N O T Y O U R AV E R A G E C O L U M N
By Tim Spicer Summer. The word summer used to excite us as children. Summer meant relaxation, no school and being carefree. Now, many of us fear summer, which can be one of the slowest times of year in terms of sales. Even though summer is ending now, it’s important to look back on what you did this summer. In the MI world, not only can summer mean fewer retail sales, but dips in lesson programs and less cash flow. If you have a lesson program, summers can be your opportunity to boost enrollment and cash flow. This can be possible through a diversity of summer camps and unique lesson programs. Our first summer after our store opened, I watched as our lesson program enrollments dropped more than 30 percent in June and July before leveling back out in August. We scratched and clawed to survive that summer, then determined to change our strategy for future years. With a focus on summer camps and specialized lesson programs over the last five years, we have been able to turn the income dip into an income spike during June and July. This year we experienced an increase of 15 percent in lesson enrollments during June and July. Summer is now our second busiest season of the year. For us, summer revenue starts with a variety of camps and a reformatted lesson program. This June and July we hosted 11 camps, serving many different age groups and interests. Several of these campers have since enrolled in our weekly lesson program. Holding summer camps is a great opportunity to acquire more students. Diversity in camp offerings has been key for us. Our campers this summer ranged from ages 3 to 68. We hold a Camp Kazoo, which is a four-day music exploration camp for kids ages 3 to 5. Rock Camp Jr. is for ages 6 to 7 and gives students their first look at playing together as a band. Our Rock Camp is a halfday camp for ages 8 to 11, where we place campers into bands and teach them how to cover songs and write original songs. Rock Camp Pro is a camp held in collaboration with Auburn University. During this camp, we bring in professional songwriters and teach the campers about the music industry as we prepare for a rock show with professional sound and lighting. The past few years, we have gone beyond normal rock camps to offer new programs for different interests. Theater camps can bring an entirely new demographic to the business. Theater camps also provide an opportunity for lesson students to become the 48
CRUEL SUMMER?
backing band, playing music for the camp’s acting and singing. Another camp often left out of many lesson programs is a camp geared toward adults. We just held our first Adult Rock Camp, and it was a huge success! We spent an extended weekend with a group of adults ages 22 to 68. This was a relaxed camp that gave adult musicians an opportunity to brush up on their skills, learn new riffs and play music together. We took over a local bar for their performance and packed the bar with friends and family to see the final show. There’s a lot of attention currently being placed on youth students in our industry, but there are other generations interested in music programs that can boost your income. Summers are also a great time to restructure your lesson program. Before jumping to summer lesson discounts, as we did our first summer, try creating flexible schedules that can float to meet the scheduling needs of the students. We spent a lot of energy on making our lesson scheduling as flexible as possible during the summer. When customers ask to take off during the summer so they can travel, we suggest the students stay in the program, but float their schedules to meet their travel/work needs. We also increase our marketing on group lessons leading up to the summer. We create ad campaigns directed at area school music teachers, and we offer them collaborative group classes on ukulele and guitar. Not only do we get new students enlisted in our program, but we continue our public relations with local music and band educators. We also have turned this into multiple school music bids for classroom ukulele sales. Through diverse summer camps and an adaptive lesson program, we have been able to make June and July some of our most profitable months of the year. Planning the right summer camps and lesson programs to fit your needs takes work, but can be very rewarding financially during the typical slower months of the year. If you are interested in expanding your lesson program, I would suggest checking out Mason Music, The Candyman Strings & Things and Music on the Hill. All three of these stores have incredibly diverse programs and are really pushing the boundaries of what can be accomplished during the summer months. If you have any questions or comments for me, I’d love to hear them. You can reach me at tim@spicersmusic.com. SEPTEMBER 2018