I was talking to a gentleman from NY about the state of the music business and during the conversation, he exclaimed, “You can’t make money in the music business anymore!” After considering the recent economic crises that has affected everyone’s business, it could have been easy to agree with him. Our company, and everyone I come in contact with has felt the strain and pain (albeit at different levels) of this financial downturn. 2009 was one of the most difficult years to lead our company through and the dramatic loss of revenue was and still is an issue to be dealt with on almost every front. While I’ve seen the ups and downs of the economy and it’s affect on our business, I’ve never seen anything this extreme in my 25 years at CTS Audio. I began to wonder if my NY friend was right.
The thought of “making” money kept running through my head, but something about the phrase just didn’t sit right. Some times in business are certainly easier to make sales than other times. When the economy is humming, credit is flowing easily, income is high or there’s a new rage (dot com push), people become quicker to spend and invest and loosen their decision criteria, but is that “making” money?
I remember the old Smith-Barney commercial where the actor said, 
“We make money the old fashioned way; we earn it.” And that is our challenge today. How do we earn our customer’s business in this economy, not the past economy or the so called good old days? Owning a small business in a somewhat free economy requires us to continually respond, change, innovate and grow. In a depressed economy, the stakes rise with every potential transaction.
I spoke with a colleague just yesterday and he gave me a phrase to live by. “I reserve the right to be smarter tomorrow than I am today“, he quipped. It struck a nerve for me and our company to not hold onto the old ways if they aren’t working today. Desperate times may not require desperate measures, but they will require innovation, creative solutions, real partnerships, strong customer support and the focus on earning our customer’s business. The companies that do those things will survive and thrive while the ones that jumped in to “make money” will fall by the wayside.
CTS plans to stay in the former list and not fall with the later. We need your suggestions, ideas, insight and partnerships that will enable us to better earn your business and thus earn money to support our staff, grow our organization and sustain the cycle of service for years to come. So in the end, I agree with my friend from NY. You can’t make money in the music business; however, we certainly plan to earn it.
Story is a powerful thing. From preachers, songwriters, motivational speakers, movies and musicians alike, I’ve heard stories that have touched me deeply. Amplifying those stories to a larger audience is one of the things I love most about what our company does. The power of a story can break your heart and a broken heart is a powerful thing that can move us to action in surprising ways. One such story had a powerful effect on Austin Gutwein.
that night was the heart of each artist being conveyed to the audience in an intimate way. The curtain was pulled back for a moment and we got a glimpse of real people doing what they loved and benefitting others along the way. And you know what? I was touched, the night was magical and the audience connected with the cause. One key audience member summed it up this way, “In today’s economy I don’t buy a concert ticket for a concert, but tonight I wasn’t given a concert, I was given an experience.” Message received, job well done. I love music and I love making a difference!