How To Create an Operations Manual For Your Music Studio
One of the best decisions I ever made was to systematize and automate my music studio-to write out a simple set of instructions. Instructions to tell my business what to do, when to do it and how to do it. My business turned into an efficient machine and customers were quick to notice the changes that were taking place. My stress levels plummeted and sales skyrocketed. I sold my studio in march of this year. I was able to increase the value of my business because of the systems I had in place. In this episode I’ll teach you how to create an operations manual for music studio.
Want to Sell Your Music Studio?
Someday you might want to sell your studio, hand it over to your children to run, just decide you want to retire to Florida for a little bingo on the beach while drawing a salary from your school. These all probably sound like desirable outcomes assuming all goes well. Having your systems in place and well documented well make this go smoothly.
An Amazing Insurance Policy
Life and business can also be turbulent. We all have to prepare ourselves for the unexpected or even the unimaginable. What if G-d forbid something happens to you that prevents you from working in your business. Without an operations manual your business would fall apart. Your family and friends would try to make sense of your studio and in the end it would most likely fall apart without a set of instructions saying what to do, how to do it, when to do it. What if your business was able to keep running without you. To still generate revenue for your family. Talk about an amazing insurance policy.
how to create systems for your music studio
You gotta do this. Do this for your peace of mind. For your health. For your family for your future. In this episode, I ‘ll show you how to make your music studio run on autopilot so you can have less stress in your life, more time for you, and focus on the things that really matter. Learn how to create an operations manual for your music studio, implement it and watch your business grow.
Get Out of Your Head
Developing systems for your studio is easy. You have the systems already in place. The problem is they are in your head and are often made up on the fly. They are often made up in state of panic and stress. “Summer is less than a month a way I’ve been so bogged down in planning for my recital I haven’t even thought about summer marketing.”
Does this sound like you?
2 Steps Away From Success
The process is simple. It’s easy. This process involves 2 stages or really two steps.
Step 1 is awareness.
Step 2 is documentation.
Awareness requires you to constantly ask yourself. “Is the task that I’m doing right now something that I will have to do again at some point in the future. ” If YES it needs to be documented.
Life is Full of Surprises
Some tasks fall on your plate due to an unplanned event. an upset customer, the employee who needs to be reprimanded, the kid who said a cuss word in Jr. Rockerz, closing your studio for the day due to weather.
Let’s call these Circumstantial tasks. These are not consistent and not predictable, but they do come up. They still need a system.
Departments of Your Music School
Before I get into how to actually create systems for your studio I want to break down the different categories of work that exist in a music school.
- Recitals and Events
- Customer care
- Marketing and Sales
- Human Resources
- Staff Training
- Operations
Think It and Note It
In Jan of 2017, I created a spreadsheet. One tab was called the table of contents. I then created a tab for each month of the year. I had that spreadsheet open all the time. I wrote a post-it “Think it and note it” put the post it on the wall in front of me. It’s that simple. Think, am what I’m doing now something I’m going to probably do again. If YES. Write it down. Just a bullet point. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
Life Happens-Are You Ready?
Let’s talk about Circumstantial tasks. These are listed in my table of contents.
These are full of emotional triggers and panic! Having systems in place will help you eliminate stress and focus on the task at the end. Hiring and firing employees would be found here. Customer care, daily operations, onboarding students, the nuts and bolts of the day today, the task the come up as life simply happens would be found here. All marketing and sales strategies would be found here. These also are just bullet points that link back to a document mapping out the details.
Your studio is growing. Gotta hire a new piano teacher. Go to the HR section of the table of contents. Click the link and see a step by step process that you mapped out from the last time you hired a teacher. Give it a review. Google how to hire an employee for new ideas. Update your doc. Go hire a piano teacher.
This might sound like a lot of work but it’s not any extra work. You have to do it anyway. By putting systems in place and documenting them as life happens saves you time in the future. This will ultimately allow you to hand your business over to someone else someday. To learn more about how to create systems for your music studio watch my webinar How to Make Your Studio Run By Itself (How to create systems for your music studio)
