A PSYCHOLOGIST IS TURNING A HOBBY INTO A NEW CAREER.

ALAN ABRAMS

Special to the Jewish News

NV

Dr. Steven Fischer
in his Ensemble
showroom.

hen Dr. Steven Fischer realized he was mak-
ing more money from a lucrative part-time
hobby then he was from his practice as a clinical psy-
chologist, he knew it was time to get his sideline busi-
ness out of his basement and into a showroom.
Fischer, whose professional practice has been in Franklin until
recently, had nearly 20 years of experience. And, as an avocation, he
had a passion for music strong enough to qualify him as a true audio-
phile.
. sinessman. David Kersh, the
But Fischer was a psychologist, not a b u
man who eventually became his partner, had spent the last two
decades as a national sales executive for specialty consumer electronics
industry manufacturers, and had once made a side venture into own-
ing his own retail outlet in California.
So it wasn't really a surprise that the psychologist and the business-

man decided to pool their skills. In December 1999, after
almost three years of strategic planning and checking out
the competition, they opened Ensemble, a high-end
home entertainment center on Haggerty Road in West
Bloomfield.
How successful has the 4,400-square-foot store been? The number
of employees has grown from two when they first opened to 10 —
eight of them full-time.
The store grossed $1 million last year — not bad for a business that
began as a sideline in the family room of Fischer's West Bloomfield
home before moving downstairs and taking over his basement.
Designed to resemble a home more than a showroom, right down
to comfy sofas, an espresso machine and wine for clients, Ensemble is
a showcase for high-end products more likely to have been custom
hand-crafted by small, technologically advanced companies. But that
doesn't necessarily mean that the prices also are going through the
roof.
Fischer and Kersh are able to design audio systems ranging in price

