My Music Workshop - Industry Q & A

Provide an overview/ description of your industry.  

The childcare industry takes in $48 billion annually. There are preschools and young children in almost every part of the country in abundance. The benefits of music education are also enormous including showing better school grades and test scores, increased social skills, concentration, and so much more. On top of that children’s supplemental education programs have been around forever and are staying around. Parents are always seeking quality programs for their children to be involved in and that’s what My Music Workshop provides. 

How has your industry changed in the last 10 years?  20 years? 

It depends on what part of the industry you look at. From a music education standpoint, there is more and more interest and demand. The success of music and singing based TV shows, music centered video games, arts education in general, combined with the growing body of research that highlights the value of music education makes parents and students want to learn music from earlier and earlier ages. From a young childhood education perspective, I’ve seen more and more parents getting their children involved in activities at younger ages. There is a lot of specialty in working with younger children and bringing them something valuable. This specialization has changed over the years. I’ve seen more programs become more specialized with respect to the age(s) they teach and the subject matter they cover. 

What trends do you see in your industry over the next 5 years?  Next 10 years? 

I see more and move of a demand from parents for great children’s programs. I also see less and less time that parents have to commit extra-curricular activities. We are unique in that we are offered at children’s preschools so by the time parents pick their kids up from school they’ve already had music class. Win, win!

What is the biggest concern about your industry that a franchisee candidate should be aware of and investigate? 

We really do reside in a niche. It’s the niche of teaching preschoolers at their schools. Not everyone can do it, not everyone meets given state standards and not everyone understands how to work with preschoolers. I certainly had to learn after coming from a educational background of working with older kids, but I did learn and then I loved it and still do. It’s a skill and talent, those who don’t open themselves up to the nuances of working with this age group won’t be successful at it, whether it’s specific programs or the teachers themselves. 

Why do you think your company stands out in the industry? 

There are a few reasons, one is that we are a music education company that focuses on working with children at the preschool level (early childhood). Being that we defined this focus early on we are good at it. Everything we do, everything we’ve created is just to educate and bring something great to students in this age group. We don’t’ offer a watered-down version of something intended for older kids, our product, service and specialty is focused on preschool aged children. With that we created something unique, from the business side and also, most importantly, from the education side. We are able to teach preschoolers pretty advanced musical concepts and they get it. They develop a love for music with us but also a basic understanding of things like reading music, understanding the patterns in songs, various musical styles, the basics of playing instruments like guitars, ukuleles, piano and drums. Seeing how much children could learn and absorb was paramount for us in the development of our program and our curriculum. It’s something we are really proud of. 

What makes your franchise/ business opportunity more attractive than your competitor’s? 

I think it’s our subject matter, music, and the fact that we’ve developed a system of being able to keep overhead very low while still offering a lot of classes each week. First, music is a bit of a niche subject, you have to have an understanding of it and we certainly do. That allows us to teach our franchisees how to present our music curriculum the right way. We know how to teach music to young children, in my opinion better than anyone. We also know how to train our teachers and our franchisees and how to market our program to schools and to students. We’ve done it for 10 years and we’ve seen just about everything. We know how to handle potential problems before they occur and we can bring that experience to our franchisees. They don’t have to go through the learning curve like we did. Our management staff, including myself, are all teachers. We have a knack for teaching others and we carry this talent and passion into our franchise program and to franchisees. 

Describe the ideal candidate.  Do you think your requirements are any different than your competitor’s? 

First off, I do think our requirements are different than any competitors we may have. A My Music Workshop franchise owner must have a lot of passion for music. It’s ideal if there’s a musical background there but it’s not totally necessary. Our ideal candidate is someone with experience working with preschoolers and who has some music, either playing an instrument or a strong love, in their background. On top of that they have to be a good communicator and a positive person. To work with preschools and preschoolers you’ve got to bring them positive energy all the time. You have to want to make a difference in children’s lives every single day. Our program is about more than just music education, it’s about bringing the JOY of music to kids from an early age. The joy part comes first the music comes second