Why

[Paul]

Wim
You are right. A client of mine is a banker in a small town, so he sees a
lot, and he says that most people he knows that are in business for
themselves either don't know how or are afraid to charge the prices they
need/deserve for their work. I raised my prices 20% across the board and NO
ONE complained. Some even told me my prices were "cheap."

Paul Chick
Plainview MN
----- Original Message -----
From: <Wimblees@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2000 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: Why


> In a message dated 1/26/00 8:25:58 AM !!!First Boot!!!, richardb@c2i.net
> writes:
>
> << Grin.  Because the tuning / technical community as a whole allows
>  continually themselves to find themselves in this situation. The power
>  to change this is and always has been in our hands.
>
>  Richard Brekne >>
>
>
> To take this one step further, I think there are a lot of technicians who
> undersell themselves. There is a mentality, (and I used to have it), that
> customers will not pay to have their pianos tuned and repaired. We as
> technicians are afraid to charge what we are really worth fearing
customers
> will say no. Then when one tech does charge the right amount for the work,
> other techs will yell "unfair"  "rip off" "gouger", Or customers will
> complain that one tech charges way more than another, wondering why that
is.
>
> I know it is against the law to talk about how much we charge. But there
is a
> way around that. And that is to discuss how to determine how much to
charge
> per hour for your work. I have a class on this subject, as does Vivian
> Brooks. It's actually quite simple. Add up your expenses, including a
salary
> for yourself, and divide by the number of hours you actually work. Don't
be
> surprised to find that figure to be in $60 - $75 range. Now if you are
> charging $75 for a tuning, but it takes you and hour and a half, you are
> actually making $50 per hour. If you need $75 per hour to make a living,
> you'll never make it.
>
> As Jon said, don't be afraid to raise your rates 30%. If you're worth it,
> people will use you, and pay what you charge.
>
> Wim
>