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Dub Hankins believes that luck favors a prepared business. Hankins is the sole proprietor of the Rhapsody Street Studio, a recording studio located at 200 West Rhapsody Drive on the city's Northeast Side. "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity," he says. "And this is a business with a lot of preparation." Hankins launched his music business in the mid 1970s from his home. He moved the operation to a small space in the Acropolis building on the Northwest Side of San Antonio in 1990. Back then, though, luck was not on Hankins' side. A fire in the building complex caused severe smoke damage to his studio's equipment. But Hankins used the setback to prepare for the future. "We needed to get in a real space. The fire pushed this along," he says. Hankins purchased the facility that now houses his business in March 1995. It offered him 3,800 square feet of space with which to build the studio that he truly wanted. "We have two 32-track studios. Studio A is 2,000 square feet, which allows us to set up a whole band," he says. Studio B, which is half the size of studio A, is primarily used as a mixing studio - a location for audio and visual post-production work. Hankins says creating a recording studio is relatively easy. It's turning a studio into a business that's the hard part. "Anybody with $5,000 can have a studio," he says. "That's why we have to sell our room." Currently, Hankins has more than $300,000 invested in his business, including the building and the equipment. The two studios have been designed to eliminate as much outside noise as possible, which produces what Hankins calls a "true listening environment." The control room, located in studio A, also was designed to produce the best listening environment possible. The design of the control room insures that all sounds decay at the same rate. What this prohibits is reflected sound, or an echo effect when music is played back, Hankins explains. The little empire Hankins says his business is "a little entertainment enterprise," which is the most accurate way of describing the several ventures that Hankins' has wrapped together under the business name Oh So Good! Productions. In addition to the recording studio, Hankins operates his own record label and his own music publishing company - both of which were started in 1996. The record label is called Sonar Productions; the publishing company is Uncle Doggy Music Co. To date, two albums have been released under the Sonar record label. Uncle Doggy is a music promotion business that primarily markets artists recorded on the Sonar label. The other portion of Hankins' business that has paid off well is the Oh So Good! Band. "The band is the cash cow. It enjoys a lot of success and it pays most of the bills," he says. Hankins has done vocals and played bass for the band since the group's inception in the 1970s. The members of the first incarnation of his band included a name that is still widely known in the industry - Christopher Cross. "(Cross) and I went to high school together. We were in our first band together while we were still in high school," Hankins says. Since 1972, the band has gone through numerous changes, including a 10-year period in which there was no band at all. So, from 1975 to 1985, Hankins worked on the projects that eventually led to the recording business - writing jingles. "I sold my first jingle in 1976 and I just built up my client base from there," he says. By 1985, the Oh So Good! Band was back. The current seven members of the band (including Hankins) have been together since 1991. And Hankins is as enthusiastic about the band as he was when it first started. "The band is a big deal. We've been working on it, improving it," he says. "It has a lot of personality, so much variety." The personality of the band is something appreciated by Margie Casteel, executive director for the March of Dimes South Central Texas Chapter, and Connie Brigman, owner of the PROPerty Room - which is a production company for theme-based events. "They're the only band I use (for events)," Brigman says. "They really know how to work a crowd I love them." Both Casteel and Brigman say they are impressed with the band's professional manner, including their dedication to being on time and giving the best performance possible. Casteel also is pleased with how fellow employees have responded to the idea of using the group for the organization's events. "Whenever I mention them at meetings, heads always perk up," she says. "That makes me feel good - they were my idea." After the music While Oh So Good! Productions may be a "family" of numerous ventures, Hankins stresses the studio is the future of everything. Hankins currently has two full-time employees at the studio. The Oh So Good! Band currently generates approximately $100,000 a year in revenues. And Hankins is confident that the recording studio will boast those same figures by the end of the year. (Hankins record label and promotions businesses are projected to bring in a total of about $25,000 in revenues during their first year of operation.) Since last year, Rhapsody Street Studio has been doing digital audio work for the locally-based firm Inmar, which produces and sells automated tools and multi-media presentation software. Gary Whitford, creative director for Inmar, first used Rhapsody Street Studio for a promotional soundtrack for Boise Cascade Office Products. Whitford has known Hankins for two decades and has stayed with Rhapsody Street Studio because of Hankins' knowledge of the industry. "Rhapsody tends to be very technologically savvy," he says. "I need someone who can be as much of a technician as a performer - and this is what (Hankins) can give." As Hankins looks to expand the company's clients, he stresses the benefits that his studio provides. "There are a lot of advertising agencies that will want to start using us once they see what we have to offer," he says. "We provide a place that is comfortable and nice to look at. Plus we have all the latest toys."