During an unprecedented global emergency, the 12-volt industry is coming together in mutual support to help keep employees and clients safe and healthy.
Words by Rosa Sophia
By mid-March, schools began closing in response to the spread of COVID-19, social distancing became the norm and restaurants that hadn’t closed offered takeout and delivery only. All major sporting events were suspended. Travel restrictions were put into place all over the world, and stay-at-home orders were soon to follow in various cities around the country. Mobile electronics businesses have responded by...Read the rest of the story HERE.
Real World Retail for February March 2020
Slow and Steady
Ocala Car Audio has built a name for itself by hosting and attending local events and weekend Bike Nights. The shop has entered the new year aiming to increase revenue in the motorcycle audio category through grassroots marketing.
Words by Rosa Sophia
Prior to opening Ocala Car Audio in Ocala, Fla., Parish Tanner worked in installation, sales, distribution and as a rep. Then, in 2008, he started installing at his home garage before moving to a retail location and joining with a business partner. “We were growing 15 to 18 percent per year,” Tanner said. In 2014, he and his business partner separated, and revenue dropped significantly. “I moved to a smaller shop with a smaller staff, but since 2015, we’ve had about 15 to 20 percent growth each year.”
Tanner attributes this growth to...Read the rest of the story HERE.
When the business first opened in 1994 in Augusta, Georgia, Lawson’s didn’t sell car audio—instead, the store focused on anything else electronic. Current owner Morgan Lawson said his parents opened the business, but car audio came into the picture by accident. Morgan’s mother, Su Lawson, went to an auction and purchased a pallet of car audio without knowing what it was. “We sold it all within a week,” said Morgan Lawson. “Ever since the early 2000s, we’ve been nothing but an audio shop.”
The store went from being called Lawson’s to Lawson’s Car Audio, and today Morgan runs the shop. The business had three locations in 2008, he added, but when his father passed away, they downsized. If everything goes according to plan, a second location in Evans, Ga. will open in mid-April with hopes of continuing to expand into the future.
Despite going away to earn degrees in criminal justice and psychology, and later becoming a real estate agent—which he still does on the side today—Lawson said he was always drawn back to the family business. “Music brings people together,” he said. “That’s what I enjoy. I did a whole bunch of other stuff, even got my pilot’s license, but I always came back here.”
Since the beginning, the focus of the business has been...Read the rest of the story HERE.