It’s Getting Tougher to Find the Deals

Posted on by Jeff Posted in customer service, good business ideas — No Comments ↓

spokesguyA troubling new pricing trend is developing in online pricing and it’s making things more difficult if you are looking for a deal.

Pressure from manufacturers to control the price that online merchants charge for certain items mean that more and more web sites are no longer posting pricing with their items.

What may first look like an unwillingness of the seller to show you the price may actually be an effort on their part to keep the manufacturer from forcing them to charge a price dictated to them.

When you look at an item on a web site but can’t see the price until you “put it in your shopping cart”, it may be an effort on the merchant’s part to keep the manufacturer from easily seeing what price is being charged.  Because the price doesn’t appear with the item,  it won’t be indexed at popular shopping “bots” like Shopzilla and Pricegrabber, making it a lot harder for the manufacturer to control.

New interpretations of anti-trust law have given the manufacturers a lot more power in dictating prices to sellers.  Posting “lower than approved” pricing at a web site may violate advertising agreements.  This is likely why you can’t see the price until you add the item to a shopping cart.

This makes comparison shopping a whole lot tougher.

Periodically we are approached by manufacturers who would like us to sell their products, but negotiations always quickly end if they attempt to dictate the price we will charge our customers.  So called “MAP” pricing (minimum advertised pricing)does not come into play when we determine how to price what we sell to you.

We will always strive to give you the best price without regard to what the manufacturer thinks we should charge.  If we can take advantage of lower overhead and other efficiencies to offer you a better price than the competition, we are happy to share the savings.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Share your ideas on internet pricing with our readers.

Is the Customer Always Right?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in customer service

buyspeakercable_spokesperson.jpg I try to spend a few minutes each day reading up on ideas related to sound business practices. There is an unending source of good (and sometimes not so good) ideas for business management available.

One of the ideas that comes up over and over is the timeless concept that “the customer is always right”. After many years of selling specialty products online and through catalog sales, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

I field at least a couple of phone calls every day from a prospective customer who needs to be talked out of making a purchase from us. This is sometimes harder to do than one might think, but I would always prefer to lose a sale than to sell you the wrong item.

Over and over, a customer will try to talk me out of recommending that they not use a tape product for an outdoor application because it does not have UV protection and is not intended to stand up to exposure to sunlight.

Time after time, I have to convince a customer that using an extension cord of too small a gauge will create a fire hazard.

I wish I had a nickel for all the times I have tried (unsuccessfully) to convince a caller that the performance of a ProCell battery is identical to that of a Duracell CopperTop.

It has always been our hope that by creating web sites that were deep with informationthat we could lead customers to make the right choice-a purchasing choice that would provide a product that met their needs. The same theory is at work when we provide information that should help a prospective customer realize that they product they are considering is not the right item to meet their needs.

Sometimes we lose a sale by insisting that the customer is not always right, but, in the end, this is a lot more satisfying than trying to always make the sale.

Are you someone who believes that conventional business wisdom is not always the way to go? Share your thoughts with us!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

North Carolina Production Companies-Take A Bow!

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, good business ideas, Pro lighting, Pro Sound — No Comments ↓

spokesperson for goodbuyguys.comI have written from time to time about the great free magazines available to the concert and special events production industries.  They are advertiser supported (thus, they are free) but they have lots of high quality articles and educational material.

I subscribe to a lot of them, and no matter how hard I try, I get behind in my reading.

I picked up the July edition of Front of House to read over lunch and was pleased to see two prominent North Carolina companies featured.

Special Events Services, from Winston-Salem, provided their new Martin Audio MLA sound system to support Oprah’s final television shows-Oprah’s Surprise Spectacular-at Chicago’s United Center Arena.  This was one of the most highly anticipated television broadcasts of the year, and SES and Martin Audio made sure that the audience heard every word.  Click here for the details.

SE Systems, headquartered in Greensboro, was featured in celebration of their 24th year as the exclusive technical support vendor for Merelfest, a major bluegrass and traditional music festival.  Click here to read the article.

We’re proud to call these two great companies customers and tip our hat to Front of House for their recognition.

Goodbuyguys.com is a collection of web sites (including buytape.com, buybattery.com,buymicstand.com, buyextensioncord.com, buyaflashlight.com and buywireties.com) designed to deliver a great selection of production supplies.

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An Education In Your Mailbox

Posted on by Jeff Posted in good business ideas — No Comments ↓

I spend several hours a day reading, and the bulk of my time is spent with technical journals. I never cease to be amazed at how willing publishers of magazines oriented towards the entertainment production and audio visual industries are to underwrite the publication of dozens of really valuable journals. How can they do this? Advertisers like Duracell and Pro Tapes pay, not you.

Maybe this model is used in other industries, but this is the only one I am familiar with. These magazines are filled with dozens of really useful articles, and, many times, the advertising is filled with good info as well.

I use these journals regularly to find new products for our catalog. Its also really great to come across articles about our cutomers. I even saw one of our products in a photo accompanying a story about the NFL Playoffs.

