Another Question

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 98-12-12 11:36:51 EST, you write:

<< In my Bluthner pedals post, I mentioned that the dealer had asked me
 about the possiblility of doing some store work. What he's looking for
 is someone who is competent to regulate, voice, etc. There's others who
 can do the floor tunings but he's had trouble finding someone good
 enough to work on the types of pianos he carries: Bluthner, Beckstein,
 Bosendorfer, Seiler, Petrof and a few others.
    Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to determine my fees in
 a situation like this? Percentage of my tuning fee? Hourly rate? Daily
 minimum if I spend the entire day? Other?
    I want to keep it low enough to ensure that he'll have me do the work
 (I think it'd be enjoyable) but high enough so he'll think of me as a
 professional technician and not a $15.00 a piano floor tuner.
    Any thoughts will be appreciated as this will probably be discussed
 sometime this coming week. Thanks.
 
 Avery
  >>


Ask yourself this question. During the time you spend on the floor working on
his pianos, how much can you make tuning for private customers. Although you
can probably get more consistant work from the dealer, you don't want to pass
up tuning customer who are willing to pay you full boat to work in his store.
When you have answered that question, ask the store owner this question. How
much is it worth to him to have you spend your time doing the prep work on
these pianos. If he gives you a figure that you are willing to accept, take
it. If he gives you a low ball figure, like $15 or $20 per hour, then tell him
you re not interested. Remember, you are selling something you have, and he
needs. You have the upper hand. 

To get specific, I did warentee tunings for a dealer once 10 years ago. I
asked him to give me the average selling price of all the pianos he sold over
the past 6 months. The average came out to be $2000 per piano. I told him I
would tune each piano for 1.5% of the selling price, or $30. Although the
majority of the pianos sold for $1200, he did sell a couple of pianos for $5 -
$10,000.  So for most of the pianos, I only got $21.60, but for the expensive
pianos, I did the same amount of work, and got paid $150. It all avaraged out
to $30 per piano. At the time I was charging $35 for a regular tuning, so I
was comfortable with the $30. 

Wim