Tally

[Farrell]

Interesting stuff. I wish my PTBiz had more report features that would make
tallying some of this easier. Here's my story:

Saw the inside of a piano for first time November 1997 (tuner came to tune
our new piano - PSO/POS?)
Recieved in mail Randy Potter course, January 3, 1998
Tuned first piano for pay, June 1998 (Baldwin Acrosonic - eeeeessssshhhhh!)
1998 pianos serviced:  88
1999 pianos serviced:  302
2000 pianos serviced:  311

You may ask, why such little increase from '99 to '00. Well, so do I
(although I think that will be increasing quite a bit because I am now
sending out reminder notices. BUT, as I am moving toward focusing on shop
work - actions, rebuilding, etc., I have spent much more time doing that. My
gross income has increased by 50% from 1999 to 2000, which reflects the
increased shop load. I have been able to sell a lot (for me) of action
work - mostly refurbishing junk so that it works. I have recently got my
nose into some performing venues and university work, so I hope to see
higher-end piano work increasing. Excluding any significant repairs my
service calls average just about exactly $100 each time I walk through
someone's door (tune, pitch raise, ease a key or two - my best estimate is
that this figure would not include any repairs of more than $50). Having
fist time clients making up a large percentage of my business, I do a lot of
pitch raising!

As I finished building my shop in October 1999, I had a lot of expenses that
year. My expenses were less in 2000, and I expect to see a continuing trend
of less expenses and increased gross income, which should mean, increased
net income!

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lillico, RPT" <staytuned@idirect.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2000 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Tally


> Clyde Hollinger wrote
>
> Now for the curious, here is how my gross income changed since I went
fulltime, and this is primarily from in-the-home/school/church tuning and
service.  I started fulltime in June 1992, so I am not comparing 1993 with
1992.  Each percentage is relative to the year before.
> >
> >1994, up 31%
> >1995, up 7%
> >1996, up 16%
> >1997, up 12%
> >1998, up 3%
> >1999, up 20%
> >2000, down 2%
> >
> >I am essentially at the place where I do not intend to increase the
amount of work I do in a year any more, so percentages are likely to be
smaller increases/decreases from here on out.  My rates go up a little each
year, this year 4.4%.
> >
> >Regards, Clyde
> >
> And I will share mine, too. I had started a comeback in tuning during my
last year of retail so I will use that year (1994) as a base.
>
> 1995, up 43%
> 1996, up 28%
> 1997, up 16%
> 1998, down 28%
> 1999, up 22%
> 2000, up 27%.
>
> In '96 and '97, somewhere between 20 and 30 per cent of my volume was
coming from one source, a major Toronto dealer. This  came to an abrubt end
in mid-'97, consequently the 1998 percentage was down. It must have had a
little bit to do with the economy, too, as Clyde's increase was only 3%.
> This is what I meant when I said I wanted to achieve a 17% increase in
2001 without additional dealer or institutional work. Right now
institutional stuff equals 10% of my total workload and that's as high as I
want it to go. It's just too easy for a large account to "drop the basket"
and break all my eggs.
>
> And Clyde, as for your Janssen and especially Jesse French, if I've ever
seen one, It must have been archived by now.
>
> John Lillico, RPT,
> Oakville, ON
>
>
>