Company name and address

Marion Music Academy
940 8th Ave,
Marion, IA 52302

Brief Description of My Business

We teach individual music lessons for piano, voice, violin, viola, cello, guitar, oboe, saxophone, clarinet, flute, trombone, trumpet, euphonium and drums to students of all ages and ability levels. Our music teachers all have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in music with teaching experience in the instruments they teach. We also offer dances classes in ballet, tap, jazz, modern, lyrical, hip-hop, and creative movement classes for students of all ages and abilities. We strive for excellence in our teaching and customer service for our students and parents.

Description of the nature of Iowa Microloan financing you were provided and/or technical assistance received and the importance of this assistance for your business.

We received $25,900 in funding for a digital sign for the Marion Music Academy for marketing purposes and student retention. We use it to advertise our services to the public as we are located on a high traffic street and also as an additional form of communication with existing students. The other portion of the funding went for rebuilding three Steinway uprights so we have top notch instruments to teach on. These three pianos were restrung and had all new action parts installed making them excellent pianos. We also used a small portion of the monies to purchase large TVs to run power point presentations and hung them in the window as another form of advertising.

Would you recommend Iowa MicroLoan to other small business entrepreneurs, particularly women, minorities, and/or persons with disabilities? If so please explain why?

Yes. While the application process was quite detailed, we appreciate the fact that we meet with a member of the Iowa MicroLoan each quarter to ask questions and get feedback about our business as well as how businesses in general are doing. We also appreciate the technical grant we receive which we used this year to purchase Adobe products to assist us in producing more professional looking marketing materials.