What Are the Most Common Challenges of Operating a Music Store?

For entrepreneurs, there are many factors to consider when deciding what type of business to open. For some, their business centers around something they’ve been passionate about their whole life. For others, it takes quite a bit of analysis to determine which route would be the best fit for them.

These scenarios apply to several of our Music Go Round® franchisees. Even after opening their stores, obstacles may come along with owning a business. The key is having a strong partner to guide you through these challenges on your road to success. Luckily, at Winmark – the Resale Company™, our team is here to help you through each step.

Finding the Right Product Selection for Your Music Store Franchise

One of the first steps you will take as a franchise owner is to select the products you’d like to sell. This task may seem daunting to a new franchisee – for instance, how do you know what will and won’t sell when you’re just starting? – but it’s one of the benefits of signing with our franchise.

With nearly 30 years of experience, we’ve gained the expertise that allows us to understand the merchandising decisions crucial to business – which products are likely to sell and how to best go about selling them.

Focusing on the assortment of quality used musical instruments and gear is important. When making your selection, you want to be sure to focus on variety. Customers love getting to walk into a store and have everything they need right in front of them – it sure beats having to go to several different stores to find specific equipment and accessories!

You also want to make sure your store represents you. You should not only think of your store from your customers’ perspectives but also from your own. Is this a store that you’d want to shop at? What can you do to make it unique? How can you elevate your service to make people want to visit, return and recommend it to others?

Hiring and Retaining Employees

Now more than ever, finding quality employees is a crucial component to a business’s success. It’s important to utilize several platforms to recruit and hire. These include online and offline methods.

Online job boards like Indeed.com work well for posting your listing and finding candidates that align with what you’re looking for. When you sign up for an Indeed Employer account, you will have access to their resume database, where you can locate and reach out directly to prospective employees.

Another way to recruit is by doing so the old-fashioned way: in person. You can participate in or attend local job fairs, host an “open interview” day, post flyers on local job boards and make conversation with those in your network. You never know when you will meet your next quality candidate.

And don’t forget training – a key to retaining employees is ensuring they’re properly trained. We not only offer world-class support as we train our franchisees on how to effectively run their businesses but also focus our efforts on how franchisees can in turn train their teams for success.

Integrating Online and In-Person Sales Channels

Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that you can successfully integrate all your sales channels. Ecommerce has become a significant factor in many industries, including the musical instrument industry. Music Go Round has embraced this channel, and our point-of-sale system can help you make the most of it by connecting it to your in-store system.

This makes it easy to track orders, revenue and inventory. We are here to help our franchisees get set up on our ecommerce platform to maximize sales right from the start.

A Strong Team to Lean On

Overall, our franchise opportunities include thorough training and support from the moment you sign your agreement and all throughout your successful career as a franchisee. Our support team specializes in business planning, retail site selection, product knowledge and training, field operations, marketing and advertising.