If someone is in business they have tried to define their market at least in their initial business plan. If the business owner is wise there is also a marketing plan in place and a means of keeping track of how successful a given marketing tool is. The best business practice is then to adjust the marketing plan to stop doing what does not work and keep doing or even increase efforts at what is working. This is an ongoing project as long as one is in business.
My market in South Florida is much different than in Chicago. One thing unique to Florida involves demographics. There is a part of the population here commonly called snow birds. These are those who still have homes in northern states and are here for the winter to escape the cold weather. In my area it seems like half my market disappears for the summer. When the market is narrow or small this is a problem. I have tickets for the jazz concert on October 10th mentioned in previous blogs. Those who have pianos tuned between now and Oct 10th will receive a complimentary ticket for this concert. If this works I will do it again with a classical concert here a few months later and will be looking for a similar concert or event to use in Chicago.
Opening a music store now in Florida makes sense because I have more time now to supervise the build out and get up and running in time for the season here. I will also hopefully have time to test some products in the slow time and maximize profitability in the busy time.
The winter is the busy time for piano tuning in any market and I am thinking would also be so for a music store. The holiday season in general and the opening of schools and all the school purchase needs should make this true. There is a lot on my plate in the coming months. The year is more than half over and it seems like the the time has flown by. This I suspect is going to be the lull before the storm as far as demands on my time. It should be an exciting time too as there is much to do that is new and I hope profitable for the business.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Why retail sales?
I have been tuning pianos now for many years now and while the current economy has severely effected the business I am still in business. I have very little overhead and cannot be put out of business by losing a building. My business has expanded beyond the customer base that could be covered by one tuner and when that happened I became a manager of other very good tuners that help serve my customers. Management is not for everybody but i found that I like it and seem to do it well. There is a down side to sending other tuners into your customers living rooms but I will not deal with that here. This job that I like so much does provide a level of security as long as the customers are pleased with your work and most tuners settle for this situation earning a comfortable living serving regular customers often for many years.
Signing a lease and opening a physical store on the other hand makes one responsible every month to produce a certain level of income or close the door. Why then take on this burden?
Broadening customer base: The products sold in a music store would add customers that play many instruments and would give the piano company greater visibility and attracting still more piano customers. Customers would be coming to me with still more new customers in tow. As I get older I think I will enjoy not having to spend so much of my time driving to my customers location.
Greater income potential: Adding more customers and more tuners will produce more income but the work occurs out of my direct supervision. It is therefore harder to maintain quality control and my liability increases directly in proportion to the amount of work taking place remotely. Diversifying into the sales of hundreds of new products also has the potential to increase income.
My business currently consists of a customer list that is very hard to sell so my exit strategy has a major problem. A store if successful is something tangible adding value to the business. I can only sell the tuning business to another tuner whereas a store with a track record is something tangible for my kids someday.
The tasks of running a store play to my strengths: As stated earlier the management aspects of having others working for you is not for everyone but I found that I liked it and seemed to be effective at the tasks involved. It is not easy to find where your strengths lie. My sons are considering what career to enter and I try to help them see the need to find ones strengths and move into a field that capitalizes of those strengths. Choosing a career only because it pays well is in my opinion a mistake. Doing something you do not enjoy and are not naturally gifted in will soon get very old.
I am very happy to have found a job that I enjoy so much and that I can continue to do for many more years. I suspect that I will enjoy the customer interaction very much when my store opens as I do now when I am tuning. This economy is causing many to think about their own business. If the business encompasses one of your passions it is a wonderful thing but a job where you clock in and clock out is definitely the easier path. I have never worked so hard as these years operating Renshaw Music but also never enjoyed going to work this much before.
Signing a lease and opening a physical store on the other hand makes one responsible every month to produce a certain level of income or close the door. Why then take on this burden?
Broadening customer base: The products sold in a music store would add customers that play many instruments and would give the piano company greater visibility and attracting still more piano customers. Customers would be coming to me with still more new customers in tow. As I get older I think I will enjoy not having to spend so much of my time driving to my customers location.
