The DIY ethos: surviving through eclecticism

Honestly, as much help and support as I've gotten from people--family, friends, customers, employees and suppliers--Skyline Music would not have survived (nor would it have had the character) during any period if I were a person with narrow interests. Were I just a guitar freak, band-o, tech guru or simply a salesman, it wouldn't work.
You see, we've never had enough capital to hire people to do the background stuff. The very few times when we had to rely on outside help on mission-critical tasks, it's been a disappointment--or worse.

I learned right away that advertising companies--from newspapers to yellow pages and other media, like ValPak--didn't understand our business. From odd gaffes due to unfamiliarity with our products and services (I received one proof for a Christmas ad that offered special pricing on "Metro Gnomes". Certainly a collectible series of Urban Elf figurines...) to a complete disconnect with the way we wanted to present ourselves (one ad rep pitched a "cheapest lessons in town" approach), it was obvious I had to do that myself. So early on I started designing any ad we placed (by the time we got  a PC and PageMaker, i submitted everything as camera ready art). I also wrote the articles that ran when we bought into any of those "place an ad, get a writeup" packages some small papers offered.

Of course, that opened the software thing as well. Learning PageMaker, Photoshop, Word, Excel, and Access--and later web design software--isn't a course I took. I sat down and cranked my way through the manuals and tutorials, read books and magazines, and figured it out. Not that I'm an expert at any of it. I learned what I could, and implemented as much as I could. I wish I'd had someone to explain it to me--it would have been easier and faster. But no one I knew had much background, and early on when I asked about databases and point-of-sale,supposed professionals just laughed at me.

So I did what I could myself, and usually had some fun with it.Were the results elegant? FAR from it. But they worked n some fashion, and we still rely on most of the paste-ups and McGuyvered solutions today.

On the merchandising front, my meager skills in carpentry and other tool-based activity allowed me to finish off studios, build displays, and do some electrical work we couldn't otherwise afford. Even down to the backdrop for the Front Porch stage, it's all been home grown. Sometimes there's been a helping hand at the brainstorming or assembly stage, but it's always been someone from the store that helped.. Yet every task I've tackled, someone has come up to me while I was doing it and asked, "Where did you learn to do that?" I'm astonished at the dads who saw me tiling the ADA bathroom who couldn't get over the fact that I didn't hire someone to do the work. With what money?

Repairs have been the same--I didn't train as a repairman, nor do I consider myself one. I just learned how to do a few things, and found I could rely on myself to do it faster, and often better, when it was something I was confident doing. Guitar setups, wind repairs, the little i do with violins--there are all people who are far more experienced and talented. I've just managed to do the easy stuff. But most of the stuff we see IS the easy stuff, and it's been more profitable and efficient to have me do it.

Thankfully, the biggest plus in my column is that I like making things, and can (given enough hands-on time and development think-time) manage to do OK with stuff. Far below the level of expert, only occasionally approaching "talented amateur", but adequate for the need and within budget--which is usually zero. Without that, we'd have no database, no website, no publications, no fixtures, far less revenue, and no Skyline Music.

The Opening Days...

One of the things I mention when talking about he first days of the store is the oddness of the timing. When I left the (now defunct) store that I worked at. I had already set the wheels in motion to open my own store. I had been fed up with the situation since August of 1986, and by the time October came in, I had consulted with my parents (who loaned the seed money), my wife Rhonda, and the one teacher who had encouraged me to open (Cheryl Fitiak). By the end of October, I had a vendor's license and had settled on our Dover Village location in Westlake. The shopping center's first building was under construction, and based on the completion date (and the amount of latitude my new landlord was willing to give me), we decided to open at the start of February. Not the easiest time to launch,  but with no expectations, it wasn't a worry. I really didn't think about the fact that I was opening on Groundhog Day...it became a running joke after the fact. (If I saw my shadow, I'd wait six more weeks before opening, etc.)

During November and through the Christmas season, I contacted suppliers with mixed results. Most suppliers didn't give me the time of day, and those that did made me jump through many more hoops than suppliers in the industry do today, where anyone with a web address and a credit card can be a dealer for some lines.

One of the first people I talked to who took me seriously was Fred Salvador at Harris Teller. Although he's set to retire at the end of 2011, at this writing I still talk to Fred and order every week from his company.

While I was lining up products, I was cranking down on the new computer I had purchased for the store: an Apple IIC (with classic green phosphor display) and the Imagewriter II dot matrix printer. Seriously, it was pretty cutting edge for the day. I used it to draft all the documents for the store, from lesson brochure to the first mailer, start the basic billing system, etc. Finished documents came from my uncle the printer at my dad's insistence. I guess my uncle owed him money, and this was the only way he thought he'd see it. It wasn't the best working relationship. It took a few years to free myself from it, but I found another printer for the mailer (eventually using Kinkos for the final year or two of publication).

All the while, I was anxiously waiting for the keys to my new store. Construction delays--and the holidays--meant that the January 1 completion date wasn't going to happen. I got the builder to let me start working in the unit while the frame up was going on, and I continued to spend time underfoot until the drywall crew finished. Even then, theunit didn't have locks, so about mid-January when merchandise started to arrive, I'd sit in the unheated unit until the UPS driver, Tom Fiebig, showed up with boxes. I'd load them into my van, since I couldn't keep them at the store.

But even as the building was finished, we had a problem. The electric company wouldn't schedule service until all the inspections were complete, and based on the construction delays, that meant electricity would be available...about the 10th.

So we worked with a propane bullet heater and a bunch of 100-watt bulbs hung from the rafters. The moisture from the heater condensed on the walls, cold from single-digit January temperatures...so much that one studio had the  paint wash off as the moisture ran down from freshly painted walls.

Once the furnace was in and gas hooked up, we got heat and work lights by running an extension cord from the old house that stood where Subway and Stay In Style are today. Every time the furnace blower kicked in, the lights would dim. By the time the drop ceiling was in, we had tiles lifted so work lights could drop through.

February 2 came, and we opened under rustic conditions. The first sale (a set of guitar strings and a pair of drumsticks) came on day 3 while still under temp power. Saturday the first lessons (3 piano students for Joyce Roman--Cheryl was scheduled to start in March) were taught under the same conditions. I'm sure Mary Eagleeye and her daughter Becky thought we were part of the Underground Railroad or something.

But we got power, and in the sparse traffic of the first few weeks I finished additional studios. Cheryl started in March, and that brought us 30+ students. The first drum lessons and some flute, clarinet and sax students trickled in, plus a cello student or two. By the time June hit, we celebrated our hundredth student...but that's another story.