June's in tune with the rest of the world (From Gazette & Herald)

June's in tune with the rest of the world

"YOU can run a mail order business from just about anywhere so long as you have a good postman."

So speaks June Emerson, and she should know.

Her business, June Emerson Wind Music, distributes between 100 and 200 orders of sheet music around the globe every day from an office attached to her home near Ampleforth.

It all began, of course, with June's love of music. She was a musician and primary school teacher, and when she had children and was 'confined to barracks' she wanted something she could do at home.

"At that time, during the 1970s, there was a surge of wind music being taught in schools, and the music shops were unable to keep up, with little on offer," she said.

June, who at that time lived in St Albans, started supplying people in the local area and it spiralled from there.

"The difference between us and a music shop is that we try to keep pretty much everything in stock rather than say we'll order it in. We have 30,000 titles available," she said.

"If people need things in a hurry we can supply it - and musicians usually leave things till the last minute."

Music has shaped the business which has built up around it.

There is a strong sense of co-operation - staff will do anything for a customer - and no sense of competition.

The bustling, jolly office has a staff of 12.

They live locally - stretching to the boundaries of Scarborough and Easingwold, but June says there are different people working different days.

"It's nice because there is a slightly different team every day, so you get different jokes. Fridays are very rude!"

This year, June's daughter Rachel is coming into partnership with her. "It's very exciting," said June.

"She has decided she wants to continue the family business and it means I will be able to semi-retire, although I won't be completely taking my hands off just yet."

There is no doubt that this is a successful business, expanding all the time and keeping up with constant demand, and it has never had to advertise.

"People hear about us through word of mouth, and since music is a universal language, there are no barriers world-wide," said June.

In fact, they sell more in Iceland than in Yorkshire. "There is a very good music shop in York - Banks of York - and also a good one in Leeds. Iceland is a very cultured country but there is only one music shop which struggles to keep up."

As well as June's mail order business - June Emerson Wind Music - there is also a publishing business, Emerson Edition, under which around 500 titles have been published.

About 100 composers have written for them. Some of them are on the syllabus for the national music examinations in this country and in other countries.

To June, it is clear that publishing good music and providing the best possible service, means success.

"Some people measure success by money. We're very happy not pushing it to be bigger, just letting it grow the way it wants to," she said.

"I am totally against management speak and the way businesses are pushed to behave," she said.

She believes that if you want a business to succeed, you should just do it very well.

On this, she agrees with the thinking of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (no relation), who said: "Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door."

So if someone asks the business to do something really unusual - say to take a piece of music to them so that they have it in time - they will do it even if it means making a loss, because that means doing the job well.

Updated: 11:22 Wednesday, June 08, 2005