Misconceptions of Mass Production

QUESTION

Dear Joey, I am a music teacher who primarily teaches through live online video lessons. Recently, I’ve begun to explore new financial opportunities but have wrestled with the juxtaposition of profit versus quality.

In other words, I often feel like mass-produced things lack a certain degree of care or effectiveness in the name of reaching the most people. In my case, that would be creating online video courses rather than one-on-one student lessons.

Not sure if this is more of a mindset problem than anything else. Any thoughts?

—Chris G.

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ANSWER

Dear Chris, I am familiar with your hesitations. When we say something is “mass produced,” it almost always comes with a negative connotation. As you mentioned, the challenge here is altering your mindset.

Back when we started Baronfig, we first looked to create handmade notebooks. As it turned out, we could pull it off if we sold them for $32 each. I quickly squashed that idea. The reality is, very few people are going to buy a notebook at that price. Hell, I wouldn’t.

By mass producing our products, we’re able to buy materials in huge quantities, which lowers our costs, and therefore lowers the consumer’s cost. In addition, the defect rate plummets—the quality increases—because of how refined each step of the process is.

Here’s the current reality of your music lessons business:

• You have to be live with every student. Because you can only teach one student at a time, your lessons come at a premium. This is exclusionary: you have a limited number of slots and only those who can afford the high price are admitted.

• You teach the same concepts repeatedly. You’re spending most of your time teaching something you’ve already taught. In addition, some days you teach better than others, which means some students receive a lower quality product.

The same logic from my story applies to yours. Ask yourself:

• What if you could teach multiple students per hour?¹ Recording lessons allows (a) your revenue to increase, and (b) the price of your lessons to decrease. As a bonus, your students would be able to watch lessons again if they need a refresher.

• What if you could put your best foot forward with every lesson? Instead of rehashing the same content live, you could dedicate the majority of your time to recording phenomenal lessons to add to your library.

The goal is to create win-wins in business (and life, really). By recording lessons, you improve the experience for both you and your students. If you're concerned about losing the human touch, you can still be available two to three times a week during “studio hours” so students can pop in a video call and get clarification or ask questions.

In the end, this turns out not to be a profit vs. quality choice at all. Profit and quality both increase when you produce recorded music lessons rather than teach live. Best of luck with whichever route you choose.

—Joey

Notes:

1. To be clear on what I'm suggesting: You build a high-quality library of courses and lessons that students can subscribe to, with a lower monthly fee than the cost of four weekly live lessons.

The first mass produced prototype we approved for production. Summer 2013.

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