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Your Roadmap to Building a Successful Lesson Program

Your Roadmap to Building a Successful Lesson Program. John Kolbrich - Owner/Director Avalon School of Music, LLC Orlando, FL Avalon School & Music Center Inc. Orlando School of Music, LLC www.AvalonSchoolofMusic.com Phone 407-497-2654 e-mail jkolbrich@AvalonMusicCenter.com.

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Your Roadmap to Building a Successful Lesson Program

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  1. Your Roadmap to Building a Successful Lesson Program John Kolbrich- Owner/Director Avalon School of Music, LLC Orlando, FL Avalon School & Music Center Inc. Orlando School of Music, LLC www.AvalonSchoolofMusic.com Phone 407-497-2654 e-mail jkolbrich@AvalonMusicCenter.com

  2. What Works for Us Our History and Passion Mentoring/Coaching & Peer help Marketing Teachers and Staff Facilities Leveraging Cloud Technology Being # 1 in Customer Service

  3. A Brief History ....Humble and Proud! Life Long Touring Musician (Accordion, Vocalist, Trumpet) specializing in German and European Music (I started private lessons when I was 6 years old, had my first band at 14 and at 53, have played in thousands of venues in Canada and the US) 1982 -Electronic Engineer- Graduated from DeVry University in Toronto (Canada) 1982-2002 - Sales & Marketing of Electronic and Computer Automation in US & Canada 2002- Had a vivid dream in which I saw my future music school – Quit my day job, and started a home based Lesson studio in my growing neighborhood –offering Piano, Accordion & Trumpet Lessons Sole Teacher, Manager, Marketing guy, chief cook & bottle washer The whole business ran on a couple spreadsheets and a check book! Explosive growth in our area (Orlando) with many new homes and schools being built Growth 1-> 200 students in 2 years- at my house... Wow this dream was really working!

  4. Mentoring Coaching & Peer Help In any industry, we look to the leaders, the most successful business& individuals to learn from! Private Music Education is no different- yes be creative and individual, but invest in learning from the best experts you can find! You can go it alone if you have, or think you have, the skill set, (we all have the passion for sure) But, it’s a lot quicker and more fun working with pro’s and peers who have been there and done that... We were members of Sam Beckford’s group “Successful Studio Strategies, for about 4 years Currently we are with Marty Fort’s group “Music Academy Success” going on 4 years Find a program you like and invest in it! It will accelerate your success greatly!

  5. Marketing – the key to everyone’s growth Since we opened our schools we have spent over $350K on Marketing (about 7.5% of Revenue) Since 2003, we have taught almost 50,000 lessons and brought in $4.7M in Lesson Revenue We invested heavily in marketing right up front as we wanted to push growth quickly What we have learned: develop at least 10-15 areas to market within... It’s a numbers game! Examples- 1. Location Signage, 2. Web presence (Site ranking on Google) 3. Ask for referrals 4. Direct Mail, 5. Print Ads 6. Direct School Advertising, 7. Community Events-trade, 8. Community Events –perform 9. Newsletters, 10. Flyers/Postcards in other local businesses 11. In School concerts and events. Keep Track of all students and what source they came from –this tells you were to invest more or less! Our audience is Children- that’s what, and where we (you) need to be focusing on.

  6. Marketing – the key to everyone’s growth • Music School Lesson Marketing yearly cycle we follow: • The basic cycle we follow is • - End of year (getting Christmas Instruments ) going into January for new year lessons • End of School year going into summer April/May • Back to School Aug/Sept • This is when we advertise locally and do our direct Mail (Postcards) heavily • Plan this out and put it on auto pilot for a stress-free calendar Year! Ex. Post Cards- we pre-buy 36,000 post cards at deep discounts in December and design/print/mail 6000 at a time 6 times a year based on the above schedule. We track every call and also use Google “follow me Remarketing” to increase the return and longevity of this investment (Postcardmania)

  7. Marketing – the key to everyone’s growth Turning an expense into a Marketing asset- Background Checks Every Business needs to check out the backgrounds of their employees and contractors This is an annual expense that is usually hidden and not used unless there is a problem We found a company (Ask the Seal) that has taken the idea of a background check to a new level. Using a website for any client to verify and feel comfortable about sending their children for lessons, They provide us with an easy way for anyone to verify our schools have insurance, and all staff are background checked They provide a Certificate (and door decal) that we have right behind our registration desk to point out that our school is certified, and tell them, if they take lessons anywhere else, to please make sure they are certified... i.e. We make a big deal out of it and raise the new customer’s awareness to the fact that not everyone may have fully background checked staff/contractors working for them.

