5 CRUCIAL TACTICS FOR YOUR STUDIO TO SURVIVE COVID-19

We cannot deny there’s going to be an economic hit, but here’s what you’re going to do

Turn your PANIC INTO PLAN

No one has been through anything like this and we don’t even know how long this will last or what the effects will be. Although we are the first to admit that we don't have all the answers, we’ve been through some pretty horrific things. We’ve had days where we’ve taken 10, 20 and even 50k hits. We’ve had to fire people and restructured twice. We’ve literally been brought to tears multiple times and we know the tough reality that is about to take place for many of you.

So we want to humbly offer you 5 key thoughts that we think are crucial for you in this uncertain season. We hope at best you won’t just survive it, you’ll thrive through it. 

1. Communication is Key 

For Customers 

Communication isn’t what you say, but what other people hear

You need to focus on ensuring people understand you value them, their health & safety and you’re doing all you can. Your messaging should be positive, proactive and passing (eg. "this will pass"). Here are some other points you should consider when communicating to your customers. 

• Communicate more frequently.
• People will all be getting more communications, so keep things short, they don’t have time to read 2 pages from you. 
• Be specific on details. How does the admin change in any way for customers. 

• Repeat yourself in communications. People sometimes don't get it the first time. For instance, when we were changing bank accounts at my school, some people had 5+ emails with the new number and still paid into the wrong account. 

• Everyday share positive stories! Bring a smile to someone's face. 

• Remember, people want to get back to normal. They will return if you handle this well. Don’t snap, get rude or emotional.
• At the end of the day, if they still want to cancel their lessons, consider the following:

1) Hear them out why they’re wanting to leave.

2) Explain everything you’re doing to put their health and safety first. Explain how you’re ensuring the lessons that continue to run in person or online are still high quality.

3) Ask them straight up not to leave because you have nothing to lose. For instance, "given we’re working twice as hard to meet all obligations, would you consider please trying the new way if there’s changes?"

For Staff

Lead your people

• Rally the troops. Be clear that you have every intention of working together to get through this, but you need to work together and everyone is going to need to play their part. 
• Tell them the things they can be doing to help the business win. Eg. up-selling, being early, making lessons better than ever. You need to clarify any new expectations you have of them. 
• What’s your policy if staff are feeling sick, do they stay home? Will they be paid? Be specific. 
• Put everything in writing and if you do have a conversation in person, follow up with an email, to summarise what was discussed. 
• Teach people how to talk to customers about the situation and give them the talking points.
• Make sure you have daily updates with your team. You could do this via a Facebook group, email or whatever medium you prefer. Don't forget to share the good stories (positive feedback from parents, team members etc).
• Don’t over promise on the things you can't control. Don’t say ‘they definitely won’t lose their job’

• Lastly and most importantly, focus on the plan and if you can execute the plan it’s your best chance of all being okay. 

2. Walk Towards the Mess

One of the values at our school is: no matter how tough the situation, be proactive, rather than reactive. 

Positive thinking is only one part of leading well. If you don’t embrace the facts head on, you’re not going to be prepared for what might smack you in the butt. You need to get ahead of this situation and our goal is to minimise the impact.

So what’s the mess you’ve got to walk towards? It’ll be different for everyone. 

• Review your customer policies. Be prepared with templates to answer customers about refunds, credits etc. They’re going to ask. You should not be giving refunds for people that just want to leave. You’re providing suitable alternatives in a crisis and you’re not prepared to give refunds. At worst you can offer credits later when things calm down.
• You may need to move to online lessons. 
  • How will you schedule this?
  • What admin systems need to change?
  • How do you answer parents that think they’re not worth the money or are a waste of time?
  • Have you trained your team these questions efficiently?
    
    

Your business finances

• Think about cash flow. Don’t stop spending on the things that will make you grow (eg. marketing), but be careful with where money is flowing. Eg. don’t go revamp the place or buy fancy new equipment.
• Some of you are going to need some credit to get through this. 
  • Depending on your government, depends whether there’s a stimulus package available. Do you know whether there’s one that’s been released, applicable to you? What are the conditions and how do you apply?
  • Our school operated with an OD of about 5% of our annual turnover. Don’t be silly, but for some of you, borrowing money to survive is what you'll need to do. We definitely had to do that multiple times and as long as you have a plan to pay it back quickly it might be the thing to pull you through. The question you have to ask yourself is, do you really want to lose your whole business over not taking a loan? 
• Cut backs. You're obviously going to want to keep as much as your team as possible, so what can you do to get them doing other revenue generating tasks instead? This will hopefully minimise the cut backs that may be necessary.
• You should have multi-layered contingency plans. What do you do if this lasts 2 weeks, what if it’s a month, what if it’s 2 months? 
  • At our school our new academy director has many plans in place, eg. scaling back 30-40 staff all the way down to 3-4 if things get dire. 
  • Remember big schools have it even scarier, our expenses were over $1M last year, so that’s about $20k p/w. That burns through pretty fast, so you have to be watching the movements everyday:
    • How many quit or put lessons on hold?
    • How many refunds were given?
    • How many new students signed up?

