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“According to today’s report in SmartCompany, of those surveyed, 61% of SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) operators said small businesses failed because of an inability to manage costs, 50% said inexperienced management, 50% said poorly designed business models or no business plan, 49% said insufficient capital, 37% said poor or insufficient marketing, and 35% said insufficient time managing the books. Only 26% identified failure to seek professional advice as a key reason for failure, while 70% trusted their “gut instinct” over any professional advice. According to SmartCompany the chief executive of Wolters Kluwer Asia-Pacific, Russell Evans, commented, “The majority of SMEs which shun professional advice were doing so at their peril.” Evans pointed to a separate CCH survey of more than 210 accountants servicing small businesses which ranked bad business models as the main reason SMEs fail.”
Why guitar teachers struggle in business
This question comes up quite often. As guitar players we want to express our creativity so developing our own guitar teaching method and business feels like a great way to express that creativity. While true it does come at a rather large cost. The best analogy I can give is its like building your own guitar when what you really want to do is make music. It takes many years of research and practice to build your own guitar and the chances of you ever making something of a standard equivalent to say a Gibson or Fender is slim.
Only 4% of new businesses will succeed long term
Building any business from scratch will take years perhaps even decades and your chances of success are around 4%. Buying into an existing business system on the other hand dramatically increases your chances of success. Here an Article on franchising that explains why those who seek professional advice are far more likely to succeed.
Building your business is a 4 step process.
The solution is systematic. I have been in the business for 30 years and have developed perhaps the most effective system available for finding, enrolling, keeping and eventually freeing yourself from the business.
- Marketing: Getting actual inquiries
- Sales: Enrolling students usually by phone
- Loyalty: Keeping students long term
- Hiring: Find, train and keeping good people
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Here are just a few benefits of the G4 Guitar Franchise Program.
Support: The reason guitar students who have teachers dramatically increase their chances of success is because they have ongoing support. Ironically most guitar teachers have no support either as teachers or business people. They go it alone and as a result make many unnecessary mistakes.
Speed: Guitar teachers who go it alone attempt to do everything themselves so their rate of progress is slow. Joining a G4 GUITAR means much of the work is done allowing the teacher to grow their business much faster. Again its like building your own guitar verses buying a guitar based on years of development.
The network effect: The network effect is perhaps the most powerful force in business. The Internet is the best example of the network effect. As more members come on board the network effect increases. This means you tap in to the resources and knowledge of other network members thereby increasing your available resources and knowledge with zero effort.
Teacher and business training: The great majority of guitar teachers struggle not due to a lack of talent but simply due to a lack of training and experience whether it be in teaching or business. G4 GUITAR teachers receive specialised training in all areas of teaching and business to ensure success. If you want to keep students long term the answer is training.
Marketing: Your marketing plan is a critical part of success. Knowing how and where to spend your time and money on marketing will largely determine your success. G4 GUITAR will do two things for you. Firstly we will give you the training and resources to market your guitar lessons locally successfully. Secondly we will run an online proven marketing campaign in your area that will help bring in a steady flow of students.
Brand recognition: Joining our established brand instantly links you to what amounts to over a million dollars worth of marketing. We have teachers operating around the world and growing who are all actively marketing online and offline. By association you gain instant credibility.
Resources: No need for lesson plans, marketing materials etc. We have it all covered. We have everything you need to teach successfully in groups from teacher training to student resources.
Peer support: We have a members only group which is extremely active. Our members ask questions on a daily basis with answers provided by myself and other teachers. Its also a great place to share ideas and compare results.
$100,000 in value: I began teaching guitar professionally in 1984. I was fortunate to receive sales training early on so I was able to leverage this skill to earn a good living teaching as a guitar teacher but I did lack certain business skills. Over my career I have attended courses, received coaching purchased hundreds of business books and spend many hours studying the topic of success in coaching, business, marketing, parenting, psychology and technology. I estimated that I have to date spent over $100,000 on my business education and I have taken the best most relevant pieces of information and condensed into the G4 Guitar Program and I continue to invest in my education.
Why the G4 Guitar Method works so well
G4GM is the result of 30 years of development based on the input from hundreds of teachers and years of research. G4 is not just a system for teaching students but its a system for growing your business. What separates G4 Guitar from most systems of teaching is the rigorous testing. One area of weakness for many systems of teaching is that the teacher who created the method is the only one who can really deliver it. When other teachers try to deliver their method it doesn’t transfer. In almost every case they have not tested their teaching system on other teachers. I can tell you from experience it takes a lot of time to get to the point where a method truly works in the hands of another teacher.
Consistency matters in businessOne of the strengths of G4 is consistency across our teachers. There are many benefits that will become more apparent as your business grows. For example the G4 Guitar Method comes complete with teacher training (this alone has taken hundreds of hours to put together) and support so when it comes time for you to hire a teacher all the training is already in place not to mention the support that will be available to them. Secondly in terms of marketing G4 students visit our website, download the method, watch videos etc and become familiar with G4. Putting all these online materials together has taken years but its been a necessary process because people need to understand who we are and what we do. Another big benefit of G4 is you will be able to discuss its merits with a team. G4 already has many teachers using the G4GM and when you have a challenge you can throw the question to the team and get answers not based on opinions but actual experience. Its a fast paced way to learn.
Final wordsI could give you more reasons but the idea behind G4 is teamwork. We know teams succeed much faster than solo operations because of the combined intelligence and experience. Teaching effectively in groups is all about teamwork and keeping the students in your group all on the same page. This has to begin with us as teachers. When we operate with a team mentality it becomes easier to preach this message to our students.
