On 7/17/2012 10:45 PM, Duaine Hechler wrote: > 1) At least 95% of my profit goes back out in supplies. Anything you spend on supplies can't be considered "profit" in the first place. But if you're saying 95% of the money you collect from clients is going back into supplies, then something is wrong. Somewhere along the line, you made the same mistake that many technicians make: You set aside continued education in order to focus on working, with the notion that later on it will somehow be easier to bring education back into the routine. It's like saying, "I've got to get to my destination, so there's no time to change the oil, stop for gas, or check the tire pressure." And then you find yourself stuck on the side of the road, working on the pianos nobody else in your area wants to touch, and making no profit. Don't blame the PTG. Don't blame the pianos. Don't blame the clients. Don't blame the other technicians in your area. If you aren't where you want to be, there is only one person responsible for that. Continued education is critically important to the success of the piano technician. The PTG offers lots of great educational opportunities, but the National Convention & Technical Institute is the biggest B12 injection that you can get for your piano service career. It's not just the technical knowledge gained that makes it so worthwhile. The business classes, alone, can be life-changing. Just being able to spend a week socializing with some of the world's best and brightest technicians can positively impact the way you approach your own attitude and business methods. The Convention is also a retreat, where you can step back from the daily grind of running the business long enough to look at the big picture. This enables you to discover what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, and see yourself and your business in a new light. It's recharging your batteries for another year, to go back to work with an excitement over how you're going to apply everything to achieve a new level of excellence in your work and reach a higher income. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money. Some never go because they view the hotel, airfare and registration as simply too expensive. I view it as the best possible investment you can make in yourself and your business every year, with the highest returns. The regional conventions are fantastic, too. And it's silly to not attend chapter meetings, because the only cost is a little gasoline and one evening every month. > 6) Finally, as I have said my times before, the organization is geared > towards Grands - and - clients with lots of money to spend. That statement is complete Nonsense! In case anyone thinks there is truth to Duaine's negativity and excuses for not continuing his own education, note the following information: In Seattle we had five or six classes that you could say were specifically grand-oriented, but there is also a large demand for grand-oriented classes. In fact, most PTG members service both grands and uprights, and both are incredibly important to the work we do. This is why we also had four classes just for upright servicing: Voicing the Vertical Piano (Fred Sturm) Vertical Regulation - Max Results in Minimum Time (Kawai with Don Mannino) Vertical Regulation Plus (Hailun / Keith Bowman and Mike Carraher) Everything Upright (Paul Rea) And we had a stellar offering of classes that were not specific to grands or verticals, on topics such as: Business Health Tuning Refinishing Keytops ETDs Restringing Exam Prep And not to forget the dedicated crew of examiners who helped members achieve RPT or get much closer to doing so.
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