WILL'S BUSINESS BOUNCEBACK

You’ll recognise Will as one half of the editorial team at Penarth View, but he also runs Studio64, a music tuition service offering piano, flute, clarinet, and saxophone tutoring.

As the virus began to take hold and lockdown restrictions came in, Will felt a mixture of apprehension, worry, and relief!

“We pride ourselves on face-toface teaching and building a great relationship with our students. We’re so happy that moving over to technology has only helped strengthen our friendships with our students, and has helped us welcome more students from around the UK.”

Sessions now take place exclusively online, and they can now be recorded too, which can be played back by the student when practising, increasing their ability to learn. Although the move to technology was done through necessity, lockdown has made him wonder why they didn’t choose to offer this before!

And customers have taken to these changes brilliantly. What’s profound is that every single student has used music to help occupy themselves, learn more skills, and make lockdown a more enjoyable experience. Music really is that healing! “Personally, I’ve noticed a much calmer, peaceful, and thankful audience.”

1

Embrace online. The jump to online can be daunting if your business is personal. Make the people behind your brand stand out by blogging or creating social media posts. Encourage people to get in contact with you and make sure that every conversation with a customer is nothing short of excellent.

2

Support other local businesses— they make up 99.3% of all businesses in the UK. We all need everyone’s support, now more than ever.

3

Write a thank you note. If your business relies on repeat custom, it’s a great way to recognise your supporters and brand ambassadors. Tell them what they’ve helped you achieve. For us, we managed to keep all of our tutors in work, help two students complete their university degree, and help a student complete a Grade 8 exam over video-conference. People buy from people. Fact.