Greater income potential: Adding more customers and more tuners will produce more income but the work occurs out of my direct supervision. It is therefore harder to maintain quality control and my liability increases directly in proportion to the amount of work taking place remotely. Diversifying into the sales of hundreds of new products also has the potential to increase income.
My business currently consists of a customer list that is very hard to sell so my exit strategy has a major problem. A store if successful is something tangible adding value to the business. I can only sell the tuning business to another tuner whereas a store with a track record is something tangible for my kids someday.
The tasks of running a store play to my strengths: As stated earlier the management aspects of having others working for you is not for everyone but I found that I liked it and seemed to be effective at the tasks involved. It is not easy to find where your strengths lie. My sons are considering what career to enter and I try to help them see the need to find ones strengths and move into a field that capitalizes of those strengths. Choosing a career only because it pays well is in my opinion a mistake. Doing something you do not enjoy and are not naturally gifted in will soon get very old.
I am very happy to have found a job that I enjoy so much and that I can continue to do for many more years. I suspect that I will enjoy the customer interaction very much when my store opens as I do now when I am tuning. This economy is causing many to think about their own business. If the business encompasses one of your passions it is a wonderful thing but a job where you clock in and clock out is definitely the easier path. I have never worked so hard as these years operating Renshaw Music but also never enjoyed going to work this much before.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Business expansion in a depressing economic climate
There are many challenges to the small business operator these days. In 2006 I expanded my customer base in the Chicago area ten fold by buying the business of the tuner that taught me my trade and whom I had been working for for about ten years. The economy was totally different then and the business has not performed at all like I had hoped in the intervening years. Renshaw Music has survived, however, and I have learned a lot about running a business in the process.
As I talk to others in my industry I find some very optimistic about the future of the economy and some thinking about moving to other countries. Market forces have not been good to piano makers. In Chicago politicians have taken over the schools and devastated many great music programs by targeting "underperforming" schools. The reasoning is if the math and English scores are bad you kill the music program by cutting off funding, scheduling students out of the band or choir period, or of course eliminating the music positions. It was once a given that every elementary classroom had a piano and now that is a very rare thing.
I would not say that I am optimistic about the economy improving very soon, but I believe my business needs to grow. There are some piano products that I have been selling as I am in customers homes tuning pianos for many years. I have a product page on my web site that is being worked on now to make it more visible and attractive. I have decided to press ahead with plans to open a music store in the area very soon. Punta Gorda is a great place to live and while not being extremely optimistic about the immediate growth of the economy I am very excited about the growth of my business in a place that survived hurricane Charlie and has an economy that is on the move.
Future articles here and on renshawmusic.com will conical the expansion of this business. Business expansion has to be carefully planned but a business must grow and adopt to the market around it or die. I will again cite Proverbs 21:5. "Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty"
As I talk to others in my industry I find some very optimistic about the future of the economy and some thinking about moving to other countries. Market forces have not been good to piano makers. In Chicago politicians have taken over the schools and devastated many great music programs by targeting "underperforming" schools. The reasoning is if the math and English scores are bad you kill the music program by cutting off funding, scheduling students out of the band or choir period, or of course eliminating the music positions. It was once a given that every elementary classroom had a piano and now that is a very rare thing.
I would not say that I am optimistic about the economy improving very soon, but I believe my business needs to grow. There are some piano products that I have been selling as I am in customers homes tuning pianos for many years. I have a product page on my web site that is being worked on now to make it more visible and attractive. I have decided to press ahead with plans to open a music store in the area very soon. Punta Gorda is a great place to live and while not being extremely optimistic about the immediate growth of the economy I am very excited about the growth of my business in a place that survived hurricane Charlie and has an economy that is on the move.