3. Pivot

How did a chain store in our country get through the global financial crisis? While their competitors tightened up everywhere they could and stopped spending money, they decided they would double their marketing and would create interest free payments over a longer period than usual. 

What happened? Well they still exist today, while many of their competitors went bankrupt.

With great change, comes great opportunities.

One of the reasons that’s true is that, your competition are going to give up or shut down for weeks/months. You have to be willing to re-look at the way you run your business:

• You could run your lessons online. We’re not going to get into the technical side right now, but sign up below and you can get access to free resources that we've collated for you!
• Have your team be able to work from home. Only if they can prove they have reliable internet and they don’t provide a bad customer experience. 
• Mobile tuition. Can you offer a premium lesson service door-to-door? 
• Work with your team to problem solve this. As I record this, schools haven’t shut down and our school even signed up 50 new students, only losing 5. So that's amazing! However,  behind the scenes the team has built a studio, started filming online lessons with the goal of being 6 weeks ahead with curriculum for different skill levels. You need to start looking at what you need to do!
• Inspire your customers with online competitions. For instance, have a songwriting competition or even provide an online concert that can be used to engaged bored kids at home.  
• Your marketing messages. These will be different today, from the ones you were sending yesterday.
  • Make sure your existing customers feel valued and cared for.
  • Show them in newsletters how hard you’re working behind the scenes. Put up pictures of your team cleaning the toilets, wiping down instruments and putting hand sanitiser out.
  • Show people using your online lessons. Then you’ll be able use them to market and attract new customers when you collect references.
  • Run adverts to smaller towns that won’t have good music teachers and get students signed up your online lessons. Remember, all the smart teachers are getting on to this now, so you need to master the art of attracting new students through Facebook Ads. Not sure how to do this? Check out our resources below.
  • Make some valuable content videos for the community and then offer free trial/online lesson at the end of the video e.g. Coronavirus: Top 10 tips for Lower Hutt families.
  • Use a screen capture software (eg. OBS studio, Zoom) to record a clip at the end of the lesson, getting your student to rave about your online lessons. Use this for social media and adverts.

4. Keep Paddling

In these uncertain times, you know you are going to be putting in the extra hours for the next season. You just have to keep moving, keep learning your business and keep building. Even if you just stay afloat, just keep paddling and you'll get there!

Keep building your business. Work on the things that will increase customer value to make up for lost customers. Some of the things you could look at are:

• Selling Curriculum, merchandise campaigns.
• Working on your Facebook/Google Ads.
• Planning your next holiday programme or summer camp.
• Marketing. Remember, don't stop marketing, just change your messaging.
• Keep learning. Don’t stop reading books, taking online courses, listening to podcasts. A basketball team doesn’t stop practising when they’re in crisis.

5. Oxygen Mask on

In times like this, like on a aeroplane,  you must put on your oxygen mask before you help others. You’re of no use to anyone if you go down. So take your health serious and protect yourself.

It's not just your physical health you need to look after, but also your mental help. So guard yourself from the hype: 

• Be informed and get the updates, but don’t get pulled into all the hype and overdose on the negative. 
• Choose a reliable news source to check, not one that tends to sensationalise everything. 

In terms of business, you need to know your own financial limit and at the end of the day, no matter how nice a person you are...

• It is your business.
• You can’t pay what you can’t afford.
• Priorities come first. What are your priorities (eg. food) and what are you willing to sacrifice?
• If you have to make staff cuts, it’s going to be heartbreaking.
• It’s not your job to finance all your staff if the revenue or work gets shut down.
• It’s the governments job to do that and governments are responding with relief packages.
• If you’re paid $1000 a week, but you can live off $700 for a few months in order to keep people, that’s awesome.

At the end of the day, it is just money. You can recover and your business can boom when we’re past this if you play it right. 

Final Thoughts

I highly recommend you watch the end of the video, there's a story I share that I've had loads of emails and messages to say how encouraging and inspiring it was for them.

In this time of crisis we need to come together and lean on not only our friends and family, but our community.

We're not just talking about the community in which we live, but also the online community which we are so fortunate to have. Who knew, back in the day, we'd still have the ability to communicate even in isolation? 

Resources below:

In order to do our part we have collated some great resources in one easy place. We hope that this video, blog and pool of resources will make this time easier for you and you will pay it forward.

If you come across a fellow music studio owner that needs a helping hand, lend your support, give your advice, or share this page link.  The world needs more kindness in this crazy time. 

 Blessings, 

Jonny Wilson & the Build a Music School team