Custom Home Theater Systems & Automation: Checklist Checkup

Last year, Lee Lareau made a list of goals for his company. Actually, the entire staff of Brunswick, Maine-based Custom Home Theater Systems & Automation worked on the list with help from a business consultant.

"That's what they always tell you do -- write things down," Lareau says, referring to consultants.

What's unique isn't that Lareau's crew made a list of goals. That's the sort of thing that integration companies are supposed to do -- especially during down construction markets.

What's unique is that Custom Home almost immediately started checking items off the list.

Lareau says he's proud of how his company has attacked its goals and evolved since those 2007 business consultant meetings. He also likes that every employee was involved.

"It's a lot better if everybody is part of that process. There's some ownership there," he says.

GOAL: Move on Up

Speaking of ownership, one goal involves Custom Home's building.

The company had been leasing in a building on Route 1 in Brunswick, just outside the town center and less than a mile from Bowdoin College. It was a good location in that potential clients could see Custom Home's signage whether they were driving locally or heading 25 miles south to Portland.

The problem, according to Lareau, was that the cold-looking building wasn't representative of the company.

"It didn't have a great look because it was cinderblock outside," he says. "They'd come in and say, 'Wow, this is nice!' The trick, though, was getting them to come in."

Lareau found a solution nearby on Route. 1. He decided to buy a house to serve as Custom Home's new showroom and office.

"There was just something about it," he says. "When I saw this building for sale, I said, 'That's it!'"

The new space is still in a transformation phase, but Lareau has plans to make it extremely welcoming.

"We're going to do landscaping to make it appealing. Big bay windows were put in specifically for merchandising," he explains, adding that occasionally the showroom lights will be dimmed so that passersby will glance through the windows and see movies playing on large screens.

In laying out the new showroom, Lareau is taking lessons from mistakes made with the previous space. In other words, it wasn't just the cinderblocks that made the old showroom unwelcoming to some potential clients.