Monthly Blog Post: Anecdotes and Stats-edotes

In some fields, knowledge, techniques, and expertise are at most passed down and spread largely by word of mouth. Most of these three knowledge (which I will now abbreviate to KTE because it's a pain to type out the whole thing) often have no basis in their establishment except for gut feeling and personal experience, both of which allowed a large space for bias from those who tout their KTE's.

I came across that issue myself in my research venture for my senior project. Many of the advice I had received, whether from mentorship or from advice articles of music retailing magazines, were never really tested in their validity. For a long time, I thought that was the most I could work with.

However, I fortunately began to reach out in my research and discovered the field of retailing research, where hypothesis regarding aspects of retails, like importance of service, branding, and differentiation, are actually tested with the scientific method and peer-reviewed by academic retail researchers. I would've never believed this field to have existed if not for the experience I gained from my senior project, and I extend the lesson I've learned in doing proper research to find a goldmine for your topic that you initially thought had never existed.

Monthly Post: February - A Time of Love... and Research. Mostly research.

Quite frankly, I didn't remember that we needed to have 3 answers at least for our presentation until rather recently. So um, if any junior is reading this, don't do this.

Regardless, I can't change the fact that I'm slightly struggling to cover all 3. My 10-minute presentation really did cover everything I thought of, and once I summarize things (which is what I did for my 10 minute presentation, which is funny because I didn't even hit time then), I struggle to put the details back in.

Still, I'm pretty sure I'll get back to my feet.

In other news, I have discovered a very wonderful published journal for my topic called 'Music Trades'. It's a journal that's basically tailor made to my topic, in that its main focus in on the music retail business. Yipee ki-yay? Absolutely. More than I imply in this blog post because text doesn't really carry tone that well.

Now the problem is that this journal is not very easily accessible using the Cal Poly Database, which is a darned shame because Cal Poly Database had served me alright up to this point. I'll have to arrange some crazy Document Delivery thing in order to get the journals I want, which I plan on doing hopefully very soon.

Or, maybe I can just try to log in into Ebsco Host Connections using User ID and Password from another library. I can try that. Either way, let's see what happens.

Monthly Post: January - The Fight

With more research needed to be done, I had decided in the past month to focus more on music store operations aspects other than instrument repairs. What happened was rather a significant discovery into the unsaid rivalry between large chain music stores, such as Guitar Center and Sam Ash, and independent music stores.

To be frank, I was already aware of this when I first even considered doing music store operations as my topic. After all, I'm a frequent goer for both; I go to Sam Ash for the cheaper products, and I go to independent music stores for the people. What I never really knew was the history of which this quiet rivalry that traces back to 1996, and also the resurgence of independent stores and their forced yet successful adaptation to current times. Many articles that I've found on independent stores flaunt the fact that they are often far more personal and personable than large chain stores.

It's been crossing my mind that I interview different independent stores, more than the required 3, as to get more information to this whole situation. This conflict isn't really one that is commonly covered in newspapers or magazines. If I really want my presentation to be great, I have to be my own journalist to get my sources from.

Monthly Post: Communication (and Diligence) is Key

Two weeks ago, I came to the Music Store for my bass lesson, only to meet a dejected face of an employee.

As it turns out, my bass teacher wasn't there.

He had called an hour before the lesson, saying that he had already told the person on the counter on the Wednesday that he wouldn't be coming that Saturday. He thought that the person had already called his students... And the person didn't.

Last time I saw my bass teacher, which was last Saturday, he said that that wasn't a good thing. It's that kind of unreliable communications between the teacher, the store, and the students that would cost him students, and the person on the counter that previous Sunday had a chance to call all the students, and didn't.

Yet another reason why keeping up communications is important.

Monthly Post for November: The Delicate Art of Advertising (The Store)

Without customers, a store is nothing if not a black hole of money. So how do you get customers? By advertising, of course.

The Music Store has been trying to get new exposure, and they've been doing this several ways:

1) Social Networking - They have a facebook page (click here!). And you can absolutely follow them at instagram at @tmsthemusicstore. The store is also on Yelp.

2) Flyers at local businesses' bulletin boards - Actually, let's go into details about this one.

We've spent some time brainstorming this, things like how the flyers are going to be distributed, where to put them, and how to talk to the business owners so they would agree to us putting the flyers there.

