Blog 2: Summer Mentorship

1) My Summer Mentorship Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0At3QKup-j6vHdC1yel9RQkNPdFJTLWNJSk5CMkY2UXc&output=html
(Notes taken during the mentorship and pictures of the store: https://plus.google.com/photos/100057649066833535168/albums/5910688707107408657)

2) Contact Number: Gene Iacono - (909)-598-1921

3) Questions that were raised in the 10 hours of mentorship:

• How does the store handle rentals? (the owner has told me that rentals are lacking during the summer but booms during the school year)
• Where does the store find their music teachers? Do they put a listing in a newspaper? Perhaps ask a current teacher for suggestions?
• How does the store handle a student that hasn't paid tuition in a while?
• In the event of a rental instrument being returned absolutely broken, how do we talk to the student about it?

4) What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
Through this mentorship, I've learned that there are many aspects to operating a music store or a business, such as bookkeeping, accounting, inventory orders, product care, and customer handling. By themselves, each of these seems like small chores. But these are all key to the running the store. As the store's owner frequently said to me, the employees there make cupcakes out of crumbs, and nothing there runs by itself.

5) How did what you did help you choose a topic? Please explain.
I've decided to choose 'operating a music store' as my topic due to me finding out that there are a lot of things I can learn about instruments in this store. This opportunity to learn furthermore about instruments and how they work is appealing to me. Despite me not being a trumpet player, I found that learning about its parts, even through just cleaning it, is pretty neat. The fact that I also got to learn some guitar care as well is also very cool. Music is not a life passion of mine, but I definitely love it. I want to be near it in any way and this is one way to do that.
In addition, the store also gave me a glimpse into running a business. My mother has been interested in starting a business for a while. While it would sell different products than what the music store has, I feel that my experience in a store would still help out a bit in her venture.