Who are Derosa Music Academy?
Jon Bliss is the owner and Managing Director of Derosa Music. In June 2015, he took an opportunity to buy a music academy called Derosa Music with a T/O of £250K. His past experience told him the Music Academy had huge potential. He Built a team of professionally qualified tutors and staff, that implemented state of the art automated cloud based systems to stream line the administration. Derosa Music started to see growth year on year. The foundation of the Music Academy stood firm throughout the pandemic due to the ability to flip systems to offer online lessons as well as face to face. They have now taught over 2 million minutes online.
Today the Derosa Music Academy provides lessons to 600 pupils weekly. The T/O this year will be £480K with a gross profit of £240K.
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Having studied music Jon also enjoyed an entrepreneurial spirit. In 1997 at the age of 22, he started working for a chain of stores called Make Music. Within a year he had setup an award winning educational sales division turning over £ 1million.
In 2002 at 27 years of age, he was the Managing Director with 7 stores and around 40 staff. He gained industry recognition having successfully negotiating a lease and opening a musical instrument store in Bluewater Shopping Center, one of the UK’s most prestigious shopping destinations. This was followed by an additional store in Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley. At this point he decided to own his own business and purchased a shop in Ware, Hertfordshire. This store was branded “Playsomething”.
His vision was to create a Music Hub, a Music community within the Ware town. Playsomething also had a Music Academy with around 100 pupils. Within 3 years Playsomething were teaching around 500 pupils a week including a peripatetic service within Primary and Secondary schools. The Music Academy had a fantastic reputation but Jon wanted it to have educational credibility. Jon renamed and rebranded the Music Academy to become Hertfordshire College of Music ( HCM ). HCM won contracts with local colleges to tutor around 300 16-18 year olds Level 2. 3 and 4 full time, fully funded qualifications.
For family reasons Jon decided to step back so he could care more for his two daughters. He bought a new venture called Derosa Music a Musical Instrument shop and Music Academy. Having gained a significant skill set in building a previous Music Academy as well as owning a college he put into place a school with robust systems to cope with growth and quality Music Education.
Derosa Music has become an integral part of the community and has helped many people on their musical journey. Music can be a form of therapy and this has been evident throughout the Music Academy. The Music Academy has helped countless individuals and families. Owning a Music Academy can be a privilege and asset to any local community.