To that end my focus right now is on finding more people who could benefit from what Southtown Guitar is offering in our lessons program. We currently offer private lessons on guitar, piano, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, bass, voice, harp, trumpet, french horn and harmonica. We have a super flexible scheduling and cancellation policy, selling pre-paid lesson packages that you can spend however works best with your schedule and we’re running a summer promotion with which you can get lessons all summer long for your child for $199 (averages out to $15 / lesson). Do you know anyone living in Eastown, East Grand Rapids, or Ottawa Hills with elementary-school aged kids who might like to take 13 music lessons this summer? If so, would you forward this post to them with the coupon below attached? Or if you want to pass along their contact info to me I’d be glad to reach out directly to them. They can also call me on my cell at 616-617-4642 or email me at dean@southtownguitar.com.
I love reading and recently finished a book by John Holt called Instead of Education. One of the ideas that John talked about in the book was “reality of encounter” — basically being real with people. He was talking about reality of encounter in the context of schools — does a teacher interact with her students from a place of detached professionalism, not answering the children’s real questions and inquiries and withholding her own particular knowledge and self, or does she open up honestly with them about her life and thoughts, sharing what is really going on in her life? I have been thinking about this concept in business — do I interact with people in a way that I think a “business owner” should interact or do I interact with customers and staff as I interact with family and friends? Am I fully self-expressed in my relationships with everyone around me? I want to be. This seems to me to be the most authentic and life-giving way to live. I think I will be a more whole person and may free others to be more whole if I can offer myself to others honestly and vulnerably.
In that spirit of honesty and vulnerability I wanted to share that May has been a really slow month at my business Southtown Guitar and our cash is really tight right now. Having already been in business for 8 years, I know that we’ll survive this current crunch and that this is neither the first nor the last time that cash will be tight. Generally my stress level rises and falls in direct proportion to Southtown Guitar’s cash reserves on any given day but I’m slowly learning to not freak out quite so much when things get tight. All these spring birds singing in the trees around my house have been reminding me of Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns [or build up cash reserves], and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” I’ve also been meditating on the verses just before this verse as well in Matthew 6:24 – 25, “You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink.”
While I continue to learn how to maintain an inner calm while navigating through the ups and downs of business in the modern world, I’m also working at learning how to properly trim my sails. To that end, another of my current reads is called Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. It’s a bit cheesy at times (missing some of John Holt’s gravitas and reality of encounter, unless Michael Port actually is this cheesy in real life) but it has offered a lot of suggestions that have been helpful in refining what exactly it is that we offer at Southtown Guitar and to whom we offer it. What I’ve come up with is that our bread and butter is offering private lessons to elementary school aged kids living in Eastown, East Grand Rapids and Ottawa Hills who are looking for a long-term relationship with a music instructor. If we can build connections with about 25 more families of elementary aged kids that fit this profile we would be really finding our stride in terms of health of the business and impact on our community.
Thanks for reading this post and for giving me the space to be honest and to offer a real encounter with what is going on in my life right now. Thanks for supporting me and what I and the staff at Southtown Guitar are trying to do in and for ourselves and our community.