When the landmark Podium guitar shop in Dinkytown — the store where Bob Dylan bought a Martin guitar in the 1970s that he played on his “Blood on the Tracks” album — closed for good in 2017 after a six-decade run, it planted a seed. Chris Quinn, who launched the predecessor to his Quinn Violins from his high school bedroom 30 years ago, saw a rare expansion opportunity. It wasn’t without financial risk for Quinn, who had built a stable, four-person string instrument and accessories business. The market for high-end violins for professional musicians and collectors, which ranges from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, is small and fraught with money-losing danger for those without very deep pockets and staying power. Quinn, 48, had tasted a setback before, when a high-end violin store he operated with a musician partner on Nicollet Mall closed in 1998. “I learned how to build a website,” said Quinn, who moved the single-proprietor Quinn Violins in 1999 to a tiny space in southeast Minneapolis. “I felt I had failed. I worked hard to try and turn failure into success.” Since then, Quinn, has built online sales to two-thirds of his $1.5 million in annual… Read full this story
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