It's no secret the housing market has been in the tank, and it's dragged down with it the digital home industry. And custom installers have been struggling right alongside home builders. So how can electronic systems contractors weather the storm? One possibility that's made the rounds lately is for residential integrators to do more commercial work. At Electronic House Expo in March, there was even an educational session devoted to the topic. It just so happens that in my other life I'm an editor of a commercial AV publication, so I've got thoughts on the subject. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. In many ways, things ain't so different. Depending on the "commercial" opportunities you're looking into, many of them look and act a lot like the residential projects you've worked on. Red Dog Pet Resort and Spa, for instance, is smack-dab in one of the Cincinnati area’s residential communities. When the owner, Ray Schneider, wanted to take it high-tech, he brought in Ken Becker of Shootingstar Electronics, a custom installer that's affiliated with the Cincinnati Home Builders Association.

Now, flat-panel televisions foster a sense of home in the dorms and daycares. Cameras allow the pet owners to check on their pets via the web. And a NuVo Technologies multiroom audio system distribute high-quality audio throughout the entire complex. Sounds a lot like a digital home install. Apparently Becker chose a NuVo Grand Concerto system and each zone is controlled  by a Grand Concerto Control Pad. Moreover, there are 68 pairs of NuVo’s AccentPLUS speakers, both in-ceiling and in-wall, reaching from the lush lobby to the massage parlor (!) to the pool (!!). Very cool.

Keep in mind, statistically speaking, many of your past and current clients are likely to be small and medium-size business operators. Learn about their companies and begin to visualize the types of systems you could offer them.

2. In other ways, things are very different. For instance, just because you live in the Washington, D.C., area doesn't mean one day you can wake up and decide to outfit conference rooms for various federal agencies. There's an entire cottage industry devoted to helping companies like yours get their foot into government doors. I've talked to many small technology companies that didn't realize the time, money, and effort it could take to get a General Services Administration schedule, which is a common way of getting your products and services in front of government procurement officers. (For a guide to working with the federal government, you can download a PDF piece by PRO AV magazine here.)

And that's to say nothing about the business of commercial projects today. Commercial integrators everywhere feel the brunt of their clients' tight-fistedness (assuming the project still has the green light) in the form of payment delays. Be ready for it. I had lunch recently with David Epstein, chairman of CEA's TechHome division and president of Sound Solutions, which does high-end residential installs as well as a good amount of corporate work. He said his company has had to implement a payment system by which the customer pays for the equipment when it goes in. This kind of pay-as-you-go model can result in price breaks from the manufacturers (they want to get paid, too). Of course, getting paid can be similarly difficult in the residential market, but it can also be a lot harder to collect from companies (or government bodies) you haven't worked with much and are dictating they'll be paying in 120 days.

3. Try churches. Now, there are many AV systems installers that cater specifically to the house of worship market, but the great thing for residential integrators trying to branch out is that your contact in a church is likely to be the same as your contact in homes--literally! Church systems are often run by volunteers, members with a keen interest in AV...basically the same enthusiasts whose homes you may have outfitted. The really big churches, obviously, have AV pros on-staff, but smaller churches can use an installer like you, in part because as a residential integrator you've already honed your personal skills, guiding newbies through the systems, patiently answering their tech support calls, etc. It's a "house" of worship. Not too far afield from your regular specialty.

4. Also try... Conference rooms, small (or large) hotels, and small-scale digital signage applications. This last one is a particular favorite of mine. To be frank, it's the Wild West out there when it comes to taking ads and other messaging and putting them on strategically located flat-panel screens. An enterprising installer in an underserved community could go into the doctor's office, the deli, the local bank, and any other well-trafficked locale and make the case that they should have a digital sign. What runs on it--be it their messaging of third-party ads for which they get a cut--is up for negotiation. So is whether you update them over the Internet or whether you drive to each location once a week and pop in a USB drive with fresh content.

The example might be too simplistic, but digital signage is the real deal. Imagine every sign you see as something that can change dynamically and engage viewers. Then understand you've got as good a chance as anyone right now at being a successful signage integrator. FastSigns, the national franchise company that does printed signs and graphics recently decided it wanted its franchisees to have a chance to sell digital signage. That's potentially 550 small business owners trying to get into this business. So could you.

5. Find out what your European installer buddies think. I've long been told that in Europe and elsewhere, the residential and commercial integration markets aren't so clearly delineated like they are here. When I began to speculate to my commercial readers that maybe the U.S. market could start to resemble overseas markets, I got this response from Randy Lemke, the executive director on InfoComm, which is the commercial AV industry's biggest trade association:

"You pose a very good question about the US commercial and resi markets following the mode of Europe, but you could also pose the question the opposite way: Will Europe adopt the separate channel model found in the US? The US market is bigger and has larger integrated systems vs. a box sales market. It might just be that with growth the demand for more sophisticated commercial or residential engineering could divide the high end market into separate commercial and residential companies just like here in the US. Finally, as we look at the Americas, Europe and Asia we see different business models that all are affected by the same technology introductions but we see very different cultural and historic ways of doing business conducted in very different governmental structures. The uniqueness of the cultures will probably have as much to do with how business is done as the introduction of the same products around the world."

Randy makes good points that ultimately underscore the challenge of residential integrators getting into commercial. Basically, that in this country, business is done so differently in the two markets that you can't move effortlessly between the two until you understand both reasonably well.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.