Sarma moved to Santa Fe three years ago. Her husband had retired from a career in retailing, and she was looking for a new challenge after leaving her position as vice president of an investment management firm in Boston. A flutist for more than 40 years, she found it odd that Santa Fe had no music shop of the kind she grew up with. The town’s two remaining mom-and-pop music stores had folded with the advent of big-box discounters, warehouse stores, and online shopping—a trend that has been repeated nationwide.

Three years later, Sarma’s Santa Fe Music & Piano has beat the retailing odds. The store turned a profit its first year, rang up nearly a million dollars in sales the second year, and projects sales growth this year of 25 percent. In addition to selling instruments and sheet music, the store and its Piano Annex offer repair, rentals, and instruction in violin, flute, guitar, piano, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and harp.

How was such success possible? Apparently the timing was right for a retailer to fill the gap in service felt by musicians who had bought their first reeds or strings at a superstore that also hawks CDs, cameras, or microwaveable meals. By catering to customers with an eye to long-term relationships, Sarma was able to capitalize on the strengths of the independent music store enough to best the razor-slim margins of her competition.

Beyond that, she cannot really formulate the personal factors that must have played a role in her popularity.

“I could say that, even as a kid, I had a dream that I would do big things,” she says. “So, even though I had a good job (in corporate management), it wasn’t as challenging, I have to say, as starting a business.”

The venture called on all her skills, Sarma adds—not only her corporate background, but also her music skills and her husband’s retail ing expertise. “You’re accessing all of your people skills, things you thought you would never use,” she says, with the characteristic enthusiasm she brings to working at the store.

“Of course, it’s a seven-day-a-week project, learning on the job every single day of the week, and it doesn’t end there.”

Sarma has bigger dreams still. She would like to see Santa Fe Music & Piano stores expand across the nation, and she has investors lined up to launch her franchise company in January, with stores open and selling by spring. Since she is initially offering franchise territories rather than individual stores, it’s not clear where these will be located, but Sarma likes the idea of keeping the brand identification with Santa Fe. “Just like Boston Chicken—because it’s got a cachet of the arts,” she says.

The entrepreneur acknowledges that her concept bucks contemporary retailing trends. These days, people buy musical instruments at Costco, Grandma’s, Guitar Store, or eBay, and many schools have slashed their music curriculum. But as a student of renowned flute player James Pappoutsakis, Sarma also knows that the passion for music is timeless. The trick is to target advertising to that specialty market, using her name to build personal relationships.

She still actively plays her instrument, too, filling in as fourth flutist at the Santa Fe Community Orchestra and in the flute choir established by Carol Redman of Santa Fe Pro Musica. But Sarma maintains that entrepreneurship has been the most satisfying challenge of her life, fulfilling a long-held dream.

“It didn’t always seem like it could be a reality, because as you get older you tend to become more staid and set in your ways,” she says. “Then it’s even harder to do something like start a business. So, I am proud of that.”