how do you attract business?

What are some things you do to attract business to your shops? Advertising? Word of mouth? ect.......

I would let people know where you are at so your competition does not give away their secrets, and those shops that are not near you know that they are not your competition...

Build a strong reputation of high quality work, and business will attract itself. If you're just getting started, you're best bet is to put a nice system in your own car and use that for advertisement. It doesn't have to be a huge competition system, but at least a well done, nice sounding one to demonstrate your work. Then make sure your car gets seen - go to every car meet you can, show it off to your friends, their friends, and everyone you can.

Strippers and free beer sometimes works.

Seriously, building a good rep for quality work and good value pricing through word of mouth is the best way.  It's getting those first few customers and kicking ass on the install that I recommend.

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Support the12volt.com

Local radio stations is always a good one too I think.

High quality work no matter what p.o.s you work on. Word of mouth will either make you or break you.

Offer to have one of you favorite waitresses bikini's stiched wtih Forbidden Audio on it in a couple of prime locations seems to do wonders.......

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

BIKINI CAR WASH TIME!!! YEAH!!! OKAY!!! (lil john scream)

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"dont ground out!"

On opening day at the shop I worked at we had a bikini car wash (my boss was a VERY regular customer at the strip bar), we advertised it on the radio and offered free cd player installations for the opening week (cust paid for parts) That took care of the opening part. Next was to be sure your installs were solid, solder and tape everything with a goal to make it look like it was supposed to be there. We made check lists to follow to make sure every detail was done properly and nothing was over looked such as spending 20 min just testing the crap out of a car starter or alarm to make sure everything works and properly, you don't want returns unless it's the customer wanting to add more to the vehicle.
We started off with the prices slightly above cost to get people in and lot's of happy customers, after about a month you can work your prices up slowly.

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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

Host a USACI Car Audio Competition and car show!   Ohhh and hire me to do the Judging!

Seriously, we have seen some very very good results from a huge USACi event.   The shop im going to this weekend for a show has had there 1 big show a year for the last 4 years since they opened.   They make a investment of close to $5000 if not over on this show every year.

But for the last 2 years they have been close to a $600,000-$750,000 sales shop.   They also hit #1 rockford retailer I believe last year or the year prior.

This show generally draws a crowd of 300-400 people, but this is again a very very big show!




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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

Offer customers a discount if they'll put a sticker with your shop's name on your vehicle . If you do quality work, it will pay off. All else fails, go with the bikini idea.

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Be loud,be obnoxious,man up, and bounce with a legend.

Have all of your installers work in Speedos, no wait, you wanted to ATTRACT customers.

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There is no such thing as free installation!