This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today, we hear from Chad Prekaski of School Street Music in Perth-Andover.

BACK IN 2015, MY POSITION WITH MY EMPLOYER WAS DISCONTINUED AND I BEGAN THE PROCESS OF LOOKING FOR EMPLOYMENT. DURING THIS TIME PERIOD, MY SISTER WAS VISITING AND SUGGESTED THAT I START UP A MUSIC STUDIO IN PERTH-ANDOVER AND TEACH GUITAR LESSONS.

It has been a long time since I worked in a music studio teaching lessons in fact it was back in 1993 when I first started. I was reluctant at first, I really didn’t think that it would take off, but she was convinced that it would be worth the effort.

We soon realized that there was no one else locally offering guitar lessons. Then teaching them in a studio environment accelerated the students’ progress and made the experience much more enjoyable. Also for myself, it was finding a lot of joy and satisfaction from seeing my students learn to enjoy music. It also made me see like never before how much potential young people have from the ages of 5-20 to learn and develop their abilities.

I’m so thankful my sister pointed me in this direction. Over the first year, our student enrolment went from three students a week to 20. At this point, I was not able to keep up with all the communication that was required to book and schedule so many students. This was where my amazing wife Kandace became an invaluable part of the business and without her, none of the success of the studio would have been achieved.

Last year it almost all came to a complete shutdown, but we pressed on and started up online lessons. The business limped along but we stayed determined and soon we started to see the online business pick up and we were soon teaching online lessons to students all across Canada from P.E.I. to British Columbia. We adapted the studio to slowly be able to welcome students back in, and we are now playing together like before.

Supporting local businesses has a real impact on the community. Local businesses are sustainable and accountable to their customers, and they make community life so much better.