We recently connected with Scott Weinmann and have shared our conversation below.

Scott, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

The hardest part about being a business owner is hindsight is truly 20/20. When I first became a business owner, I played it safe. I bought a retail business with positive cash flow, in order to support myself in the retail business I really was passionate about. Instead of “Going Big or Going Home” I decided to buy a furniture store and take on a business partner for that store so I could have a steady stream of income while I build my online presence for my guitar store. What happened next was I entered into a tangled web of retail businesses that saw me not being able to focus on one business but spreading my mental and physical ability among several., This decision resulted in me having to buy out a business partner who wasn’t as dedicated as I was and, constantly being pulled away from one to fix something at another one.,I also managed to open up 3 additional retail stores across the course of the next 7 years while also trying to survive through a pandemic that truly changed the way retail operates. 

I played it safe because I was afraid of failure. If I was to go back and do it again, I would not have purchased the furniture store to support myself. I would have fully immersed myself in the guitar store, built my brand and, I truly believe, I would be further along in my Guitar Store owning career, creating consistent content and focusing on growing one of the truly great guitar stores in the country. The pain of not having a paycheck for a year or so would have been worth it for the growth of my guitar store business.

Scott, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For most of my adult life, I’ve been in the musical instrument industry in one way or another. By sheer luck (maybe divine intervention….who knows), I happened upon a job posting for a job selling high-end guitars for (at that time) the largest retailer of instruments in the US while I was teaching guitar lessons and working in banking. I went on to work for Musician’s Friend Private Reserve for over 4 years, mentoring under Dave Carpenter. I went to work for Gibson guitars for a little over a year, traveling the Rocky Mountain region before I went back to my old job at Musician’s Friend. It took less than 2 years back at MF before I decided that I could do guitar sales better in my own business. That’s why I opened Muddy River Guitars. More and more corporate America is focusing on selling units. Guitars are unique, guitars are sexy. Every guitar is different, just like a human being. My best trait while selling high-end guitars was being able to discern those small differences in each individual guitar and vocalize them to a customer. A musician needs a guitar as unique as they and their style. Their guitar helps them tell their story. By selling a box, the major box stores are doing a disservice to musicians, even though some brands are more consistent in their sounds than others. Even the beginning musician has the song in their hands to be told. Sometimes they decide to tell that story by going after the guitar their favorite player favors. Sometimes they just are drawn to a guitar because it has a certain look. This is why brick-and-mortar guitar stores will never cease to exist. My 2 employees and I provide the customers who shop at my two locations more knowledge and experience to help connect them with the right guitar. This skill sets us apart from all the box stores in KC combined. We all also own the guitars that we sell and honestly we wouldn’t carry brands that we wouldn’t personally own.

That was a long, meandering way to say, what sets me apart from others is that I truly care about connecting a musician with a tool that they will hopefully bond with for a lifetime; and that also helps find them inspiration. By doing so, the store doesn’t gain a customer, the store gains a community member for life. Yes, sometimes I do get hurt if I see a guitar I sold someone for sale, but it’s only because there is true emotion in trying to connect someone to an instrument. My priorities as a business owner do not focus on profit and loss or GMROI but making someone’s life better., This may in turn better the life of someone else through music.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We use both our website, www.muddyrivergutiars.com and Reverb.com. Reverb is a 3rd party website currently owned by Etsy. The biggest con of selling online with a 3rd party site is the fees. Guitars are not a high-margin item to begin with. Within a few months of the pandemic, Reverb announced they were raising their selling fees. Recently they also announced an increase in their credit card processing fees. On top of those fees, FedEx and UPS have consistently raised their shipping fees. It now costs over $100 to ship an acoustic guitar in and case with insurance and a signature required. The biggest reason we sell on Reverb is that it is musical instrument specific. I am able to get lot of eyes on my inventory without having to spend the money marketing my website.We have noticed an uptick in sales on our website over the past 2 years but not enough to discontinue selling on Reverb.com.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Besides retail sales, we have 2 other revenue streams. I have 3 very experienced guitar teachers that rent studio space in the store. The teachers pay me a percentage of each lesson as rent. A good number of the students that come through the door have been taking lessons for years. Students often purchase accessories on a regular basis and often take advantage of the semi-annual guitar sale we host. Being in the store weekly and regularly seeing the inventory as it comes in often entises the students to purchase their next piece to practice with. The other revenue stream we offer is a repair person. Our repair man is one of the best in the city and has been doing it for as long as I’ve been alive. Like the teachers, the store also benefits from a percentage of his repair fee. The store also sees more guitar string and part sales from him being in the store. Guitarists like to upgrade parts as an easy way to change their sound/make their guitar play better so the benefit from the repair personnel is two-fold.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.muddyriverguitars.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddyriverguitars/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuddyRiverGuitarsKC
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/scott-weinmann-78834415

Image Credits
Personal photo-Marcus Rangel