We recently connected with Brooke Schrager and have shared our conversation below.

Brooke, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

When I started Lessons By Brooke (there was no “& Company” at the time) in 2016, I thought it would be myself teaching 30-40 piano and voice students across the Chicagoland area. I started with 10 students, and that quickly grew to 20, 25, 30, 35 etc. At one point, there were more students on my waiting list than I was actively teaching, and I was truly not sure what to do! It was a great “problem” to have, and after many sleepless nights trying to figure out some solution to get all of these students into private music lessons, I decided to reach out to a friend and fellow Elmhurst College student/graduate, Marissa McLean. I shared with her that I had started teaching in-home private lessons, and that I was at my capacity for the number of students I personally could teach each week. I asked her if she would be interested in teaching private lessons as a contractor of Lessons By Brooke where she could focus 100% on the teaching, and I would take care of the “business aspects” of the lessons. She was such a trooper and went through many iterations of contracts, scheduling systems, planning our first recital etc. I was fortunate to connect with friends and family members that were lawyers, accountants and insurance agents so I could make sure we were building something in the best, most legal and kosher way possible.

Marissa was soon at her capacity and I was grateful to connect with another friend and Elmhurst alum, Erin Rogers! From there, we have continued to grow in so many ways. I hired anyone I could to fulfill our student’s needs across the Chicagoland area and we were able to expand across the city of Chicago as well as just about any surrounding suburb. We now have 23 teachers and teach over 300 lessons each week. I take care of the studio management aspect of things so the instructors can focus their attention on giving our students the best music education possible. We’ve also brought on a Director of Creative Operations to help with things like social media, events, performances, workshops, etc. Our expansion has also included branching out from just voice and piano lessons to cover guitar, ukulele, bass, violin, viola, music production and more!

Brooke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I went to college and obtained a degree in K-12 Music Education with a focus on Vocal Performance. I taught Chorus and General Music in District 54 here in Illinois for two years and decided to purse private lessons as my main focus from there. I was fortunate enough to have many opportunities to teach private lessons throughout college, and I myself took private voice and piano lessons growing up.

We teach our students in their homes, eliminating the need to travel to one more activity during the week. Teaching our students in their homes allows us to truly become a part of their family. We know their siblings, their pets, what their home instrument(s) look and feel like. It is a really special experience to be able to connect on so many levels through this beautiful thing called music!

I am the most proud of how well we take care of our instructors and their students. We see every teacher and musician as a whole person and we are able to connect through music, but it is so much more than just the notes on the page, the performances, awards, auditions, etc. We pride ourselves in providing the best, most holistic music education there is to offer, and we do so in a way that makes music lessons accessible to all. We believe music is for everyone, and we will go above and beyond for any teacher, student or their families to ensure everyone has what they need to succeed.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We all had to pivot in 2020 when the COVID19 pandemic came to light. At that time, we had about 20 teachers and 200 students seeing each other in person on a weekly basis. That all quickly came to halt on March 15, 2020 when the Chicagoland area went into lockdown. I personally called each of our teachers and made sure they were comfortable doing the unthinkable (at the time) – teaching all of their students virtually for the next few weeks while we saw how things went with this new virus. I emailed all of our students and their parents/families after those phone calls with instructions on how to download Zoom and what to expect from their first virtual lesson. From there, we had no clue that lessons would remain virtual for the next 15 months. We were so excited to bring back in person lessons in June of 2021, but we will never forget the lessons that those 15 months of virtual lessons taught us, and it is our goal to utilize everything we learned to provide the best possible music education for all.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I was very lucky that teaching private lessons in student’s homes is a low cost business to start. I had been working in the public school system and was lucky to have savings to help those first few months. I had some generous support (both financial and emotional, haha!) from my parents, who both own their own businesses, and I was extremely lucky to have a supportive boyfriend (at the time – now he is my husband!). I worked my public school job for the first ~6 months that Lessons By Brooke & Company was in existence in order to ensure I had enough money to survive. Everything I made from January 2016-June 2016 was saved and/or went into things like insurance, business cards, and anything else I needed to make sure I was starting on the right foot.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lessonsbybrooke.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lessonsbybrookeandco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lessonsbybrooke
• Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/lessonsbybrookeandco/