Music Retail Consulting

I think anyone who knows me at all knows that I have an internal drive always to push to improve anything of which I’m a part. I’m never satisfied with the status quo, and my mind seems to be wired to push beyond boundaries and to try to improve things. Whoever came up with the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” obviously didn’t live in today’s business cycle, where things are changing in our industry at a pace that exceeds that of any time in history. The status quo is the way things used to work, and you can rest assured that someone is out there trying to disrupt your status quo. Accepting the status quo can also lead to a stagnant culture in your business…a malaise that, oftentimes, is resistant to change. That’s why you often see once successful and thriving businesses slowly losing their edge and becoming less and less relevant. Once your culture has become stagnant, it gets harder and harder to recruit new and better talent to your company. People who want to push ...

Ultimately, every business boils down to three main elements: Sales & Marketing, Finance, and Operations. Most of us that own or manage a music store naturally gravitate to one of these three things. In my experience, most music store owners or managers fall into the Sales or Operations profiles (because if we were good at Finance, we’d have likely picked a different industry :). A simple job description for these three roles might be as follows: Sales & Marketing - create a sales & service strategy that effectively converts prospects into customers (a customer being a prospect that makes a purchase), while developing a marketing strategy that identifies your ideal prospect and stimulates a desire for them to learn more about your company. Finance - develop and maintain a budget/cashflow plan that addresses capital needs for inventory and operational needs; identify trends in the business. Operations - create systems to optimize efficiency and consistency in the...

As this year comes to a roaring end, I thought I’d share with you a few tips that can make this holiday season one to remember! Even if the month has already started, you can likely work in some of these tips. And you might want to tear out this article and keep it handy for next year. Then, your store can have a December to remember every year! Create a document that’s titled something like “Holiday 20xx Notes,” and then share it with your team members. Resources like Google Drive, Dropbox and others make it very easy to create collaborative documents. In the file, you should keep a running list of recurring problems, new opportunities, and things that worked and things that didn’t. Be sure to review them the next year, so you can try to make each holiday sales season better than the last. We have done this for years, having started it in response to an observation I’d made that we kept making the same mistakes over and over. Of course, I accept that we will make mistakes. However...

It’s frequently said that multiple locations mean more work for less money. It’s said so often that, hell, it might even be true! So, in real “confessions” style, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve learned and dealt with as Springfield Music has grown from a single location to a company with five locations (and growing?). It’s scary! The first thing I will tell you is that expanding is scary. Are your systems good enough to handle more locations? Are you good enough? Obviously, you’ve had success up to this point, which is why you got the knucklehead idea to expand. But, once you do it, you’re in this new market and reality has set in (along with the onslaught of bills, which always seem to outpace the income), it’s easy to wonder if you are up to the challenge. Chip Averwater, in his excellent book, “Retail Truths,” writes, “Multiple stores are a separate skill set.” That is absolutely true. In our case, our rapid expansion showed that not only were our systems not up t...

In a tough business climate, Springfield Music keeps growing. This past year alone, the company opened a new location in Lawrence, KS and also took over operations for Band Instrument Service Company (BISCO) in St. Charles, MO. Donovan Bankhead, Springfield Music’s president, reveals five key strategies that have kept the company healthy. 1. Know who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you different. Then figure out with this info, who is your target customer, and are there enough of them in your market area. 2. Make a plan - marketing, business, and budget (incl. OTB for inventory) Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. If it’s written it’s real. Therefor, if it’s not written, it’s not real.  Now that you know who you are, align your plans to fit.  Create a business plan that incorporates any new or redefined strategies. What inventory do you need?  What’s an appropriate budget for your plans?  How will you effectively market your business?...