Stein,
My background is starting a small music store/school operation with limited funds. I held the business for 15 years before selling it. At that time we had over 400 students and 13 teachers.

1-Major companies are not interest in building your new business. They are interested in building their own business and protecting the dealers who are established.

2-You have a mind set on how you wish to start. I feel you must go with what has been given to you, within that you will find your growth and profit.

3-Used instrument are a good way to go – better margin of prophet and fairly easy to come by.

4-Adding music lesson will give you a supply of prospective buyers. There are programs which you can tie the lessons and instrument sale together.

5-When the profits come in you will be in a better position to deal with the Yamaha’s.

6-For a year or two I had to buy from an established dealer at a special price which left enough room for me to make my profit. My business started to produce enough dollars so that I could buy in volume, get special discounts and buy direct.

7-The business began to flourish when I learned what the people wanted, work with what I had and allowed some of my ideas to be put on the shelf.

I hope this helps, John C.