Hi Marshall, Hang in there. It is tough getting started, especially with one out of ten people being unemployed and probably another 5% to 10% being underemployed. If people have to choose between the groceries or a piano that sounds out of tune,... well, you know which one wins. Also, this is the middle of August. In a lot of places, school hasn't stared yet and people are still in "summer vacation" mode even if they're not actually traveling. But school will start again and the piano lessons will, too. (My mom never let me take summers off from piano lessons.) And business should be picking up as we head into the holiday season as there will be school and church programs aplenty. It is frustrating that people don't answer their phones, don't return phone calls, don't reply to mailings, don't want to reschedule, don't want to commit... etc. It's a tendency of society in general and I'm not sure there is a good solution. I don't know if it would be a possible help for you, but might there be some piano stores in a close enough distance to you that you could pick up some work for? I know floor tunings don't pay anywhere near what in home tunings do (at least they never did when I was doing them), but even if it would only a fraction of what you'd make with your own tunings, at least it would be money coming in. I can't remember what I got for floor tunings in years gone by, but it was probably not more than about $15. Then again, if you can do 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or more of them in one day and in one place, it's still more than you'd make at a lot of regular jobs you could be working at. Just some thoughts. Best of luck. I do hope things improve for you as I know you're trying. Take care, Brian From: pianotune05 at hotmail.com To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:25:41 -0400 Subject: [pianotech] repeat business Hi Everyone, Does anyone here have the trouble of getting people to reschedule for their 6 month tunings? I've been told I do quality work. Maybe I feel it more because I haven't been in business as long as someone who might have 300 customers and 30 of theirs don't return calls or reschedule. do you guys run into things like people not returning calls, moving etc? I'm finding this to be rediculous. Marshall Marshall Gisondi Piano Technician Marshall's Piano Service pianotune05 at hotmail.com 215-510-9400 www.phillytuner.com Graduate of The School of Piano Technology for the Blind www.pianotuningschool.org Vancouver, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100817/d04d6b62/attachment.htm>
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