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How a South Bend start up survived the pandemic

Imagine doing all the work it takes to start a business. It’s a business that depends on people being able to gather in huge stadiums. Then, all of those people are told they can’t go to concerts of football games. You have to think fast if you don’t want to lose everything.

That happened with LEA Professional, a company based in South Bend. A key part of their business, which opened in 2019, is making the amplifiers for large venues, like stadiums and arenas.

When the pandemic hit, they had to make a change.

“It was unfortunate that right when we rolled our product to market COVID hit. So, it delayed us,” said CEO Blake Augsburger, in an interview with Inside Indiana Business. “We were able to pivot to some degree because there was a surge in this residential smart home business, because more people were working from home.”

LEA’s technology allows them to tap into their products remotely. So, that also helped. Augsburder said they were able to adapt without havin to substantially change their business model.

“And then we saw the pro business start to come back in January and our business has been basically doubling since then, each month.”

He said part of that has been installing pro audio equipment in hotels, airports and casinos.

Augsburder understands that his business has been fortunate to be able to hold on.

“To see your sales take off and then go to zero is a gut check. So, I feel for a lot of people out there,” he said. “A large companent pf pro audio is live sound and live sound went to zero. So, there’s a lot of guys that support the touring industry that still do not have work.”

He said they made it through, through hard work and some innovation.

“Maybe the takeaway is: be flexible, be patient and grind it out.”

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