I joined my local chamber of commerce over the summer, and have been going to networking meetings to promote the music studio where I work. For the first several months, I was very involved in our town’s farmers’ market, and the studio was extremely visible to the public because of it. Several teachers, students, and other musicians associated with the studio came to the market to play nearly every week during July, August, and September. However, now that the excitement has worn off, I am having trouble talking myself into going to the next networking expo. I know I’m going to have to introduce myself and the business I represent, and since I can’t really talk about the farmers’ market in the middle of winter, I’m struggling to come up with other ways that we can benefit the community and other businesses. I’m tired of merely repeating, “We can offer musicians to play for your weddings, luncheons, and other events.” So I ponder the following question as I prepare for the upcoming meeting: How can musicians and communities be mutually beneficial to one another? Here’s what I have come up with so far.
Kay’s Studio can help the community by:
Playing for community events – parades, banquets, fundraisers, farmers market
Bringing “fine arts” into the community through our concerts and educational programs
Performing at area nursing homes, community centers
Instilling discipline and a sense of accomplishment in the new generation
Helping homeschool families find each other through our homeschool music classes
Sending business to those with services that complement ours (think weddings – florists, bakeries, dress shops, etc.)
Getting the next generation involved in the community – passing the torch, so to speak.
Making use of the services of local businesses
The community can help Kay’s Studio by:
Referring us to paying customers – weddings, luncheons, events, restaurants, private students
Purchasing merchandise
Helping us become more visible in the community by allowing us to play for community events
I still feel like I’m missing something important. Do you all have any ideas?
Full Circle Homeschooling 
I know you mention events, but many businesses have events such as grand openings, intro of new Dr. to a clinic, anniversaries, etc., where they invite the public to snacks and conversation like a small party. In fact, the Chamber should be actively encouraging businesses in this way, especially the new businesses. Around here, they call it “hosting a COC tea” and although the Chamber helps with logistics, the business basically is getting footage in the newspaper by lining the COC behind a table of cookies, coffee, etc., and snapping a pic for the newspaper. It can get rather competitive if some businesses have live music, I am sure. 😉 Another thing I thought of is starting a service in which the musicians could be sent to a person’s home or work to play “Happy Birthday” to them, sort of like caroling, on their birthday. Also, we frequetn a restaurant that feature live music on weekends. The food is good, of course, but we really could go anywhere the food is good, but prefer the live music with our meal. You may have been imagining all those, above, but did not mention them, so I thought I’d just offer them as suggestions. Have fun. 🙂
Thank you, Katherine! I actually had not thought of any of these things, which is why I asked for help. I just knew there were more great ideas out there!