We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle And Adam Daut. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle and Adam below.

Michelle and Adam, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission is simple, but holds a lot of meaning. We are here to support customers along their musical journey. It doesn’t matter where a customer may be, whether they are shopping for the first instrument, have been playing in a band, or coming back after a break, we are here to meet and help them where they are.

We strive to create an inclusive space where everyone feels welcomed, which makes our mission so important to us. We understand everyone starts at different points, everyone is coming from a different place, and everyone has their own path they’re on. Our mission expresses our passion and commitment to supporting all customers along their unique musical journey, and helps promote a space where customers know they will receive that support when they visit Mad Music.

Our in-store services also help our customers along their musical journey. We offer to show customers how to replace strings on a guitar, help support student learning with music lessons, and foster curiosity through the partnered instrument rental program. These services coupled with the retail side provide a place in the community where everyone can go for their musical needs – no matter where they are on their journey!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We’re Michelle and Adam Daut, and we own Mad Music in Chandler, Arizona! The way we got into the industry is by meeting at the music store we now own – we know crazy, right?! I (Adam) worked as a sales associate and guitar instructor at the music store. I (Michelle) worked as a desk assistant scheduling and coordinating the music lessons. While working at the music store, we became friends, started dating, and are now married owning that same business!

We’ve always shared an excitement and passion for music! We listen to music, attend concerts and local shows, and discover new bands together. It doesn’t matter how many shows or times we’ve seen a band, there is still that excitement and joy we get from attending live music. It is even better that we get to create those experiences together. The joy and passion we have for music has always been a motivator behind each of our dreams to own a music store. So, when the previous owner put the business up for sale, we jumped at the opportunity to finally own a music store!

We’re a full-line music store when it comes to the products and services we offer at Mad Music. On the retail side, customers can purchase a variety of accessories, supplies, books, and instruments. We have a wide selection of guitars, basses, drums, and ukuleles. We’re currently looking into carrying banjos and mandolins, which is very exciting!

We offer in-store services for students, families, and musicians in the community: music lessons, instrument repair, and instrument rentals. We offer music lessons for a variety of instruments and for students of all ages, backgrounds, and levels. We have a certified guitar technician on staff who happens to Michelle’s dad! His experience and skill set has really elevated our guitar repair service. We partner with a couple of local music stores to provide services, such as instrument rentals for students in band and orchestra class in school. With our resources and a local network, we can provide all these services under one roof; we’re kind of your ‘one-stop shop” for all things musical!

We are really proud of everything we have accomplished, but one accomplishment that stands out is our lesson program. We started our own lesson program earlier this year, and, in a short amount of time, we have been able to offer lessons for a variety of instruments during the week. We have hired knowledgeable and skilled instructors who can help students meet their music goals, whether it is preparing for an audition, show, supplemental learning, or starting a new hobby! We will continue with music lessons with the plan to offer more learning opportunities, such as group classes, workshops, or live events.

With the lesson program, we are able to drive home our mission of helping customers along their musical journey. In addition to assisting customers with their dreams of owning a guitar or drum kit, we can help them achieve their musical goals of playing that instrument as well!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Well, we would have to both agree that a time when we had to pivot was when we started our lesson program. When we purchased the business, a third-party managed the lesson program. When that model no longer worked, we had to pivot in order to continue to offer music lessons. We had to quickly find a classroom management system for our lesson program, draft policies and agreements, create and distribute marketing, and hire instructors. It has been a lot of work and we continue to learn as we go, but it has been the best decision for the business and for our customers, students, and families.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

Yes, as we mentioned earlier, we purchased the business we currently own and operate! In 2022, we purchased a local music store, East Valley Music Center, after the owner put the business up for sale. The process was new to us, but, fortunately, we had a lot of support. The process itself involved setting up meetings, drafting agreements, reviewing documents, but, eventually, we were able to agree to terms that benefited both parties. On August 15, 2022, the business was transferred over to us and, ta-da, Mad Music!

For anyone interested in purchasing a business, we do have a few tips to share that might help! We recommend doing the research, leverage resources, and reach out for support. The biggest tip, though, would have to be to ask questions – a lot of questions! For many people, including us, we were new to the process of purchasing and owning a business, so asking questions helped us to understand the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://madmusicaz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madmusicaz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madmusicaz
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mad-music/

Image Credits

Adam Daut
Claire Brown