Social media has been a key component in the growth of my studio. In fact, I’ve never actually done any “traditional” marketing such as print ads, fliers, and so on. I jumped on the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn bandwagon long before it was almost a necessity, and it has most definitely paid off.
But there are some things to [...]

About a year ago, my family relocated from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Bozeman, Montana, and I was faced with “relaunching” my piano studio in a new town.  When I opened my studio in Wisconsin the only marketing I did was to place an ad on craigslist — a dozen students soon followed.  After a few unsuccessful attempts at [...]

The book I have been making my way through the past couple weeks is called Corner Office by Adam Bryant. Mr Bryant is a NY Times columnist who seems to have dedicated recent years to tracking down and interviewing 100s of CEOs of companies both large and small. He has a Sunday column of the same name in the Sunday Business section of the Times. From these interviews he has drawn what he believes are five key qualities required of all business leaders. They are: Passionate Curiosity, Battle-Hardened Confidence, Fearlessness, A Simple Mindset, Team Smarts.

Back when I was in graduate school, I saw that my local music store was hiring voice teachers.  A job that allowed me to set my own hours and teach what I knew best?  Perfect.  I applied for the job and was hired soon after.
It turns out that I was the only voice teacher they [...]

Although your studio may be based on furthering artistic pursuits, a studio is a business, and a good part of its success depends on being realistic about this.  I taught and helped manage one music school where the board of directors hired an orchestra conductor with fundraising expertise as the school’s director.  Unfortunately, she’d had [...]

How does your studio stack up against the schools around you?  Do you try to match up with schools,  or to contrast with them?   A studio is a kind of school, so it’s natural to make the comparison.
While many studios probably don’t make a deliberate decision about it, some feel they are taken more [...]

Last blog entry I discussed how I communicate with clients, faculty, and staff at my music school, Brooklyn Music Factory. This entry is going to be a follow up pointing out what seems to have worked and what seems to have failed for us. Assessing regularly your system of communication and outreach is vital, I [...]

Lately I have become obsessed with social media and how I can use it to better and more efficiently communicate with my clients. In my case, I run a music school in Brooklyn, NY (www.BrooklynMusicFactory.com) and so I am in regular communication with about 60 registered students and parents. Let’s review briefly the traditional ways [...]

Keep in touch with your students.  You could call them your customers, since managing a studio is running a business.  But whether you call them customers, or simply your students, there is one important way to make sure you keep in touch with their needs:  Always keep in mind that behind that email address, that [...]

It’s important for any business to keep in touch with its community, which includes all its current and potential customers.  Your community may be your neighborhood, or your metropolitan area, or your online community, or any of the above.
We’re going to look at ways to keep in touch.  Speaking of which, this blog is interactive, [...]