olysan

Hey guys,

I'm seriously considering going into the Home Integration business. My long term plan is to be a full service installation and design provider for smart whole house systems, integrating multi zone audio, video distribution, broadband, hvac control, etc.

This will be a boot strap startup, and I hope to maintain my current industrial automation job for a few months while I get this off the ground.

My current thinking is to get started by focusing on OTA HDTV service, and offering a flat rate antenna and dish optimization service as well as full service antenna installs. I believe that virtually everyone in the St. Louis metro area should be able to get solid dropout free ota dtv reception with a properly installed antenna system, and that many people have dropout issues due to multi path. From here I plan to branch out into systems integration, however my vision is not as clear for this piece of the business.

I'd really like to get some input from industry vets like yourselves on a number of issues. If any of you are willing to spend a few minutes on the phone please pm me with a number and the best time to call, or feel free to call me direct @314.852.3579. Thanks in advance.

Regards
Mike Olson

Audiofn

Mike I would be happy to spend time with you on this. I know that Forest may be more familiar with your location as he works in your area. I have very little familiarity with your location as far as what people are spending on homes. I try and be at about 10% of a new construction build. So if they spend 100,000,000 on a home then they drop 100,000 with me. We have houses being built in our area that I am involved in from 1 million all the way up to 26 million. The larger the job the more stress and the more integration. The stress comes a lot from the unknown and the fact that SO many change orders come down the pipe. I have found that to specialize in a certain thing has benifieted me the most. For example this job I am doing now I am ONLY doing the video and remote control systems in the house. That is plenty for me and I am billing out at over 400 K for the job. Not bad for a few months work. If i tried to do it all I would be burried and NEVER get the job done. However if you do not have builds like that going on in your area you may have to be more of a do it all kind of guy. Personally I like the very high end customers. They can be a pain, demanding, what ever but for the most part they are reccesion proof. If you want to talk more about this give me a call at (978) 985-0639. I do have some meetings today but if I am in one I will just call ya back. So call me any time after 9 am east coast.

Jon