Future articles here and on renshawmusic.com will conical the expansion of this business. Business expansion has to be carefully planned but a business must grow and adopt to the market around it or die. I will again cite Proverbs 21:5. "Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty"
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Fusion marketing; partnering with the jazz society
On my May 22nd blog titled "Marketing Off Season In Florida" I listed some marketing ideas for the summer and item number one is a done deal. The jazz society here is sponsoring a concert on October 11 with two jazz pianists that are very well known in Jazz circles. Mike Markaverich and Stu Shelton will be appearing on October 11th here and any customer who has a piano tuned by Renshaw Music will receive a tick to this concert compliments of Renshaw Music. If a customer orders $80 worth on merchandise in a single order from my product page of the web site a complimentary ticket will also be given.
Fusion marketing is when you partner with another business and both businesses benefit. I hope this will be the beginning of a good relationship with the jazz society long term. In Chicago there is a rebuilder, Jeff Capelli, who runs Reniassance Piano which is the best rebuilding shop in the country in my opinion. Jeff and I are friends but we are also two businesses that have been involved in this kind of relationship for many years and both businesses have benefited.
Fusion marketing is a mind set. These relationships do not happen by accident but one has to look for opportunities to join with other businesses and do things like this promotion with the jazz society. I will benefit with new business over the summer when things are usually very slow and the jazz society will benefit by me sending new patrons to their concert. If this works I will be looking for other concert venues to attract potential customers interested perhaps in classical or gospel music.
I have not heard from anyone about the other marketing ideas on my May 22nd blog but all of those ideas are still peculating. If you have an opinion about these ideas I welcome your input.
Fusion marketing is when you partner with another business and both businesses benefit. I hope this will be the beginning of a good relationship with the jazz society long term. In Chicago there is a rebuilder, Jeff Capelli, who runs Reniassance Piano which is the best rebuilding shop in the country in my opinion. Jeff and I are friends but we are also two businesses that have been involved in this kind of relationship for many years and both businesses have benefited.
Fusion marketing is a mind set. These relationships do not happen by accident but one has to look for opportunities to join with other businesses and do things like this promotion with the jazz society. I will benefit with new business over the summer when things are usually very slow and the jazz society will benefit by me sending new patrons to their concert. If this works I will be looking for other concert venues to attract potential customers interested perhaps in classical or gospel music.
I have not heard from anyone about the other marketing ideas on my May 22nd blog but all of those ideas are still peculating. If you have an opinion about these ideas I welcome your input.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Retail business and internet competition
In my tuning business I have for many years offered the Cory line of cleaning products for piano cabinets and keys. Customers would often ask me how to clean the keys or the piano cabinet and these products are in my opinion the best for this purpose. The key bright product is especially good for the material deposited on keytops by children who would sit down to play after eating their favorite candy. I carry these products with me and many of my customers use them.
There are now several hundred musical products that I can offer that can be found on the product page of my web site. Before the internet a music store would have competition in their immediate area but the internet has changed all that. Now their are huge internet stores offering many more products than the biggest store could stock and the customer can shop online and the purchases can be shipped directly to their door. Offering products in the field was for me a simple response to the customer' stated needs and when I was in the customers living room offering these products the customer was saving the time and money of either driving to the music store or taking the time to get online and select products.
My online product page and shopping cart has had a much harder time. Even when I am offering a known product like a Manhasset music stand at a lower price than my competition the potential customer has to find me in order to buy. There are so many online competitors for identical products that having good products at the best price is not enough. I am finding this to be a great challenge. I may know a lot about music stands but I struggle with being computer savvy. One can of course hire this expertise but when you are small funding for this purpose is very hard to come by.
The internet is a very powerful business tool. In a service business computers can easily store info about a large customer base as I have. I use a great program to generate reminder postcards for my customers and my accounting program is very useful for tax reporting purposes but the internet can be an equally powerful competitor in the arena of retail sales
There are now several hundred musical products that I can offer that can be found on the product page of my web site. Before the internet a music store would have competition in their immediate area but the internet has changed all that. Now their are huge internet stores offering many more products than the biggest store could stock and the customer can shop online and the purchases can be shipped directly to their door. Offering products in the field was for me a simple response to the customer' stated needs and when I was in the customers living room offering these products the customer was saving the time and money of either driving to the music store or taking the time to get online and select products.
