Thank you Bart!

I understand what you're saying. I've already talked with a distributor and one drum company that are willing to work with me. I'm going to talk to another distributor and try a few more drum companies. I've already talked to a cymbal company as well. Of course I'll have Medicine Man drums there as the high end stuff. I'm also going to do consigments and lessons. That's the plan anyway.

Timekeep69,

I'm with Bart on this. It can be done.  I ran an inhome business that made money and I had to shut down because I couldn't keep up.  I have a good career as a public school teacher and ran the drum thing on the side.  The best thing to do is hook up with your local school districts/music colleges, tell the manufacturers you want to be an educational dealer as well.  I was a Premier educational dealer.  I had no set amout of drumsets to purchase but I could also buy any set I wanted to sell.  I sold 2 sets of marching drums, timpani as well as a drumset.  Talk about making the company happy. I placed $15,000 worth of orders in the little over a year I was with the business.  The stuff was delivered by the company not me. If you PM me I'll give you a couple other companies who would be more then happy to deal with you hassle free.  There are wholesalers who carry things and you won't have to become a "dealer" in the beginning stages until you're ready and have the money.  You can do it.  I was doing it and still would be if I hadn't done so well.      Hang loose,   Jim P

I've got to be at church in like 5 minutes, so this is going to be short.

I've been the bug in PJ's ear since I first heard about this, and my apologies to PJ, but I haven't had time to catch you up on all of Bart's excellent wisdom. I think I sent the short notes. Anyway, we'll have to do that lunch with Todd real soon.

To the rest, it's important to note that PJ has four real solid things going for him that most would-be start-up music retailers don't: he's smart and not trying to open an independent mega-store; he's already in the hardware/manufacturing side (successful to boot!); he really, really, really, really loves drums; his first love is to support the local scene. Those things are why I really want PJ to get this off the ground. I hope he makes a bazillion dollars doing it, but I know he knows the primary goal is to make it self-sustaining. He's the kind of person I want to do business with and I'm willing to make the 30-mile drive across town in heavy traffic to do it!

It's an interesting market here. There are four GCs and two Sam Ash's, two large (long time) family-owned music stores, and a tiny scattering of miniature drum shops that seem to come and go with every monsoon breeze. This place is not Nashville or LA. It's not even Branson, Mo. But there's all kinds of seasonal work here in the winter months, and we've been known to be the launching pad for the occasional rock, country, or metal act. There's no shortage of kiddies picking up sticks for the first time around here, and while the school districts tend to short the public arts, parents have come to the rescue and actually made the local music programs some of the strongest in the country.

Sooooo ... the place is just ripe for an expert craftsman like PJ to come along and open a drum shop where kids can grow up and old coots like me can hang out and talk about the old days. Oh, and we'll buy some sticks and stuff while we're there.

That has me thinking I want to show up and I don't live anywhere close.   

Patrick,   PM sent to you this morning regarding companies.  Just wanted to make sure you rec'd it.  Jim

Me too! Someones gotta come up with BBQ over the net. 

The sad thing is that it probably will happen.

Im finalizing the location this week.

They have!  Corky's BBQ and it is good too.   

Does anyone know how Kaman is to work with? It looks like they distribute just about everything.

Well, this keeps every Tom, Dick and Harry from opening up a mail-order or Internet business, which could really affect the market in a negative way for the existing retailers. The practice of making sure you have a brick & mortar store front has been around for almost 20 years if not longer. When I opened my store up in 1989, I had to show that I was a brick & mortar shop, and not just operating out of my basement or garage.