May 1, 2017

Meet Steve Ferguson of The Horn Guys in La Crescenta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Ferguson.

Steve, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was a working trombonist around Southern California for some years and I was surprised at how little equipment was available locally for the professional brass player. Local music stores tended to cater only to younger students, and colleagues of mine were buying instruments from Kansas, Indiana, and New York. Considering what a music town Los Angeles is with studios, symphonies and conservatories, I thought there might be opportunity to offer some high-end brass-related equipment to my colleagues and their students. Starting with some beautiful leather cases made in San Francisco. I made a simple website and worked out of my house. I did not understand the growth of business, and was surprised at the immediate success. After taking over most of the house with merchandise, staff and clients, I moved to a nearby storefront, then expanded that location several times since.

Has it been a smooth road?
The main struggle at first was separating myself from the business when I needed time off. When my living room was piled high with cases and horns, it was difficult to escape. Later my challenges were managing staff effectively and dealing with the many chores of running a business. Being a business owner has little to do with actually working in the business as a salesperson. Billing, taxes, paperwork, returns, problems – the staff takes credit for the sales successes while I work to resolve our failures.

The recession in 2009 was a big deal. That January, the phones simply stopped ringing and I could calculate how many months we had left until we closed. Fortunately, we climbed out of the trough, and shortly afterward I had an opportunity to open a second location. The satellite store would be more conveniently located, and would focus on marketing, outreach, and institutional sales, which is a large market that supports most other music stores. Despite lots of investment in people and products, the second location was never an asset, and I’ve since found better success by focusing on one location and on our roots in the mail-order/internet market. I think now that a satellite store needs to have its own business model for generating cash, and needs to be a destination in itself, whether for expert staff or a fully-stocked inventory. If those points aren’t addressed, it simply becomes a liability. I learned a lot about my own limits as a business owner through these trying times.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Horn Guys – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We sell high-end brass musical instruments and accessories for the discerning musician. We cater mostly to adult players, some top professionals, but more importantly hobbyists who have a love for all things brass. I would compare our market to the bicycle business. Tour de France champions may not buy many bicycles, but their fans who love to ride sure do. In fact, a trombone and a bicycle generally are about the same price for a particular quality. A $300 bicycle or trombone is a very basic utility item. At $2000, that’s when you find something really nice, worthy of note by professional cyclists or musicians. (Interestingly, a new tuba costs the same as a used piano.)

Our focus is on the items that the big box stores do not carry: small makers offering custom instruments and boutique accessories, usually US and European made. It was early on that our mantra became, “We sell products that we would personally take to a gig.” That has allowed us to choose carefully from each manufacturer’s lineup rather than blindly ordering their full selection. That gained the trust of our clients. Clients know that even if our competitors carry some of the same brands that we do, our selection will be much more thoughtful, and their chance of a successful purchase is higher. I find that I prefer to support first-world artisans and craftsmen. I believe a society functions well when it supports well-paid expert people in trades and crafts, and if you trade that for cheap imported disposable goods, our society is worse off for it.

We’ve all heard others say, “Everything in this store is made in China.” In many stores, that’s true, but not here. While we do represent several brands of cases and horns from China now, our primary business is with companies who manufacture in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, UK, Brazil and Japan. A retailer can indeed make money selling locally sourced goods. The margin might be lower than one can make by importing the cheapest items, but there’s a bigger picture to look at, and you can do a whole lot better for the world by taking the high road.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I like being in a music and arts centered city, and people from all over the world stop to visit us during their travels. I also love that the mild winters allow great cycling in the mountains through the winter.

My complaints about Southern California are the same as others: the traffic is hell and the urban sprawl lessens any sense of community. At any event, if you strike up a conversation with another attendee, they might be as likely to live 100 miles away as 1 mile. When I look at the edges of our string of connected communities here, I see lots of unloved space: weedy vacant lots, broken cement, little run-down spaces that make all the difference in aesthetics and quality of life but are ignored either due to larger problems, or “it’s not my town” or “it’s not my problem”.

I love Portland, Oregon despite its bleak weather. My opinion of Portland is that people seem to embrace locally made goods, organic, arts and crafts – high quality stuff. Perhaps people make a conscious decision to live in Portland, and understand they must give up some things (mild weather), but they embrace others: sense of community, pride of neighborhood, and they’re prolific gardeners too. We could learn from them.

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