Shine a Light

Ray’s Midbell Music 4230 S. Lancelot Lane Sioux City, IA 51106 (712) 276-0351 www.midbellmusic.com Mon. – Fri. 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sat. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Mike Guntren, President

CREATING A A ribbon cutting at Ray's Midbell Music's previous location. BETTER-SOUNDING SIOUXLAND

By Michelle Loeb

Ray’s Midbell Music is the thriving descendant of a multistore chain that started more than 80 years ago, when Jess Middaugh and Sam Campbell combined their talents, and their names, to create the original MidBell Music Company.

“From my father’s humble beginnings with the company, he slowly grew the business since 1972, and over the past 50 years, we’ve seen several local competitors come and go,” explained Mike Guntren, who has been with the company since 1997, and president since 2016. He is in the final stages of buying the business from his now-retired father and mother, Ray and Karen.

“I was very fortunate to have my parents’ support and wisdom for much of my career, and I’m so grateful I got to work alongside dad for so many years,” said Guntren, who had been lending a helping hand at the family business since he was a child.

That lifetime of experience, as well as Guntren’s background as a saxophonist who studied music and business at Morningside College, and of course, the love and support of his wife, LeAnn, and their three daughters, made his transition into company leadership as easy and seamless as possible.

“They say the best succession plans are so gradual the change in ownership is almost imperceptible to clients and team members. I really hope this has been true with our business,” said Guntren.

Since taking over the day-today operations of the store — “putting me in charge of people I had worked under as a 10-yearold helper,” Guntren mused — he has worked to expand the store’s footprint and its expertise, without sacrificing the customerfirst approach that has made Ray’s Midbell Music a success for generations.

For example, in 2006, the Guntrens secured an SBA loan that allowed the store to move out of the aging strip mall it called home for more than 15 years. “We built our own 10,000-squarefoot building in close proximity to our community’s major retail and dining areas, which greatly increased our traffic and sales,” explained Guntren. “We implemented guest-friendly store displays, created instrument try-out rooms, acoustic areas complete with humidification, and all the right lighting and ambiance for real retail.”

What was a school band store with a few guitars and keyboards soon became a full-line music store, selling Yamaha keyboards and Clavinova pianos, as well as top guitar brands like Fender, Taylor, Alvarez and Epiphone, in addition to expanded orchestra, drums and percussion departments. The store’s inventory expanded beyond basic student band and orchestra instruments to include a large inventory of intermediate and professional options.

“School music was, and still is, at the core of who we are, and serving school band and orchestra is our lifeblood,” said Guntren. In fact, helping students advance into next-level instruments is a key part of Guntren’s plan to grow the business. “We believe upgrading as many advancing students as possible from their student instrument to a better-sounding, and betterplaying, intermediate or professional-level instrument can be a catalyst for students to take their playing to new heights,” he said. “We’re always leaning on industry friends for creative ways we can keep kids excited about playing and providing better instruments that help them reach their full potential.” Guntren added, “Our mission is to create a better-sounding Siouxland!”

In addition to expanding the store’s product offering, Guntren was also able to expand the lesson program to accommodate more than 200 students per week, taught by 10 independent-

Ray’s Midbell Music offers a wide variety of products, but school music has always been the “core of who we are.”

contractor teachers.

Of course, the lesson program had to pivot when the coronavirus pandemic started. “Because of the hard work of our awesome studio coordinator, Michael Zellmer-McMahan, we were able to retain two thirds of our pre-pandemic lesson studio by transitioning the students over to the Zoom platform,” said Guntren. “I believe after many aspects of society move back toward the pre-pandemic world, we’ll certainly keep the Zoom option for our students. We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do with video lessons.”

Growing the business online was an ongoing project long before the pandemic, “but COVID absolutely forced us to step up our online shopping cart game,” said Guntren, whose online orders and rentals surged 600 percent during the summer and fall of 2020, “thanks to the wonderful dedicated work of our marketing and internet manager, Tim Barrett.” Guntren continued, “We’re continuing to pour resources into upping our online game moving forward. Our online clients receive the same level of care that our friends in education, and clients walking in the front door, experience.”

That customer service experience means doing whatever is required to take care of the customer, and each of the store’s 20 employees “is empowered to go off-page to make our guests happy, whether it be a price match, or an extra service or delivery,” Guntren explained. “Every guest is greeted upon entering our business, and when someone calls our store, an actual human being picks up the phone 99 percent of the time.” Guntren added that he gives his personal cell phone number out to educators, who “are welcome to call me anytime.”

Seven full-time instrument technicians make up the repair team that Guntren calls the heart of the business and, under the leadership of Whitney Turner, they work overtime to fix instruments of all types, “whether they were bought from us or not,” said Guntren. Meanwhile, the road team is out picking up and delivering repairs and supplies to educators and schools all year long, “in the snow, ice, and heat,” he said.

Guntren takes pride in the store’s 4.9 rating on Google, pointing to that as proof that he and his staff must be doing something right. “A rating like that doesn’t just happen; it is earned by treating our clients like friends time after time, and making sure we go the extra mile every day,” he said. “Maybe we go too far sometimes, but that’s OK with me. Whatever it takes, we try to never lose sight of who the boss is: our clients.”

And, after surviving a global pandemic with the business intact, Guntren plans to take that belief more seriously than ever. “The most important takeaway from the pandemic was the gift of gratitude. We appreciate our clients more than ever, and we tell them every day,” he said. “It’s our long-term clients that made it possible for our business to survive during COVID. What a great opportunity to say thanks.”