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History |
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History of Street Heat written by Rick The start of Street Heat came in Dan's mind sometime around 92'. He did some initial business plans for his idea of starting a business. As he became more serious about his idea. Dan started getting serious in his business plans in early 93' and determined my extra capitol was needed. We wrote up a partnership agreement and I started coming to Lawrenceville every weekend. Dan had quit his job and moved back to Lawrenceville and started working part-time at Hooks again (like in H.S.). We met with the SBA (small business association) a few times to develop a business plan. Dan did a great job on it. The bank of Robinson bought it and gave us $$$ So, we got it approved! Now what? Dan again did much of the leg work and then every weekend we'd drive around Robinson looking at property and talking about the possibilities. We found a few places on Main Street. We ended up picking a former Goodyear tire store who left their lease early. The building at 305 W. Main needed a lot of attention. The inside was a typical old tire store. We cleaned, painted, added walls (for a sound room), ripped up the old floor tile and had new carpet & tile installed. I must say it looked pretty good. Opening Day! Sometime in August 93' the store opened. We actually did a few hundred dollars of sales that week. We opened selling car stereo equipment (speakers, woofers, boxes, etc), car alarms, radar detectors, and other accessories. We had one full time employee as our main installer, JD. JD was a great employee and a good customer. Mike (a friend of Dan's) helped by working part-time and on the weekends. Dan worked all the time and I stopped by every weekend to "try" to be useful. The first 2 years was tough. It just took time to get a client base and reputation started. Cellular phones were becoming more common and we jumped at the chance to be an Ameritech cellular distributor. Business was getting better. We hired a new full time employee, Shelly, to work on cellular sales. Shelly worked out great! We also decided to rent out the back part of our building to "Gary's automotive". We rarely used the space (actually stored stuff) so we decided to rent space. While this helped, the hassle of having a renter was unpleasant at times. We were also faced with our lease with Goodyear ending and we had to resign with the owner. Through Dan's contacts we were able to move into a new building built for us. While we didn't like the idea of moving it turned out for the best. In our new store at 1623 W. Main, the rent was cheaper, better space, nicer environment. During this we hired a new installer, Rob, since JD moved on to better things. We also hired two others, Sara & Virgina, to help with sales. Dan's mother also started working for us doing much of the paperwork and accounting. Dan and I got to know our banker Kent and our CPA Ed very well. We just can't stand still! Virgina & Rob left and TJ started as our new installer. We've been in business 9yrs now. Dan and I had always talked about expanding into other sales (home stereo, high speed Internet, etc). Dan found Jerry's Radio Shack store just off Main Street. Jerry was looking to get out of the business and the time was right. Dan again did a lot of work to get some numbers and details together. We were able to make a deal with Jerry (who is the latest member of our team) and bought his Radio Shack franchise and inventory. It didn't stop there either. The added retail really required a larger floor space to grow. We stuffed many of the RadioShack inventory into out store but new we had to move. Dan and I again drove around Robinson looking for a new spot. We decided on a building next to the root beer drive-in. It was an unfinished building. We remodeled it. We moved in June of 2003 to our new store at 812 E. Main.
2003: It didn't stop there either. The added retail really required
a larger floor space to grow. We stuffed many of the RadioShack
inventory into our current store but we knew we had to move. Dan and
I again drove around Robinson looking for a new spot. We decided on
a building next to the root beer drive-in. It was an unfinished pole
building. We remodeled it. We now own our own building and have a
much larger space for our inventory. We moved in June of 2003 to our
new store at 812 E. Main. |
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