The Untold Story of Sound House’s Founding Final Episode: The Company that was Born Out of a Tiny Bankrupt Tailor Shop!

The day after the company was named Sound House was the day that my life changed forever. The site for the head office was what was left of my in-laws’ bankrupt tailor shop, which was a small rusty prefab building with an old one-story house in the back. After I gathered some cash from my own savings and from my friends and relatives, I only had 3 million yen on hand. Even with that small amount, I was determined to make it work. I began to make a business plan all by myself. Starting from nothing meant that I had nothing to lose, so it was quite a job to take on but at the same time it didn’t seem that bad.

It was then that I got the idea for the slogan “Shockingly low prices!” This phrase was going to be the breakthrough advertising that would cause prices in the audio equipment industry to plummet. Since we did not have enough funds to produce ads in magazines, I asked my classmate from elementary school to help me with the plan. My classmate then gave me the idea to use the word “shocking” in the advertisement. At the time I didn’t know where to put our ads, so I asked the president of an acoustic engineering company in Waseda, Tokyo, whom I had asked to do a job when I was running a music venue in Tokyo. He immediately answered me back and advised, “You should ask the president of the instrument retailer that’s also located in Waseda.” I immediately called him. He simply told me, “You should put an ad in Sound & Recording Magazine.” This was the moment when I realized that I had a lot to learn because I had never even heard of Sound & Recording Magazine.

His advice solidified the whole strategy. I wrote the slogan for the ad, next I decided where to put the ad, and then I developed the procedure for ordering products overseas. And then, all I had to do was place the order, have the products in stock, and then I could sell them! But after all of that and placing the ad in the magazine, would the phone really start ringing? I was always anxious but life is about taking chances on everything. I could no longer turn back and I had to follow through! I had to believe that the phone was going to ring and that we would also get a few orders in by fax. If I could sell ten SHURE microphones and two pairs of JBL speakers per month, I would be able to feed my family. That was my initial goal.

Thus, Sound House was launched in the spring of 1993. I was not the first president of Sound House, but my wife’s father who was the owner of the tailor shop became the first company president because my initial goal was to pay off my family’s debts. And so, this was how Sound House was born. When I started working, I was only an employee...