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Hi Marshall,
I started in the business by taking over a client card file from a tuner
moving out of state. He had built his business up by running a
classified ad. He was a little unscrupulous, offering a $20 piano tuning
(back in 1980) that usually turned into a pitch raise for 3 times that
amount plus a call back. And he always tried to upsell with
repairs/regulation that may or may not have been needed. I think I ended
up with about 30 clients from a card file of several hundred.
Most of my client build up happened after I hooked up with one of the
local music stores. They had a regular tuner who was very good (way
better than me), but he was not real reliable. Plus, usually those kind
of good tuners don't like to mess with the floor tunings and prepping
the used trade-ins. Music stores pay a discounted rate for that work and
a good tuner may not want to "lose" money doing discounted work. So I
took over doing the floor tunings and prepping used pianos while the
other guy did the expensive new pianos and all the in home work. It was
great experience for me. I learned to tune in a noisy environment,
learned how to tune quickly and on a variety of pianos with a huge
variety of problems. Every time I ran across a new problem I learned how
to resolve it by studying Reblitz and calling a local mentor. I rarely
saw the other guy as he hardly came in the store.
After a couple of years the store started giving me the home tunings the
other guy didn't show up for (believe it or not, some tuners will
actually make appointments and then not show. Bad, bad, bad. But good
for me). Every complaint the store got was passed to me and I quickly
resolved every one. They loved me. They were so impressed that pretty
soon I was getting all of their work. Understand it is not that they
were impressed with my tuning skills, they were impressed by how I took
care of people. You see, a store like that mainly wants no complaints.
You don't have to have the tuning skills of David Love, David Anderson
or Dale Erwin (some of the greats on this list). You just have to know
how to comb your hair, show up on time, take care of people and do a
reasonably good job of caring for the piano. The other guy had long
scraggly hair and was a flaky musician. And we all know how those guys
are. ;-)
Every new client I got I took care of. I used a simple database program,
starting with SuperBase on a Commodore 64. Every month I printed out a
list of people due for a tuning and made phone calls to schedule. When
you get a new customer, take care of him. You are seeing how difficult
it is to get a new customer. Don't leave it to chance that he will
remember when his piano needs tuned and be able to find your number when
it does. Take care of him. Give him a reminder. Since then I now lean
more heavily on post cards and email reminders.
I have not found Yellow Page ads to be a good investment. In fact, if
you haven't set up a business telephone, don't do it. Just use your home
phone and your name for your business. A Yellow Page listing requires a
business phone line which will cost you about twice as much per month. I
have done the enormously expensive display ads in the Yellow Pages. They
didn't generate any more new customers than the simple listing, and the
simple listing generates very few. I've finally convinced the other area
tuners of this and none of them do display ads anymore. Most of my new
clients now come from referral. I no longer work for any music store.
Old customers that I haven't heard from frequently look me up in the
White Pages. How do I know? They call me at home, not the office. Yellow
Pages are not a good value. Even though every piece of mail I send my
customers and every email they get contains the office number and my
cell number, often when they are ready to schedule they look me up in
the White Pages and call my house. Don't waste money on Yellow Pages.
I do know a couple of tuners that lived on well traveled roads who
generated a fair amount of new contacts by having a small yard sign out
front with a simple message: Name, "Piano Tuning" followed by a phone
number. I haven't tried such an approach but have been intrigued by it.
I do know someone with frontage on US 41 and have thought of putting up
a small billboard on the corner of their property. I am convinced it
would do well for me or someone in our business, but I haven't done it
(I guess I'm not hungry enough). Perhaps if you know of someone with
property frontage on a busy highway you should explore such an
arrangement. Get an easy to remember web site (mine is
www.pianorebuilders.com <http://www.pianorebuilders.com/> . Go to
www.godaddy.com <http://www.godaddy.com/> to find a domain name and
register it cheap) or a vanity phone number so that when people drive by
they don't have to write anything down, they will remember it. For a
vanity phone number check out www.tollfreenumbers.com
<http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/> ( (888)Dalerwin and (877)Dalerwin are
both available. Dale are you out there? ;-) I am in the process of
securing (888)DeanMay! I'm so happy.) As an aside, I also found
www.globalfiber.net <http://www.globalfiber.net/> which has the lowest
long distance rates I've ever seen.