My online product page and shopping cart has had a much harder time. Even when I am offering a known product like a Manhasset music stand at a lower price than my competition the potential customer has to find me in order to buy. There are so many online competitors for identical products that having good products at the best price is not enough. I am finding this to be a great challenge. I may know a lot about music stands but I struggle with being computer savvy. One can of course hire this expertise but when you are small funding for this purpose is very hard to come by.
The internet is a very powerful business tool. In a service business computers can easily store info about a large customer base as I have. I use a great program to generate reminder postcards for my customers and my accounting program is very useful for tax reporting purposes but the internet can be an equally powerful competitor in the arena of retail sales
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Back to work in Florida
I had my first tuning since coming back to Florida on the morning of July 4th. It was good to be back to work. The customer heard about me by receiving a business card that someone gave her. I suspect that the card got into circulation at one of the chamber networking events that I attended before my recent Chicago trip.
This the off season here when all the snowbirds are enjoying cooler temperatures up north. I will be implementing a couple of marketing ideas designed to stir up some summer work and I am excited about getting back to the steady plodding necessary to power any business especially in a difficult economic time. If I can improve the business in this slow time I will be even more successful when the season comes again and the population here will almost double.
I will also use the free time I do have now to work on my funding problems for the opening of a retail store which still is a part of the business plan for Renshaw Music this year. The other change or development for the business in the business plan is increased retail sales through the web site. There is a lot of competition on the web so this will be the most challenging area to develop.
My sons will be visiting us after their summer school ends and I am hoping to take either or both of them along to one of my networking events. They are both in college majoring in business and I am always trying to involve them in the business. Not every college business major has a family business to observe. I like to think my being in business had something to do with their choice of college major.
This the off season here when all the snowbirds are enjoying cooler temperatures up north. I will be implementing a couple of marketing ideas designed to stir up some summer work and I am excited about getting back to the steady plodding necessary to power any business especially in a difficult economic time. If I can improve the business in this slow time I will be even more successful when the season comes again and the population here will almost double.
I will also use the free time I do have now to work on my funding problems for the opening of a retail store which still is a part of the business plan for Renshaw Music this year. The other change or development for the business in the business plan is increased retail sales through the web site. There is a lot of competition on the web so this will be the most challenging area to develop.
My sons will be visiting us after their summer school ends and I am hoping to take either or both of them along to one of my networking events. They are both in college majoring in business and I am always trying to involve them in the business. Not every college business major has a family business to observe. I like to think my being in business had something to do with their choice of college major.
Business travel
I am back in Florida after the long driving trip. It is 1300 miles between Florida and Chicago and I make the trip several times a year. If I were an executive that travels by air that would be no big thing but I have to drive and carry all my tools and parts. When you own the company you have to do whatever the business demands.
If the cash flow from Chicago supported it I could make changes in Chicago that would get me out of my van but I have found it difficult to expand the business in this economic environment. Raising some operating capital and hiring an employee to tune the pianos and or find new customers would be good but banks do not loan money to anybody that needs it these days. My web site now has a shopping cart and products displayed that customers can buy online but the competition online is very stiff and that has not been the boom to the business that I had hoped. The business in Florida is growing slowly and I have concluded that I just need to work the business there. One of my favorite quotes from the bible is Proverbs 21:5 which says "steady plodding brings prosperity ; hasty speculation brings poverty". These 24 hour drives take a lot out of me but I will be traveling for the foreseeable future.
If the cash flow from Chicago supported it I could make changes in Chicago that would get me out of my van but I have found it difficult to expand the business in this economic environment. Raising some operating capital and hiring an employee to tune the pianos and or find new customers would be good but banks do not loan money to anybody that needs it these days. My web site now has a shopping cart and products displayed that customers can buy online but the competition online is very stiff and that has not been the boom to the business that I had hoped. The business in Florida is growing slowly and I have concluded that I just need to work the business there. One of my favorite quotes from the bible is Proverbs 21:5 which says "steady plodding brings prosperity ; hasty speculation brings poverty". These 24 hour drives take a lot out of me but I will be traveling for the foreseeable future.
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