Today we’d like to introduce you to Jiyoung Johnston who calls herself an accidental entrepreneur. Native of South Korea, she never imagined herself owning a successful music academy in Texas. Here’s her story.
Jiyoung, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born and raised in Kwang-Ju, South Korea, I never imagine myself growing up and owning a music academy in Flower Mound, TX. My musical training in classical piano started when I was five so that I could become a concert pianist someday. I was very fortunate to have some of the best teachers in Korea and graduated from the nation’s best college, Seoul National University as a music major. By the time I graduated from university, an opportunity presented itself that I could go to graduate school at the University of North Texas to study jazz. This wasn’t an easy switch because the two musical disciplines are so different in their approach to music but I was determined that I would be a swimmer, not a sinker. Did I mention that I barely spoke English at that time?
Luckily, I met the love of my life, Noel, at UNT who patiently listened to my broken English and helped me through the toughest times during graduate school. Once finished with the degree, I was performing at various venues, while teaching at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch. Unfortunately, after two years of working there, they didn’t renew my contract to give me a full-time professorship and I was heart-broken. So, out of necessity but very reluctantly, I had to find a job and this is where my journey of being an accidental entrepreneur began!
One day, after a lunch date with my husband, we decided to walk around the shopping center, trying to figure out what I need to do next to make a living and viola! There it was! The magnificent looking facade of this space in a shopping center captured our attention. We peeked inside. It was vacant, old and abandoned for a while, also, it had a really ugly carpet! We looked at each other and thought, what if we can rent this place and start a business? At that time, my husband was commenting hours and hours every day to teach at different colleges as an adjunct faculty and it was starting to wear him down. Also, we were getting inquiries about private lessons. So, we thought, what if we have a hub that we and our musician friends can come and teach? We had no business degree, no knowledge about how businesses work but out of desperation and hope to provide a college fund for our future kids someday, Lone Star Music Academy was born!
Things weren’t going smoothly at the beginning. I felt like everyone was in opposition to what we wanted to do. Our first realtor thought that we were crazy for wanting a 2200 SF facility, instead of a small office suite. Once we secured another realtor, the landlord didn’t want a music academy because the noise would bother other neighboring businesses. But, we didn’t want to give up at that point so we pushed forward. We were able to finally persuade the landlord, with a promise that we’d sound-proof our facility to the max that no other business will be bothered. Finally, the date was set for our grand opening on August 2007 and one by one, families start to walk into our academy. They liked our lessons. They liked our convenient location and our friendly customer service. I worked day in, day out, every day. I didn’t get a day off until I gave birth to my first child in September the following year. At that point, we already had broken even and it seemed like Lone Star was going to float. We grew so fast, we outgrew our 2200 SF facility within the next two to three years.
After five years of renting the space, in 2011, we were able to move our academy to a stand-alone building, something that we can call us forever home. Fast forward eight years, we’re now a music academy with nearly 30 teachers and staff, teaching nearly 450 students every week. We love teaching students of all ages and levels with different musical backgrounds and we pour out our passion for music to our students so that they can also enjoy playing music and experience the joy of learning music at a level that they had never reached before.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’d say it has been relatively smooth (I’m an optimist) although we had several bumps along the way. The first one that caught us off guard was a tax audit which was triggered by a jealous competitor. We couldn’t believe someone would do such a malicious thing. Fortunately, we kept our books nicely so it was all good after all but it was a very long, unnecessary process that I wish no business owner would have to go through.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business is called Lone Star Music Academy and it’s located in Flower Mound, TX. We provide private music lessons to students of all ages and levels and we’re known for the high caliber of instructors coupled with impeccable customer service. Our young students have grown with us not just physically but musically as well so, nowadays after 13 years of teaching, we have many students who participate in various competitions at local, national and international levels and they come back with trophies and medals, many with 1st prizes. I’m very proud of their accomplishments and I can’t thank our wonderful instructors enough for their fantastic work. They are individually very successful musicians on their own and love to share their expertise with the students they teach.
Along with the high caliber of our instructors, what sets Lone Star Music Academy apart from others is our customer service from our wonderful staff who have genuinely caring hearts for the families that come to us. My team does an outstanding job to listen to what every family needs and tries to find the best teacher and service that will match what they look for. I have very high expectations for our instructors, students and staff and they have done well over the last 13 years and I’m very proud of them and what they have done.
Pricing:
- 30min private lesson (any instrument) $145/month, 45min $217.50/month, 60min $290/month
- we offer 30min private trial lessons, only $18.13 (50% off regular price)
- additional family members receive $10/month discount every month when enrolled
Contact Info:
- Address: 2021 Morriss Road Suite 100
Flower Mound TX 75028 - Website: www.LoneStarMusicAcademy.com
- Phone: 972-691-3311
- Email: info@LoneStarMusicAcademy.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lonestarmusicacademy/
Image Credit:
Erick Johnson
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