" Take care of your customers and they'll take care of you..."
 

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My name is Brian Carlsness and I'm the owner of WiredForLess.com. I'm hopeful that the "story" of how I came to launch WiredForLess will help new customers get to know me and ideally trust me with their business.

I bought my first killer hifi in 1974 from Schaak Electronics in Duluth, Minnesota and have been hooked ever since. After hanging around the store and helping customers from time to time (just because I loved figuring out the right stuff for their particular needs), I was asked to join the Schaak team. I jumped on board and never looked back. So much for pursuing a career in architecture!

Schaak became one of the fastest growing retailers in the industry, from eight stores to 56 during the 13 years I worked for them. I found success in sales, managed several stores and became a regional manager in charge of their Minneapolis stores. Selling stereos in those days was serious fun and if you took good care of people, not only would they buy from you, but they kept coming back time and time again. Funny how that works. I learned a great deal during my years there and it provided the foundation of service and skills I still use today.

In 1986, Audio King knocked on my door. They had stores throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. Audio King was a respected high-end retailer carrying brands like Nakamichi, Klipsch, and a/d/s. I became a buyer and learned about the consumer electronics from an entirely different perspective.

Buying turned out to be the toughest thing I'd ever done. They say a buyer is never right because they either buy too many or buy too few and it's absolutely true! To anticipate the brands and models that people respond to, and ultimately buy from you, was challenging but very rewarding. Knowing your own brands, competitive brands, emerging technologies, and more importantly, which ones you believed were going to resonate with your customers was vital.

My personal and selling experience with electronics products really helped me become a better buyer. I would always look at a product's features and functionality from the perspective of a consumer does it do what it is supposed to do? Is it easy to use? Is it made well and will it hold up over time? Is it competitive with other products at similar price points? Old habits never die as I continue to use the same thought process when I look at products today.

After seven years of buying at Audio King, it was time for a change. One of the manufacturers I did business with, Rockford Fosgate (the biggest U.S. car audio brand), had an intriguing opportunity. They wanted to expand their European business and were looking for the right person to lead the initiative. I jumped at the opportunity despite having no international experience. I knew I was their guy.

I spent seven years traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East establishing Rockford Fosgate's distributor and dealer network. The business grew quickly and I enjoyed these years immensely. I continue to have great friends from every corner of Europe. Eventually the extensive travel (a typical trip would be two weeks and cover 6 countries) started to take its toll and long absences from my family got to be too much. For the next eight years, I held a number of challenging positions with Rockford, including my final role as vice president of sales. Working with this outstanding manufacturer and its passionate employees was a great experience and I learned much over those 15 years.

I joke that I've been selling stereos for 35 years! Over that time I've worked for three great companies - all with talented and passionate people. Each represented great products and I was proud to sell them. I was always given the power to take care of the customer whatever it took. As a result, those customers came back and were loyal. I think today that we make business more complex than it needs to be. My philosophy? Take care of your customers and they'll take care of you.

Over the years the distance between me and the consumer increased and I've missed that interaction along with the thrill of helping a customer find that product that he or she is looking for. And at the same time, I've always dreamed of owning and operating my own business (my father was a successful entrepreneur). And so it came to be that in August of 2008, I left my VP position at Rockford to start WiredForLess.

Over the past year and a half I've worked countless hours starting WiredForLess.com. It has been tiring, challenging and expensive. And I've loved every minute of it. I hope you do as well.