up and down, own a Projector, own Plasma, LCD, do surround, hell I even had a great Master carpenter and certified electrician on board.................I had EVERYTHING but a market to do it in, so I killed the dream. Good luck with yours, I hope if you try it you enjoy and have luck with it!

[Toby Jack]

chadnliz wrote:

Helping friends and family is VERY different then working on this for strangers and just remember the best way to kill a hobby you love is to make a business out of it.
I think many of us have done what you did and even thought about taking it further, after 20yrs of doing this surround, every disc format, Projection, being and Audiophile, reading all the magazines, flying to the shows, owning some test gear,having a $30,000 system, building up to $80,000 systems for friends and family I like the idea of this aswell but it aint gonna happen for me.
I am flying to Orlando next week to set u[ a theater but again its for a friend, once you deal with strangers it s entire no ball game (husband wants this, wife hates that).......then factor in how cheap folks are, how they just want to go to Best Buy and even more challenges its a hard thing to make work.
What your thinking of charging is too little aswell, its gonna be alot of work, then if you charge what its worth nobody will agree with what you bill them. It is either you lose or they dont like you. If you can make it work God Bless but I think its best to hook some friends and family up, network with those who know them and just keep it fun.
I was going to go to THX video school for calibration, I had the cash and time aswell as passion, I did my research and found 3 stores around my area sold a total of 5 Projectors last year and a few more flat panels, just no way to market this idea so I didnt go to class, I wanted to but it didnt make sense. I figured I already knoew the audio side pretty much up and down, own a Projector, own Plasma, LCD, do surround, hell I even had a great Master carpenter and certified electrician on board.................I had EVERYTHING but a market to do it in, so I killed the dream. Good luck with yours, I hope if you try it you enjoy and have luck with it!

Thank you so much for the response. I have often heard of people making a business of their hobby and losing all interest in it. The idea of that is kind of scary. But I'm so pathetic that all I do is sit around all day thinking about who I could help and what I could recommend to them. I'm sure I even come across as cheesy to some people but I just like this stuff SO much!

As far as a market for HT, I live in Oklahoma City, which isn't the biggest city in the US but certainly a city that appreciates reclining in their favorite chair at the end of the day in front of a great flat-panel television. You are right about Best Buy being an only resort for most folks. The truth is, when I go to Best Buy and I see a scummy salesman trying to pawn a piece of equipment on someone that doesn't need it it makes me crazy. I just want to interrupt them mid-sentence and tell the customer the truth!

I will take your advice about networking through family and friends first and maybe branching out to church acquaintances. Thanks again for your input.

[chadnliz]

Your not pathetic, your enthusiastic!
Yes Church, social groups, work connections will be a good start and see what happens, get your feet wet and go thru growing pains on folks that will not be so rough on you, your gonna make mistakes and mis-steps so dont let that discourage you. Just dont let this ruin something you love, its a jungle out there!

[glaufman]

I've actually started to do just what you're talking about. For me, it hasn't killed the hobby at all. Yet.
But my model is a little different than it sounds yours is... for the first phase, I'm focusing mainly on the setup/calibration/making-it-work with elementary advice being a necessary but secondary service that comes with the package. The biggest obstacle I've seen so far is the immensely complicated, backwards, nepotistic structure of the licensing in my area... in one local county you need a license just to adjust the front panel controls on someone's receiver or TV...
But let me tell you, that first paying customer, when I knelt behind the rack and started plugging in wires, and having both the husband and the wife say "Thank God you're here.... we'd be lost without you..." certainly was a great feeling...

[MatrixDweller]

If you plan on doing it for a living then you'll want to get some credentials behind your name. CEDIA ISF and/or others. A dozen or more projects that you can show to prospective customers would also help.

In the mean time while you are working up to that, take lots of pictures and under-cut the competition. First rule of starting a business is to write a business plan. Evaluate your competition, set your pricing, plan your marketing avenues, your target market, etc. If you set your pricing too low they won't have faith in you thinking you're an amateur. Set it too high and they will back away pretty fast.

You'll want some business cards to hand out to people. You'd be surprised at how many leads can be made by meeting people here and there and they won't remember your number or email address unless it's written down. A business card makes you look more professional too.

