MoonAmie Productions – Business Makeover
On October 9, Jane Muir, Yuliya LaRoe and Luis Zuniga, visited MoonAmie, a dance and fine arts school recently founded by Tara Allen and Monica Rosell to coach the young entrepreneurs for a Miami Herald “Business Makeover,” a feature in the newspaper’s “Business Monday” section. The three coaches are counselors certified by SCORE, a non-profit entity that is associated with the Small Business Administration, and provides education and mentoring for entrepreneurs. Muir is a SCORE certified mentor, and teaches a course for SCORE regularly called “Meeting Legal Requirements for your Business.”
Muir was selected to assist with the Business Makeover of MoonAmie because she has experience in the fine arts, studying ballet at the Martha Mahr School of Ballet in Coral Gables, musical theater at the Miracle Theater with Earl Maulding’s “Musical Miracles,” and even gaining admission to the highly competitive New World School for the Performing Arts for Musical Theater. Instead, she ended up attending a private school in Connecticut, where she studied formal operatic vocal music with Ruth Lansche, a former soprano with the Metropolitan Opera, fronted a jazz band, and acted in several play productions. Because of her experiences as a student of the fine arts, she hoped to provide unique perspective that might help MoonAmie Productions learn how to best serve their students as a business.
The counselors toured the new facility, and learned about the founders and their operations. They made several general recommendations. Specific to legal issues, Muir recommended formalizing their dispute resolution procedure to help in the event of a deadlock between them, since they had no partnership agreement. Even if they were to sign an agreement to let a flip of a coin decide a question that they could not agree on, that would be better than having no agreement. Muir also recommended taking the policies and code of conduct the studio used with their students and converting it to a more enforceable legal document, while being sure to keep the tone of the document friendly and clear. She told them that, “Having a waiting list of students who are interested is great, because if someone fails to meet your expectations you have someone waiting to take their place, but there are other ways that you can manage your clients so that their failure to perform will not cause you to incur costs.” Finally, regarding employees, the founders shared that they had two interns, to whom they have extended a work-study scholarship. The interns assist at the studio, and they receive instruction in return. Muir recommended paying the interns and receive a discounted payment for their lessons because it is not permissible to have interns who are not paid in a for-profit business.
For more information on the liabilities of unpaid interns click HERE
For the complete article click HERE
For SCORE seminar schedules in Miami-Dade, visit miamidade score org
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