School rental programs can be an important part of a music store’s business. Offering school rentals can help new customers discover your store as well as the products and services you offer. Schools or school districts can become vital partners to your music store business and to creating diverse revenue streams for your business.

Many shops provide innovative programs to help ease students into music education and build a lifelong love of playing music. Some music shops offer purchase or rental programs. In addition many also offer rent-to-own plans that may generate credit for trading up or exchanging instruments that may be a percentage or all of each payment. Some systems will transfer customer information and their rental credit (principal, down payment, and previously accrued credit) from the existing contract and apply it to a new contract.

Either way, thousands of new customers are introduced to a local music store through school music programs. And today there are some very helpful online systems that may be integrated right into your point of sale that can make the whole process much easier. Taking your school music program online will allow you to add a significant revenue source to your business and benefits of technology systems that have automated many of the challenges. 

What can it do for your music store?

One of the challenges any business has is the rollercoaster ride of cash flow coming into your business. When a business can better predict what revenue will be coming in, it makes it much easier to operate, plan, and grow your business. 

Recurring Revenue

Many businesses search for ways to add recurring revenue to their business model.The recurring revenue model enables your music store to provide your customers with products and services in exchange for a specific fee that is charged at regular intervals such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Subscription and membership-based businesses operate on the recurring revenue model. You can create a program that will generate revenue from rentals, maintenance plans, or service plans. Although some music stores may include some of these services as a full package. You can customize your plan to meet your market needs.

Repairs

Depending on your choice of how to serve your customers, you may provide repairs as a part of your rental fee. However, even if you do, often there will be repairs that may be beyond the terms of your agreement. These repairs may be due to accident or neglect and will mean there will be extra charges.

Accessories

From reeds to rosin, stands to sheet music, and strings to mutes. One thing is constant in the student music business. Regularly, They will need to purchase some sort of accessory. If you have these items available online and are maintaining a good relationship with your local music community, parents will be happy to purchase from your store.

Upgrades

Many rent-to-own programs are designed to get students to ownership in approximately 3-4 years. However, while student instruments are made to be durable, many students will want to upgrade their instrument as they begin to progress. Most music stores will have an upgrade or step-up policy in their online rental program. Even after students upgrade their instrument, your online rental system will help you track payment progress by setting up accounts in the point-of-sale system and customer portal.

Lessons

Your store may also choose to offer private lessons for progressing musicians. Housing a private lesson program in your store or managing remote private lessons can create opportunities for growth and additional connections to your market’s music community.

Clinics

In addition to private lessons you may also coordinate, plan, and host music educators to conduct visiting programs for sectionals and clinic support.

Who can help?

No matter what you choose to do. An online rental program can help create new revenue for your music store.

The one thing you can do to make it a successful addition to your music store business is to partner with the right vendors. From your instrument vendors to your online rental program software, you can find experts that are ready to help and set you up for success.

Music Shop 360’s point of sale online school rental features give school music dealers a robust, customizable platform for managing school instrument rentals directly through the Music Shop 360 POS system. 

How to get started with an online school rental program?

The Music Shop 360 point-of-sale online school rental system enables music retailers to easily build a complete program for renting instruments to individual schools or district lists. Retailers can organize the program to meet the needs of each school and help get instruments to students.

Education representatives can create unlimited instrument categories and subcategories with specific rental packages and various pricing options including rent-to-own and/or purchase. The easy-to-use interface enables retailers to filter and track rentals, review contracts and payment information, including contract auto-billing, and update rental inventory quickly and easily.

Music Shop 360 has worked with music store owners to build a system that meets your needs and helps streamline the rental process.

There was a time when education reps would schedule a rental night at a school and travel out there with a box full of paper contracts, but now that is not necessary. 

The process is completely done online. Music reps can bring a couple of laptops. Parents can fill out and submit the rental contract while you help find the right instrument for students. It could even be done at home beforehand. If you would like to, you can walk your customers through it. The parent can make the initial payment online and you never even have to handle the card.

Schools love it. Shops love it. Students love it.

If you would like to learn how to streamline your school rental program or get started with an online program, there is help. There are experts ready to help get music retailers ready to start signing contracts for the new school year. Just contact us if you would like to learn more about how to get started.