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"