So this week, we’ve been all about making connections! Both yesterday and today we’ve been attending a business course through in North Shields. It’s linked to another course we attended back in June last year, called Boost Your Business. These courses are designed to help you promote your business and to think in depth about how you can better serve the needs/requirements of your customers.
The days are long and the work can induce a bit of soul-searching with regards to your business, but it’s definitely been worthwhile. There’s a saying that in order for your business to grow, you need to spend time working ON the business rather than IN the business. Courses like this give us valuable time to be able to work ON the business rather than getting bogged down in the general day-to-day stuff that tends to take up most of our time.
It’s taken quite a while for us to start thinking of what we do as a business rather than just something we love doing that brings in some money. For a long time this is how we – and, we’re sure, our friends and family – saw it. But over time as our Student numbers have grown, we’ve had to change our mindset somewhat. There are still some who frown at the idea that we have to run the Studio as a business, with policies and terms & conditions – after all, it’s only a music school! But ultimately, that’s what it is; it’s a business. Don’t get us wrong – it’s a great job and we wouldn’t swap it for the world, but in order for us to do our jobs properly, we need to have rules and guidelines in place for both ourselves and our Students.
A great bonus to these business courses we attend is the opportunity to meet lots of different people from all over the region. Self-employment can sometimes be a bit of a lonely affair, and you assume nobody else has the same troubles or pressures that you’re facing in your business. Meeting a wide variety of people all with such different jobs makes you realise that you’re not alone; we’re all facing the same obstacles and it’s by connecting and helping each other that we can overcome our problems and move forwards. From a personal point of view, as a bit of an introvert we’ve always shied away from networking opportunities in the past. But we’re making a real effort to get out and meet people nowadays to share thoughts and bring back some great new innovative ideas for Sweet Symphony.
Saturday Student Focus
Once again, it’s time to choose our Saturday Student. Our box is getting really full in the waiting room,but don’t worry – if your name hasn’t been pulled out yet, your slip is still in there so everyone has a chance! So without further ado, we can announce that this week’s Saturday Student is…
Holly T. (Piano)
Holly has been playing piano for 5 years, starting in primary school. She comes for her lessons with her teacher John at Sweet Symphony on a Wednesday evening. She wrote that she loves that John “always gives me support towards each piece I play”. Her favourite piece she’s learned so far is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen – and she performed this at our recent Winter Concert! Holly’s talent stretches further than just the piano, as she also plays the clarinet at school, too. Well done Holly!
If you want to be our next Saturday Student, make sure to fill out one of the slips that are in the waiting room and pop it in the box on the wall. Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page to see each week’s Student – next week, it could be you!
Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts right here on our website