The flyers are going to be distributed inside a Tyvek 'flyer holder' that we can double tape or thumbtack onto a bulleting board. The Tyvek flyer holders are all handmade from Tyvek envelops cut in half, a big sticker that says FREE MUSIC LESSONS! so it would grab attention, and stiff paper as backing so it wouldn't be so flimsy.

A pretty good drawing of the envelop, if I do say so myself.

When we were thinking of the business to approach for these flyers, we tried to think local, mom-and-pop, or often-frequented-by-children-or-parents. So there were a lot of small-chain establishments (like Farmers' Boys and It's A Grind Coffee Shop) and afterschool or extracurriculars for kids (e.g. community centers, martial arts studio, dance studios). And we also threw in some salons and hobby shops, so we can reach the moms as well.

The list!

So right now, we're checking whether the stores we had listed would allow us to do this, either by phone call or just actually going there. There is huge emphasis on making it clear to the establishments that if they allow us to advertise on their place, they could advertise on ours. We scratch their backs, they scratch ours.

We're going to touch on more with the flyers later on. The envelopes/flyer holders would probably be made by next week, so I can get on distributin'.

Independent Component: Let's Get Down To Business

Contrary to what might possibly be popular believe, I actually don't like the title 'Let's Get Down To Business'. At all. But I wanted to put a phrase that has the word 'business' in it, so I'll make do.

I thought that I already dwelled enough about the music-side of music store operations and need to know  more about the business side. So on October 15th, I went to a workshop in Chino for small business owners. It's sponsored by the Los Angeles Regional SBDC (Small Business Development Center), a small business assistance network in the national Small Business Administration.

The workshop took place in Chino's Carolyn Owens Community Center.

Carolyn Owens Community Center's Chino Business Resource Center.

The workshop itself and the speaker of the workshop, Robert Usher.

Click here for a gallery of papers that they gave us.

Individual Components Options

I've been looking over some possible Individual Components for my topic, and I've decided that I would mainly aim for business courses. After all, a lot (or all, really) of the information I do for research check are instrument care-related, and that's not enough information to run a business.

I have to think about my schedule (which is already pretty filled up, yikes...) and still make space for mentorship (and it's most likely to end up on the weekends), so I'm considering online courses.

Some links:

http://www.sba.gov/

- A government-sponsored website providing aid, information, and courses for people who are interested in starting a small business.

http://www.ed2go.com/online-courses/start-your-own-business?tab=detail

- An online course I considered taking. Sponsored by CalPoly Pomona!

http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/11/free-online-education-courses-small-business.html

- A list of, as the title said, free online education courses for small businesses.

http://smallbizla.org/calendar/

- A calendar filled with business-related workshops of an organization based in LA.

http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/

- A website that provides lessons in business management.

I'm a bit concerned on whether some of these would count, especially the online courses ones. I'm planning to ask soon.

It's too late for this quarter, but I am thinking about taking a business course in CalPoly Pomona. I'll have to research more into it.

I'll also have to think about using my bass lessons as a part of my Individual Component. Anything that can help will help.

August Blog: I Changed My Topic. Just Kidding.

For someone who told herself she's really considering to change her senior topic to guitar repairs, I haven't really done anything about it.

It's August 29 now. Any topic change is due tomorrow. So, you know. Too late.

I mean, my current topic, Music Store Operations, isn't bad. Not at all. I absolutely love my mentorship place (the Music Store), and I genuinely did like learning about instruments even if it's just for cleaning them. But to be absolutely honest, I got lucky. It's fortunate that I've been around the music store for some years now and they know me well enough that they allowed me to do my mentorship there.

But knowing guitar repairs would've been cool. It's somewhat a primary instrument of mine.

Moral of the story? Future IPoly seniors: HUSTLE. When they say you better get on with your topic, they mean it. There isn't as much time as you think there is because days pass quicker than people tend to think they do. Grab any opportunity you see, hunt for them, and don't take them for granted at all, especially when it's a chance of mentorship in a topic you're fond of. You will have time to change your topic after your summer mentorship, but it is not much time. Get that mentorship secured as soon as possible.

But don't be anxious; as long as you keep moving, keeping up with everything and doing them early at any chance to do so, you're good.

[Basically don't be like the procastinator me. It's barely a month into the school year and I'm already feeling it. Listen to your (recently) upperclassmen when they try to warn you about things because most of them truly means what they say and really meant well. I really should've listened to Genevieve when she said I should hurry...]