209: Automating the Business Side of Music Ed with Eric Branner

A few links for you… then we’ll get to the good stuff… Jaime’s Instagram @jaimeslutzky The Expand Online Community Book a free call with Jaime http://callwithjaime.com Eric’s Instagram @getfons Fons on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/getfons/ The Fons Family on Facebook Try Fons Okay, let's do it. Eric is the CEO and founder of Fons.com –  a business software for anybody who does appointments type business, or client type business. He’s a music teacher and a classical guitar player. Where did his inspiration come from to create this software? He attributes it to a lot of the pain points that he was experiencing in his own music studio. Fons is designed to run the business side of any kind of client or appointment-based business types, and was initially built for music teachers and music schools. The hardest part for many music teachers is the business (aka money) side because of all the awkward conversations… Fons takes care of all the stuff that involves asking for money, automating payments, automating cancellation policies, etc. trying to make it as simple as possible for both the customer and the service provider alike. This ultimately allows the providers the time and energy to do more impactful work. Fons put you in an empowering position instead of a needy position. It also creates a professional relationship that makes it simpler for the parents, who are often the ones that are paying for music lessons – it’s an understanding of the terms of services and billing, which leads to a great client and provider experience. Eric also takes us through a bit of the user interface of Fons, including booking appointments, how that talks to billing, the agenda, video chat features, the marketplace, etc. There are some extremely incredible features with this software, and being that this was created by a music teacher, it’s multifaceted in a way that will set you up for success. The Fons Family Eric runs the vibrant Fons Family community on Facebook where people have connected from all over the country to help each other, share and test ideas. It’s a collaborative space where members aren’t afraid that someone is going to steal their idea or compete with them. And the reason for this supportive and encouraging space…? There are not enough music teachers in this (and every) country! You can carve your own space and do things in your own way, learn from others in the industry, get inspired, do things on your own, bounce things off of other people who are in a very similar vertical, but not necessarily doing exactly what you do. We have so many opportunities at our fingertips in the online space. Yet, we need to use the right tools for the task at hand… With Fons, if you’re offering a service in real time, whether it's one on one or it's a group, you can build that billing, reminder, and scheduling process within the software – which is ultimately what Fons is designed to do. Fons doesn’t try to do everything. It is a niche software tool that helps with scheduling and payments. It helps you run your studio with more efficiency than most other methods people are trying. This is a must listen, I have only provided you with a short snippet of what we talked about here in these show notes. Tell me, do you prefer long show notes or short ones? Message me on Instagram @jaimeslutzky and I’d love to know what you learned or are inspired to do now that you’re done listening to the episode and reading through these notes :) It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.