  8. Teachers and Staff We are blessed with several Universities and Colleges that turn out some fine musicians/teachers We look for a balance of talented, energetic, caring, and passionate teachers of all ages. Most are referred or hear about our reputation and contact us – have never had to advertise! Our teaching staff are all contractors and we treat them as professionals and set the expectations high. They see we are totally automated and everything from scheduling to payments runs like a clock 50 percent of our staff have been with us over 5 years. Students and parents love consistency Our School managers are knowledgeable and motivated via their comp plan to provide the best possible customer experience. From answering the phone to registration to scheduling – Cheerful, helpful and happy is how I have heard them described by our clients. The front desk can make or break your school/academy program!

  9. Facilities We entered into our first commercial late 2003 (an empty field!) and moved in June 2005 lease - brand new custom designed built school/retail 2500 SF I designed the Avalon School & Music Center from the vision I had in my dream.. My Architect helped make it a reality! Second School location (1600 SF) added in 2007- Orlando School of Music. Third School location (1300 SF) added in 2008- Avalon School of Music We learned from the experiences of the first school as far as build out, design, and Lease negotiations Guess which school is the most profitable? We make our schools look the absolute best they can, clean, comfortable, stocked, and full of musical vibe and passion! The last two items seem to be the thing that you can’t buy, the secret!

  10. Technology past and present We installed new systems back in 2004 based on server/desktop technology, tested and tried and some failed, a bunch of $ initially set up on Window XP machines... Used Music Soft for Retail/scheduling, then QuickBooks Retail, Authorize. Net & Merchant account to create an auto bill system and spread sheets (galore) to update and keep track of everything on a monthly basis. It all worked but lots of effort i.e. man hours/labor costs/less customer service time, potential mistakes, loss of revenue etc. Required a second person to help get this done (mainly me) Replicated the same software and technology at all schools – try to stay consistent Our model is lean and efficient and does not include me working in the business! Goal is 1 person (manager) per location should be able to efficiently run it- You can’t do this without help from Technology and Automation

  11. Technology- Moving to the Cloud Revolutionizes us! Definition of Technology- To do something better, more efficiently! In 2011, we took a leap of faith and left the “MS server/desktop” model Bought several used iMac’s off Ebay Decentralized and pushed all functions out to the cloud with a single comprehensive program (MINDBODY Online) How did/can this change our/your business model? Consolidated all key systems for lessons, retail, billing and manual communications including 600 spreadsheets that tracked 800 paymentsand 50 Instructors pay etc. into 1 comprehensive system! Let our managers, teachers, clients & students see their own info on any web device they have

  12. Technology- Moving to the Cloud revolutionized us! This one strategic move was the game changer we needed to lower the labor intensity from 10 to 2 and increase our customer service from a 5 to10! No more hours of updating spreadsheets, emailing lesson changes, manually collecting billings I now run/manage my entire business virtually anywhere! ( I tour with The Europa Band 4 months a year) Instructors (we have about 50) can instantly check their schedules on their phone or computer! Students/parents get auto e-mails/text msgs for everything from Billing to Scheduling to “Happy Birthday” Customers can log in to see there entire account history, lessons attendance, retail purchase etc. (paperless) All billings and teacher pay are tracked by the system and teachers access their own attendance reports in order to invoice the school for their lessons taught each month.

  13. Technology- Moving to the Cloud Revolutionizes us! The Cloud was only the beginning! We Added 3rd party apps to our system to differentiate our business, increase customer loyalty gain real feedback and reviews, (Capture) auto register new students and more! 3rd Party Apps – Rewards Program- (Perkville) gives us a completely automated Points based system -set it up and forget it! -takes base customer data and offers enrollment and tracking of points to each student (mom’s love this) Auto customer Feedback- (Demand Force) surveys clients for real feedback every 3 months.... Posts this Feedback online and for your use (also posts to Google as a 3rd Party) More customer Feedback and Instructor & Facilities SurveyApp (Listen 360) creates instructor satisfaction rankings

  14. Technology- Moving to the Cloud Revolutionizes us! Website Integration (LiveEdit)- We pull details into the Cloud from our website Clients who request info or want to register automatically enter themselves into the New Client Data base through our website into the Cloud, and we receive and auto e-mail for immediate follow up! We push our Customer Feed back from our survey and feedback apps directly to our website with Widgets... This provides real time and up to date Customer feedback and reviews for new potential clients to see when they visit. New continuous updates of reviews, newsletters, and content updates keeps our Google rankings up high

  15. Being # 1 in Customer Service We pride ourselves with building great customer relationships. Since we see our clients every week, we know their names and family details history etc. We ask and engage! Once we have built this connection, we can directly or indirectly ask them for referrals. My motto is, they should be crying the day they have to leave us! And they do... We help where ever we can, and build up “good will” both within our client base, and the community When our name comes up, they know we are part of the local community and are very supportive in giving back! Having a strong and positive name in the local community is advertising you can’t put a dollar value on!

  16. Summary Passion + Ideas + $ + Smart Marketing +People + Technology = Long Term Success Don’t know if you can leave out any one of these key components? Q & A Feel Free to contact me if you need help Cell 407-497-2654 E-mail jkolbrich@AvalonMusicCenter.com

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