Many business owners have an inflated sense of what their companies are worth. If you want to increase the value of your music store, you need to boost your bottom line. Identifying and exploiting your company's value drivers will result in improved operations and greater profitability. Business valuation expert John DelGrego shows how.
James Harding, president of Gist Piano Center, needed a way to drive customers into his store during the busy holiday season. So, he invited local students to come in and record their own CDs of holiday music on a high-end digital piano. His investment: $68 and a little effort. The promotion ended up bringing in 48 local students, and he sold three high-end digital pianos.
Brian Reardon of Monster Music keeps a steady stream of students coming through his lesson program during the summer months. His secret? A spring promotion that couples a discount on summer music lessons with a free acoustic guitar. The promotion also keeps his teachers busy during the slow time and has been a major source of students year-round.
In less than 2 minutes, Donovan Bankhead of Springfield Music shares his big idea: Use Google Apps to stay organized and improve your business. He's used this service at his music stores to do everything from share sales procedures with his team to organize his company's many promotional events. He adds, "They have a free program, and then you can also scale it up with a paid program if you need to."
During the holidays, you'll come face to face with more new customers than usual, giving you a chance to earn their current and future business. Sales guru Kenny Smith offers 10 selling pointers to help you brush up your skills and make the most of every customer interaction. "Many times, when people describe what they want to accomplish with a product, we have something even better to offer them," Smith says. Follow his lead for a plentiful holiday season!
The fourth quarter can be challenging for independent music stores that don't have huge advertising budgets and private-equity funding. So how do you compete with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all the other deals being thrown around during the holiday season? Gabriel O'Brien of Larry's Music Center in Wooster, Ohio, offers up his best ideas.
When the recession hit, large retailers began offering more layaway promotions. Brian Reardon of Monster Music in Levittown, N.Y., decided to capitalize on that awareness for the holiday season. Learn how he used the power of layaway to make closing deals easier—and, ultimately, to boost his holiday sales.
2012 was Tobias Music's best year ever, and the Downers Grove, Ill., guitar shop also had its best fourth quarter to date. The company had the benefit of a new, expanded showroom, which features a laid-back vibe with living room furniture and bar counters. President Paul Tobias explains how he took advantage of that vibe during the holiday selling season.
The back-to-school season is your single biggest make-or-break opportunity with music lessons. What you do to prepare during this period will ultimately affect your store’s lesson program for the entire year. Are you ready? At Summer NAMM 2013, music lessons guru Pete Gamber shared an easy plan for building your lesson program during the busy time.
When Beacock Music first opened in 1976, its lesson program operated traditionally and with fewer systems, explains company co-owner Gayle Beacock. At its peak, the program had around 400 students. That changed in 2004 when Beacock Music redesigned the program. These days, it has a private-lesson count at around 1,200 students per week. Gayle Beacock shows how it got there.