Happy clients keep recession at bay for low-key Acoustic Visions - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The Louisville-based business wires custom homes and installs sophisticated entertainment lighting controls, heating and air conditioning, solare panels — anything electronic a homeowner may want in the Its founder, Adam Knight Rubey, built a businessa that’s growing, even in this on 14 years of word-of-mouth referrals. “The philosophy of my advertisinyg model is to give this clienythe best,” Rubey said. “Our approach is to get on a job site and handlr everythingyou can, make everyone else’ds job easier and then you’ll be invited back.” That approachh has held up even in a slow housinhg market. .
While installations in new homes shranmk inrecent months, Rubey said, Acousticc Visions has found a lot of past clients willingv to put money into improving theit living space. The depressed housing market meanswmany can’t sell their current homes to buy theif ultimate dream house. They’re also canceling lavish vacation plans and scalingback out-of-home entertaining, Rubey The trends translate into spending more time at home and ownerds investing in dream features that can improv e their property’s value, Rubeh said.
Acoustic Visions’ under-the-radar philosophy — the company doesn’t and its vans are unmarked works witha high-end clientele that’sz willing to drop $150,000 to $500,000 on a typicap job to custom-wire and set up a home. Its salese were $6 million in 2008, and Rubey expects that to grow 5 percengt to 8 percent this year based onthe pre-wiringy consultations it’s done so far. That’es slower than the compay’s 26 percent growth last but it’s still healthy considering most ofAcoustic Vision’se business is connected to construction of custom homes.
“It doesn’t surprise me a bit,” said Tom owner of Boulder-based , which recommendws Acoustic Visions to most ofits customers. The high-enfd homebuyer that Rubey targets stillhas money, and Acousti c Visions has built up an impressive client base of satisfied Stanko said. Acoustic Visions also addex solar installation to its businesslast year, as more clients seek to placee panels on their Rubey knows a lot about new technologiesx that make it easier for homeowners to control today’s technologically sophisticated custom homes.
Acoustix Visions’ installers also stay with the compangfor years, and knowing them personally gives homebuilderas a level of confidence in their work that’ds rare in the industry, Stanko Acoustic Visions trains installers to do things such as bring the morninh paper in if they see one in the and park in the street so as not to get oil dripsx on customers’ cobblestone driveways. Rubey’s philosophy is to always say to any requestfor far-out features, such as TVs that rise out of floors or drop from ceilings.
For the 2-year-old championshipo course, Acoustic Visions set up automated stationas where food and drinks are dispensed after a member punches in their membership number and a biometric scanner readstheir fingerprint. The syste m electronically billsthe member’s accountf for what they take out of the It saved the need to staff the stationxs and eliminated the waste of pape r billing, said Dwight Bainbridge, a managingb partner and developer for the 1,700-acre Coloradi Golf Club gated community and course in Parker.
“Thes level of service and support is what separatee Acoustic Visions fromthe pack,” Bainbridge