With an eye on musical business for fall and following our recent story on Smash of White Plains, Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal recently caught up with Paul Bessolo, whom Westfair editor Georgette Gouveia profiled in her September 2023 story, “Don’t Cry for Him, Argentina.”
Bessolo, who started playing guitar when he was 7 and piano when he was 10, arrived in the United States in 1992, eventually receiving his master’s degree in composition from Purchase College, going on to open his first music store and school, Rock Island Sound in Rye, in 2004.
Five years later, he opened a second store, in Tarrytown, offering, as the store’s banner proclaims, “lessons, retail, repair and rentals,” bringing high-quality musical instruments at reasonable prices to novices and professionals alike.
Now, ready for further expansion, and in common with increasing numbers of small business owners in our region, Bessolo has embraced the franchise model, figuring it is one that is highly compatible with his particular business needs.
As he told the Journal, “Because franchisees fund and operate their own schools, you can scale much faster.” Multiple locations, he said, can open at the same time across different regions. He explained that, by comparison, traditional “branch by branch” expansion was dependent entirely on your own available capital, management capacity and ability to hire and oversee staff, with growth necessarily slower and more limited.
Another feature that attracted Bessolo to the franchise model was that, as he put it, “franchisees tend to be locals who know their community, their schools and culture, meaning they can network with parents, students and organizations more effectively than an outsider.” Adding another branch, or branches, in the traditional way, “you’d need to build that knowledge from scratch, which takes time and resources,” he observed.
To launch the franchise operation and ensure its smooth-running, Bessolo has engaged the services of FMS Franchise, a major franchise consulting firm founded in Atlanta that offers marketing and sales support to its clients. In practical terms, the aim is to franchise both the school and the store under the Rock Island Sound name. Bessolo said he already has detailed curriculums for every instrument with lesson plans and practice routines, along with spreadsheets to track progress.
He hopes to open between three and six within a year and 12 in the second year. “From there, the sky’s the limit.” He added that he would also love to open franchises in his native country of Argentina.
Asked about the relationship between the original Rock Island Sound stores and the new franchises, and whether he could comment on any other long-term goals, Bessolo said his dream was “to provide a rewarding and enriching quality of life through the wonder of bringing music to our next generation.
“I want to live in a society where art is a central aspect of our lives.”