Direct mail to my customer base is working very well for me as a tool to
remind people their piano needs tuned. I have not tried direct mail to
targeted prospects. But I have thought that such a piece might work
well. One of these days I am going to try hitting all the churches with
a post card. You might also try mailing the schools even though I don't
much like tuning for schools. Teachers tend to be snobbish, it is
difficult to work around classroom schedules and it takes forever to get
paid. However there are a few schools I take care of that don't have
those problems. Another possibility for a mail piece is to piano
teachers, but they can be pretty snobbish, too, especially to an
inexperienced tech. Just don't tell them your level of experience. ;-)
For mailing addresses you can use direct mail companies that specialize
in giving you targeted addresses. They aren't too expensive. Or you can
use internet Yellow Pages which I have done for a brother in the carpet
cleaning business. I got him a mailing database of nearly 600 apartment
complexes in Indy. A mailing a month to these complexes has generated a
huge increase in his business. Direct mail works and it is cheap. BTW,
we got a color laser printer (pretty cheap now) and noticed a dramatic
difference with a color mailing over black and white. Be sure to include
a good color picture of yourself. We buy card stock from Sam's (cheap)
that is 8.5x11. You can do 4 post card size on a sheet or 2 5.5x8.5
cards which take a letter rate stamp. We have found the bigger size to
be worth the difference in cost. Just run them through the laser printer
doing 2 to a page (use mail merge to put the addresses on at the same
time) and then take them to a print shop to have them cut. This is also,
btw, a great way to do a small run of color business cards (mine is
attached). If anyone wants a sample of what we do for the postcard
mailers, email me privately and I'll send you the files.
I suspect your most rewarding efforts will be to try to find a couple of
music stores that will let you prep their incoming low end trade ins.
Their regular tuner hates working on them, I guarantee it, but will
probably be happy to give you advice on repairing the different problems
they have. This will give you great experience working on lots of
different kinds of pianos with lots of different kinds of problems and
should pay you around $20-$30/hour. After awhile you may find the store
giving you some in home referrals the other guy doesn't want to mess
with. Niiice.
Terre Haute (tare-a hoe-t) is a population of around 120,000. Lots
smaller than South Bend.
Blessings,
Dean
Dean May cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN 47802
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotune05 [mailto:pianotune05@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 10:21 PM
To: deanmay@pianorebuilders.com; Pianotech
Subject: Re: Separate business/personal accounts?
Hi Dean,
Thanks for the tip. The account is a personal one that I use exclusivly
for tuning, and I agree the bank charges for the business types of
accounts. My wife has a DBA for her cleaning business.
You're in Indiana too I see. Is Terre Haute any larger than South Bend?
What is a good way to market this business if South Bend has at least 8
other tuners, only one music store? I'm just getting in to this, and
I'm having trouble breaking in through the"we already have a tuner
nonsense.
Marshall
----- Original Message -----
From: Dean <mailto:deanmay@pianorebuilders.com> May
To: 'Pianotech' <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 9:52 PM
Subject: RE: Separate business/personal accounts?
Marshall,
It does not have to be a business account. In fact, this is usually not
desirable as banks tend to tack on all kinds of extra charges to
business accounts. Just make sure all checks are made out to you
personally and there will be no problem depositing them into a
"personal" account. If the checks are made out to a business name, like
Marshall's Piano Service, the bank can balk at depositing them into an
account that does not have that as a DBA.
But as far as the IRS is concerned the main thing is that it be a
separate account, not that it be called business account, just that it
be an account used exclusively for business.
Dean
Dean May cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN 47802
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of pianotune05
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 9:39 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Separate business/personal accounts?
Hi everyone.
I have a seperate account, but it's not a business account. Would a DBA
account work as I get busier? Speaking of busy, any ideas on
advertising? I'm not in the financial place to advertise plus we have
at least 8 tuners in South Bend that I've either met or heard of. We
may have more in South Bend and the surounding area.
I like the word mingling. That's how I met my wife. :)
Marshall
----- Original Message -----
From: william ballard <mailto:yardbird@vermontel.net>
To: Pianotech <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Separate business/personal accounts?
On Jan 3, 2006, at 2:14 PM, Andrew and Rebeca Anderson wrote:
Co-mingling is what the tax-"services" call it. Opening a second
account in the same bank usually works well. Sometimes they allow you
to make electronic draws to your personal account but using a cheque is
better for record-keeping.
Let's not overlook having separate business checking and savings
accounts, so that when you get a deposit on labor yet to be performed or
invoices for materials yet to arrive, that deposit can sit in the
savings account and not get dissolved in the daily ebb&flow flow in the
checking account.
Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.
"I go, two plus like, three is pretty much totally five. Whatever"
...........The new math
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