[pianotech] the thread regarding number of tunings

[Isaac Sadigursky]

Marshall ! As you can learn from this post,"It takes 20 years to  
become an overnight success" .  See you in Vegas in June 2010..   isaac
On Oct 31, 2009, at 7:53 PM, Chuck Behm wrote:

> >So I apologize for my lenthly post, but I'm wondering am I missing  
> something, or is it simply a matter of "not being in the business"  
> long enough?  I sit here and think, man 8 tunings a day? If I could  
> tune that fast, my family would have everything they coud need and  
> want, bills would be paid and not piling up.  What am I missing?  -  
> Marshall<
>
> Marshall - I do believe it's simply the time factor. Unless you buy  
> an established business with all the contacts which come with it, or  
> you happen to set up shop in a area with plentiful pianos, but a  
> lack of technicians, it will take time to build up the customer base  
> where you can do 4 or more pianos a day each and every day. As I  
> mentioned, I tune up to 8 pianos a day at this point in my career,  
> but it certainly wasn't always that way. For years after I started  
> tuning, I would do a half dozen pianos or so a week. That's why I  
> had a day job teaching English - to provide a regular paycheck with  
> benefits. It wasn't until I had taught for 36 years, and could  
> retire with a stipend, that I felt ready to jump to full time piano  
> work.
>
> So hang in there, and keep doing your best work. Your customer base  
> will grow over time, and hopefully you'll a some point be turning  
> jobs away because you have too much work coming in to handle. In the  
> meantime, be open to finding other ways to bring in an income.  One  
> thing can lead to another, you'll find.
>
> Two hours to complete a tuning is not bad at all, either, at this  
> stage in your career. I still take a full hour to tune a piano, and  
> I'm in my 4th decade of tuning. It will speed up, but don't try to  
> hurry it. You want to give the customer a tuning they are happy  
> with, not just one that you make the most money for the least amount  
> of time. Chuck