Any student or hobbyist in sound, lighting or theater tech can easily begin receiving these journals by simply making up a business name. The magazines base their ad rates on the number of subscribers, so they are happy to add you to their subscriber list. They rarely do much to insure that you are a legitimate business with a large purchasing budget.

Journals like Pro Sound News, Sound & Video Contractor , Live Sound International, Church Sound Magazine, and FOH Magazine are yours for the asking. They have great columns, handy “how to” articles, and honest equipment reviews. The photo quality is really good and the editorial content, while advertiser driven, is still useful. Most of the writing is first rate.

Interested? You can sign up for regular subscriptions at any of the publication web sites in this article.

Goodbuyguys.com is a collection of web sites (including buytape.com, buybattery.com, buymicstand.com, buyextensioncord.com, buyaflashlight.com and buywireties.com) designed to deliver a great selection of production supplies.

Did Perry Mason Need an LCD Projector?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual

spokesguy It’s always interesting to stumble upon a new type of customer for our products, and I have noticed recently that we are getting more and more orders from lawyers and courts.

More and more lawyers offices and courts are struggling with the technical demands of media coverage and the need for tech savy technicians in the courtroom. Many courthouses date back to the earlier half of the twentieth century and they are woefully behind when it comes to providing the kind of support that is now expected by the legal profession, the media and the public. Its not unusual to enter a courtroom now and find mic cables and extension cordsheld down with gaffers tape all over the room. If the proceedings are high profile, this tangle of cables may stream out the door, down the stairs and out into the street.

The need for audio visual supplies now often extends back to the attorneys’ offices as well. Many law firms have whole departments that are involved in preparing presentation materials for courtroom work. This now extends far beyond the realm of flip charts to include professionally produced videos, wireless mics, enhanced audio recordings and computer-based presentations.

While it is unfortunate that these technical demands may be overwhelming the courtroom, its a great thing that high tech tools are available to participants in the cases.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties,Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.Look to us first to meet your audio visual supply needs.

What I Learned in 30 Years of Concert Production

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Uncategorized

spokesguy Until recently, my chosen career was in concert and special event production.  I spent more than 30 years doing sound, lighting, staging and event management.  It was a great run-I got to see the country and make dozens of great friends.  I saw more than my share of great shows along the way.

So, what did I learn that I consider really valuable today?  I can coil cables, level stages, mix sound for live TV and focus lights from the top of a 20 foot ladder.  Those were all hard-won skills that served me well, but they don’t have a lot of value today.

The most valuable skill, by far, was being able to make decisions.   As a producer of large events and concerts, every day was a string rapid-fire decisions, all focused on the starting time of the show.  There was never a chance to kick around a lot of options or “sleep on it”.  There just wasn’t enough time.

Fortunately, these were not decisions of the life-or-death variety, and if I was able to get two out of every three right, I was usually a hero.  There was never the option of putting off the decision until later.  The show would be today whether I made a decision or not.  Choosing “not to decide” was the same as “choosing to fail”.

I reality, the more decisions I made in a day the more likely I was to get really good results.  Making a couple of decisions before my first cup of coffee always gave me new options that got me closer to an on time show.  That was the goal.

Actually providing good entertainment was the job of the performers and their hands on technicians.  My job was to make enough correct decisions to insure that they got to do their job.

Making lots of decisions can be risky, even painful.  Rarely will it do the sort of damage that is almost guaranteed by making no decision at all.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  I enjoy sharing good business ideas with our readers and customers. Let me know what you think.

You’re An Engineer? Where’s Your Train?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, good business ideas, Pro lighting, Pro Sound — No Comments ↓

good idea jeff from goodbuyguys.comI have always been amused at how the live events business has allowed such practices as referring to sound persons as “engineers“, and this is a good example of how the special events production industry has evolved outside of the mainstream.  Real engineers have college degrees, face rigorous testing and must be licensed before they ply their trade.  All a sound “engineer” needs is a Sharpie and a Maglite!

You need an architect, a licensed contractor and a building permit to add a bathroom to your house, but you can build a six story tall temporary structure in the midst of 10,000 people by just being lucky enough to win the bid.

I was in the outdoor staging business for many years, and must disclose, upfront, that I was guilty of more than one questionable decision, because we are all so deeply committed to the concept that “the show must go on“.  I am now amazed that over a period of more than 20 years no one ever asked me who designed this roof, who built this stage, and what are their qualifications?

Somewhere along the way, our commitment to hard work and quick thinking has managed to allow us to escape the scrutiny (government and otherwise) that similar industries must submit to every day.  Those days are likely nearing an end.

We used to joke that building stages was like having a construction job without a lunch break.  The joke should have also included “and without a permit“. The building of temporary structures puts performers and audience members at the same sort of risk they would be exposed to when shows are in permanent buildings, but the fly-by-night nature (I don’t mean this in a derogatory manner, since we literally do “fly-by-night)  of what we do has allowed it to escape the inspection and permitting process.

The evolution of stage roofs from being a tent over a flat bed truck to massive structures like that ones in use today has happened in rapid fashion, and the notion that an unlicensed contractor can hang thousands of pounds over the heads of audience members and performers without being subjected to formal training, licensing and inspection now must come to an end.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape & Pro Tape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB  extension cords and lots of other “satisfaction guaranteed” production supplies.

