Tony Dehnke

Top Books for Car Audio Retailers to Read for Business Success

January 27, 2020

If you are the owner or manager a Car Audio Retail or Mobile Electronics store, you need to learn how to run your business, not just work in it! These are the top books 12v.Biz recommends to get your business and mindset on the right track for success.

Making the change from an Employee to a Business Owner

We all get bitten by the car audio bug long before we decide to open a store, so we likely don’t start out as business owners with formal training or education. We do not know how to build or run a successful mobile electronics retail business.

It doesn’t matter if your background is as an installation tech or a salesperson, once you decide to open your own car stereo store or vehicle customization shop, you need to start wearing a lot more hats and systemizing your business!

More Roles & Responsibilities – Requires More Expertise

Once you decide to open your own shop you become responsible for HR, accounting, scheduling, legal, marketing, buying, negotiating, leadership, advertising, branding, tax compliance, IT, bathroom cleaning and a whole lot more.

Before starting a business (or even if you have been in business for years), there are some great books we recommend reading to help make sure you end up with not just a job, but a successful business that builds wealth for you and your staff. As well as a sellable business when it is time to retire your wire strippers or sales closing pen!

The Best Books to Learn How to Run Your Car Audio Store

These books help you get a handle on a lot of those new roles & responsibilities you will have starting up and owning your own Mobile Electronics or Vehicle Customization business. Most are available in stores, online or as audiobooks if you prefer to listen, also check your local library too.

A lot of them have condensed versions and summaries available if you are wanting to get a quick overview of a book and its key takeaways before you dig in.

So stop drafting up fabrication room plans, designing displays and flipping through the Snap-On catalog and get reading and learning! You are a business owner now, not a fabricator, sales person or installer!

Top Books for Car Audio & Vehicle Customization Business Owners

Operations & Finance:

Built to Sell – Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You – John Warrillow
Profit First – Transform your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits – 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential
Unf*ck Your Business – Stop Business Self-Sabotage by Getting Clear on Your Core Values NOW
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work & What to Do About It

Sales:

Eddy Kay Sales Training – Out of Print, but ask around and people may have a copy to lend
Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: The Demise of Dysfunctional Selling and the Advent of Helping Clients Succeed (Recommended by Ken Ward – Educar)

Planning, Processes, Systems, Delegation & Review – Working ON Your Business

Notice anything about the list? Not much about router techniques, the best CNC to buy or how to tune a DSP. If you have been spending more time on topics like that than you have about learning how to work ON your business, then you really should start reading! 🙂

One thing you will see is how often the books talk about having processes, recording data, reviewing the results and improving the systems based on the data and results.

Having a proper scheduling system that tracks your installations, automates reminding clients, digitizes your check-in process and records parts and time used on each work order is a key component of that.

We have built the 12v.Biz Toolbox to do that for Mobile Electronics retailers and Vehicle Customization shops. Check it out and get your free trial today: 12.Biz Toolbox App

Do you have book you have read that you think should be on the list? I’d love to hear about it – email me at [email protected] with your suggestion!