I am never glad to see a Minnesota based business fail, but so glad to hear these stories about South of the River Music/Music at your doorstep. I had applied with the office about 2 years ago for what seemed like a great position. They all seemed friendly and knowledgeable... Except for one guy. Dwight Harrison. I came at a pivotal time, when the company was starting to see some real money coming in, apparently had "Taken out" the biggest competition and wanted someone to help expand the company to "Chicago and possibly others". They wanted to reach out anywhere they could to find potential customers including setting up networking sites, door to door and visiting schools, etc. Having a music business degree, worked with some of the biggest names in MN, selling thousands of albums, as well as major record labels I felt this would be a little different job for me, but fun and challenging none the less. Dwight had me come in for an interview after reviewing my resume and cover letter. He was 20 minutes late but I didnt care much. Hes busy nowadays right? He seemed to really like me, offered me a good salary number along with a half thought out commission plan. He said to come in for a second interview to meet with the other co founder. I thought great! I come in, Angela (Who was very sweet and I have nothing bad to say about) was waiting, but Dwight was 45 minutes late... This time I was like okay I still really want the job, but will have to deal with my boss' time issues. This interview went great again and towards the end, Dwight let the other woman leave so we could talk "Business". He quietly said that he no longer could give me the salary he had said before, but if I wanted the job I could have it. He said he felt bad but hadnt totally thought out this new position "They were creating just for me". The new number was lower indeed, but I kind of understood for a new company that was seeing money come in and wanted to expand all while making good financial decisions. Also the commission he promised seemed more thought out so I took the job... Or at least thats what I thought. He said he would give me a call soon to get things ready and find a start date. After not hearing from Dwight for a while, he finally got a hold of me through email stating that he thought we should get together to have an "Idea thinking session" and to come prepared with ALL of my ideas to help this business grow and grow BIG. AKA "3rd interview" or "Idea stealing session". At the time, I saw it as an official first day really getting my boss excited about having me on the team. I came with my A GAME and pages of OUTSTANDING tools and ideas to really make a mark in the midwest and possibly US. You should have seen the smile on Dwights face as he wrote notes during our hour and a half long meeting (after being 30 minutes late). He was very impressed. Now here is the punchline to this exhaustingly long joke... I got a a email very soon after stating that he was going to look at some other resumes, and that although I was the best candidate by far, he needed to drop that commission percentage down and he would want to have one more "Idea meeting" again before I could officially start. I said no thanks and good luck and never heard from him again. I was so angry. As far as I know, He used my ideas and SOTR Music grew. A little too big. They started having a lot of internal and money problems and ended up changing the name of the company as well as taking the founders names and contact info off of the web site. They closed their doors in April because of legal issues and now are trying to start up again! They are now in cities all over the US just as we planned on doing together. I am sure they will change the name once again at some point. Be Careful everyone! It was almost comforting to see all of the complaints on their business practices, only to know that i wasnt the only one targeted. I dont want any one else to be used in any way by them again. Dwight isnt passionate about music lessons at all, he is a businessman. He constantly bragged about how much money he was making and how he just started the company because it was a week business in MN at the time. Jeez.
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