Received one of the new trade rags yesterday. Right inside the cover was an excellent photo of Sammy Hagar, promoting some of my favorite amplifiers. He's the last remaining quintessential Bay Area rock star. Sure, Carlos is still recording, but his rock doesn't have quite as much edge these days. Sammy still has rock star attitude, and he earned it. Anyway, I was so impressed with the ad that I was going to tear it out and hang it on the wall. An hour later a package arrives. A roll of posters. Sammy Hagar posters. The same ad I was going to rip out of a magazine to display.

I've been busy. Reinventing the business. Starting from the ground up. The trade rags tell it like it is. I picked the worst time in the last fifty years to go into the retail business. I also happened to pick the worst time in the last thirty years to go into specifically the music trades. The waves of cheap Chinese trumpets and price wars with Toys-R-Us are wreaking havoc on the industry. Prices and profit margins are in free fall.

Out of all of this, I'm also launching a brand. That's what retail is all about. I don't really care if somebody buys a trumpet or guitar, as long as they buy from my store. It's the store, it's my way of life that I'm selling; not the goods themselves. Official launch will be sometime this summer if the business survives that long. These things take time to do right. So no, I can't tell you the name because there are trademark searches taking place and domain names to acquire. I can tell you that it isn't the same name I discussed earlier.

But it isn't just a name. The name is just an association. What do you associate it with? That's the magic question. My success or failure depends on the answer.