You'll also want to set policies and warranty periods for your work. You'll find that weeks, months or even years after you've done your work you'll get calls to fix things (your fault or not) or calls for advice. While not so bad at first it can end up wasting a lot of your time if you are not getting compensated for it.

Another thing to consider is how your customer is going to pay you. Cash is king, but for a big install people will want to pay by check or credit card. Then there can be problems since checks can bounce and customers can sometimes refuse to pay after you've already fronted them for supplies and completed all of the labor. You might want to get familiar with small claims court filing just in case. You'll also want them to sign a legal contract that states what work is to be completed and how much they will be paying you and other terms. Of course none of that is really too important if you are just doing $20 cash on the barrel head jobs, but when you're helping them finish their basement and the price tag is a few thousand it can be an issue.

Unless you have a huge family and a million friends, word of mouth through friends and family will not get you too much business and only goes so far. They will also not want to pay you what you're worth and typically are hoping for a huge discount. They might even pay you in beer, which might not be too horrible but it doesn't feed your kids.

[Toby Jack]

Man, thank you guys for your input! You all sound very knowledgeable. I forgot to mention that I am 24 and my expertise only goes so deep. I am still in the dark on full-fledge custom installations and am not sure I even want to offer services that in-depth. Ideally, I would like to be a resource to people with little technical knowledge and aid them mostly with purchase decisions and what equipment is available to them for their particular needs. The people I am going after wouldn't be the ones with a full equipment rack, projector & screen. My ideal customers would be looking for a flat panel/receiver/speaker set/Blu-ray or DVD player to quick enhancements to their movie/tv watching experience. This is why I wouldn't charge as much (because hopefully it wouldn't take too long.)

I'll let you know what comes of this when I get a solid plan down. You guys are great!

[chadnliz]

Well your biggest problem based on what you want out of yourself and clients is the folks you are targeting are the least likely to look for someone like you. Most folks think they know a kid, family member, guy at work or somebody just like you who can hook them up......just my opinion.

[JCD]

I'm thinking that you may benefit from working at a small boutique a/v store for a while before striking out on your own. I'm sure there is a ton of information you don't even know you don't know yet. I consider myself pretty knowledgible in this stuff, but I pretty confident I'd learn a TON if I were to work at one of these stores myself for a while.

The other thing, if you really want to make a profession out of this, then you need to have a pretty solid foundation for just about everything AV.

For example:

• Tubes vs. Solid State
• Separates vs. receivers
• Advantages of planar speakers vs. di-pole speakers vs. direct firing speakers vs. ..
• Acoustics -- how to properly set up a room and how to tame the room's acoustic issues
• Cables -- what's the difference between HDMI 1.3 and 1.4? And why do some cables/IC's cost SO MUCH?

That's just scratches the tip of the iceberg. Your brother in law might not mind if you don't know the detailed answers to some of the issues listed above, but I'm pretty sure someone who's paying you will.

And I know this is coming off all doom and gloom -- my point is not to talk you out of it, but just be aware that doing this as a business correctly is going to be more than what you might think up front.

[Toby Jack]

JCD wrote:

I'm thinking that you may benefit from working at a small boutique a/v store for a while before striking out on your own. I'm sure there is a ton of information you don't even know you don't know yet. I consider myself pretty knowledgible in this stuff, but I pretty confident I'd learn a TON if I were to work at one of these stores myself for a while.

The other thing, if you really want to make a profession out of this, then you need to have a pretty solid foundation for just about everything AV.

For example:

• Tubes vs. Solid State
• Separates vs. receivers
• Advantages of planar speakers vs. di-pole speakers vs. direct firing speakers vs. ..
• Acoustics -- how to properly set up a room and how to tame the room's acoustic issues
• Cables -- what's the difference between HDMI 1.3 and 1.4? And why do some cables/IC's cost SO MUCH?

That's just scratches the tip of the iceberg. Your brother in law might not mind if you don't know the detailed answers to some of the issues listed above, but I'm pretty sure someone who's paying you will.

And I know this is coming off all doom and gloom -- my point is not to talk you out of it, but just be aware that doing this as a business correctly is going to be more than what you might think up front.

No, I really appreciate feedback of all kinds. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on most of the basics of the home theater universe. All of the points you listed I feel fairly confident on except for room acoustics. I definitely have room to grow there. Do you have any recommendations (websites or books) that would be a good resource for this particular area?