It’s not often you hear someone compare their business strategy to battle, but retired lieutenant colonel and 29-year Army veteran Kevin Croteau, co-owner of HotSpring Spas of Music City, isn’t your average hot tub retailer.
Croteau joined his brother Dennis’ hot tub business when he left the Army. Dennis Croteau has worked in the hot tub industry since 1992 and started Music City in 2003.
“The heart and soul of the store is my brother Dennis,” Kevin Croteau says. “He’s the technician, but he is a great salesperson because he knows the hot tub inside and out.”
Croteau’s talents complement his brother’s; Dennis knows hot tubs and knows the industry, while Kevin is great with implementing systems.
“Putting systems in place would probably be the biggest accomplishment that I have had since I joined my brother,” Kevin Croteau says. He says that installing a point-of-sale system was pivotal in moving the business forward. “It allowed us to manage inventory and project where we were going to be, which has helped us immensely.”
Kevin Croteau says they are able to do more things because of these systems. “I call it a battle rhythm. In war, there is a rhythm to the battlefield and if you can get inside your enemies’ decision-making cycle, you can defeat them on the battlefield. The same thing applies here in the civilian sector.”
Something that has helped them make wise decisions is their involvement in the Gemini group. (To read about Gemini in depth, see page 22). “Joining Gemini was probably one of the smartest moves we made,” Croteau says. He initially thought the group was for stores that were much bigger than HotSpring Spas of Music City, but he quickly realized size wasn’t an issue. “We weren’t that far behind them when it came to trying to figure it all out.”
The company has purchased land, and plans are under way to build a new store, which Croteau says he hopes to be in by year’s end. It may not seem like an ideal time to be going into such an expensive venture, but Croteau doesn’t see it that way.
“When I left the Army, I picked up The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life,” Croteau says. In it, Buffett says when people are greedy be fearful; when people are fearful be greedy. “So I chose the latter,” he says. “Because people are fearful right now, we decided to buy this land at a great value, and hopefully get our building built.”
Croteau isn’t planning on building a typical hot tub store, either. His vision incorporates elements of what IBM, in collaboration with METRO Group, dubbed “the store of the future.” Using technology,
Croteau hopes to make the store as interactive as possible, giving customers the option to work with a salesman or go it alone. The idea came from a discussion he’d had with a member of Gemini.
But until everything is up and running, and presumably after as well, the store relies on an old staple: customer service. “Say what you mean,” Croteau says, “and mean what you say.”