Playing and teaching music has been a passion for Emilee-Mae Feely since she was young but it was a different kind of passion that motivated her to start her own mobile music school.
“It sounds terrible but I was trying to get an income source that would let me visit an ex-boyfriend out of the city,” said Feely. “I wanted something to pay for my gas. I figured I’d just pick up some clients and have a reason to go there on a weekly basis, make a little job for myself.”
The business idea she came up with, The Feely Piano School, was modelled after another popular service.
“We like to classify ourselves as the Uber of piano lessons,” said Feely. “We provide music lessons, piano lessons specifically, in the homes of our clients. We have an online scheduling platform. You book a lesson online and we coordinate the logistics for a teacher to come to your house.”
What started as a means to an end has developed into an ongoing and growing enterprise.
“I was getting a means to get to him and also to get to my family, then to get back to school,” she said. “Four years down the road we are in 11 cities.”
Feely grew up in Brantford, the only daughter of two children born to Patrick and Denise Feely.
“My dad is a musician as well,” said Feely. “He plays classical guitar so I get most of it from him. He runs the Brantford Guitar Society and owns a business in Brantford teaching lessons. He works at McMaster and Western for music and is doing his PhD right now.”
Her mother isn’t a musician but she plays her part in the Feely composition.
“Her joke is that she plays the radio,” said Feely. “I just hired her as admin for my business so she does support. She has been very good actually – taking a load off.”
Mixing music, fun and business has been a working formula for Feely.
“I have always been a little side-hobby entrepreneur playing at events when I was young,” she said. “I had a newspaper route. I collected beer bottles at one point and other little things here and there to keep busy. Anything that was fun I’d try to make money off it somehow.”
Advancing in music was always part of her entrepreneurial aspirations.
“The Royal Conservatory of Music had a pre-college program and so I would go to high school and then study at that program Friday nights and Saturdays,” she said. “Piano is my specialty.”
After high school she earned a degree in music from the University of Toronto. She continued to play piano for weddings and other events and began teaching in 2008. She launched The Feely Piano School in September 2014
“I am currently studying at U of T Mississauga and at Sheridan College in two different entrepreneur programs,” she said. “Through those programs I get mentorship as an entrepreneur while I run my business. I am trying to do it all.”
Feely really has been trying to do it all but she knows that will have to change if she wants the business to continue growing.
“Right now I am the sole entrepreneur so it’s my own business and I do everything,” said Feely. “We are looking for a co-founder to develop the software that would logistically coordinate all the moving parts so we don’t have to.”
There are 10 Feely Piano School studios in southern Ontario and one in Halifax but she has big plans for the future.
“In five years I would like to see it across Canada in every province and we are on our way there,” she said. “I would also like to develop a music education application for students to communicate with their teachers ongoing throughout the week. That is also in the development phase which is why I am affiliated with some of the university programs.”
She no longer allows hopes for lost love to influence her business decisions.
“I have done other interviews but I have never told my ex-boyfriend about this,” she said. “I don’t love him anymore. Too bad the love didn’t sustain but the business did.”