 

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The Night Steve Goodman Wrote Me A Song

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Pro Sound — No Comments ↓

I got such a great response from my Clarence Clemons blog posting,  I thought I might share another brush with greatness.

One of my favorite song writers is the late Steve Goodman, composer of The City of New Orleans,  You Never Even Call Me By My Name, and lots of other memorable tunes from the 1970’s and 1980’s.

I got to work with him once before his death, when he performed with John Prine at Virginia Tech.  Steve began his show and was about half way through the set when I started hearing a high pitched buzzing, sort of like a mosquito, that seemed to cycle on and off.  It got progressively louder and more prominent and I pretty quickly realized that I was facing the sound man’s nightmare of a complete console failure.

The crew scrambled to come up with a fix, and, rather than take a break and let us troubleshoot, Goodman continued his show,  leading the audience in a chorus of a song he wrote on the spot.

The name of the tune?  You Better Fix It Mr. Soundman!

He never shared any of his royalty checks.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful production supplies.


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Does Improving the Package Improve the Product?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Pro lighting, Pro Sound, tie-line — No Comments ↓

Tex TalksWe’ve been selling a product called tie line for a long time. It is used by lots of theatrical and special events production companies for tasks like drapery hanging, bundling and cable management. It is also known by the name “trick line” becuase its matte black color means that you can’t see it on a darkened stage or against a black backdrop. Its handy for all sorts of special effects.

There’s not really a lot that can be done to improve this braided cotton cord. Or that’s what I thought until we received our first shipment from a new supplier for this product. For years, the tie line we sold had been wrapped on cardboard spools. I have used this product a lot myself over the years, and it seemed like before the tie line was gone that the spool had ripped, collapsed, or completely disintegrated through rough handling and packing into road cases and tool boxes.

This new tie line supplier had spooled their product on a heavy-duty plastic spool tielinesmallerplasticspool.gifand it works much, much better. The spool can stand up to rough handling, sweaty palms and a little rain on an outdoor event site. The product is the same but it is now offered in a much better package.

This new vendor is also supplying us with new smaller 300 foot spools, so now you can buy a spool that will fit in your tool box or under the seat of your truck. No need to lug around a lifetime supply if you only need a small amount.

If you need tie line, but aren’t sure whether to buy the glazed or unglazed version, here’s a little info that might help. If you intend to tie and untie the knots over and over againg (say, for cable ties) use unglazed. It does not hold a knot as tightly. If your use is for something more permanent (e.g. tying a drape onto a truss or batten) use glazed. Knots tied with glazed time line remain tightly bound over a long period of time.

I never cease to be amazed at how a simple change in packaging can dramatically change the way I look at a product.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful supplies for cable management.

Making the Case for an XLR Patch Bay

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

mike2 We used to do lots of church and auditorium sound system installations and many times, some sort of a patch bay was called for. While including a patch bay in an installation can be both expensive and time consuming, it is always worth the trouble, even in a simple installation.

The industry standard for audio patch bays uses quarter inch connectors or something similar called “TT” tt.jpg(“TT” stands for “tiny telephone”) a standard left over from when telephone systems used physical switchboards. Early sound system patch bays actually used hardware intended for the phone company.

tt_patch_bay.jpg

We quickly realized that using the “TT” standard, even though it was embraced by console manufacturers and recording hardware makers, was not the best solution for the job.

While not universally accepted for patch bays, using the XLR standard for these patch bays was a much better solution. It’s hard to come up with a connector design better than the XLR3 connector. It is durable. It can be used balanced (3 wire) or unbalanced (2 wire), it is readily available in places like Radio Shack, and it is inexpensive.

xlr_3.jpg

Best of all, it doesn’t require a different kind of cable from the other wires used in most sound system installations. If you have almost any kind of sound system, you are already using XLR3 cables, as these are what is used on almost all microphones.

We tried to include patch bays in several locations along an audio signals path (both inputs and outputs) so that rerouting, patching in temporary sound sources, routing signal to temporary output sources, etc. could be done without unpatching the primary console inputs and outputs.

Using XLR connectors allows you to pass both balanced and unbalanced signals, including phantom power when necessary and use standard XLR “barrel” type adapters like ground lifts and isolation transformers. The “TT” standard does not allow for any of these adaptations.

XLR cables can be patched together “head to tail” to make as long a cable as you need. XLR cables are available in short lengths for standard patch bay use, but any size XLR microphone cable can be used.

Unlike a two pole or three pole “TT” connector, the XLR3 connector can be patched without having to pass the tip of the connector through the ring(s) of the mating female connector. The likelihood of annoying and possibly damaging “pops” and “cracks” is greatly reduced.

Need to trace a signal? Standard tone generators and cable testers can be used with the XLR patch panel without any adapters. None of this can be done with a “TT” patch panel.

tone_generator.jpgnadycabletester3.gif

If you really want flexibility in your sound system installation XLR is the way to go.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands . View our full selection of XLR cables at BuyMicCable.com

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