james allen bickerton wrote: > > While attempting to expand my young piano tuning business, I did what > I am sure a lot of you have done. I attempted to crack the lucrative > school system market. My question is, have any > of you experienced a similar situation, and how did you manage to "break > in" through the glass barrier? > JIM > Starving Piano Tech Jim, since we don't know the demographics of your town, I don't know for certian, but I would question your statement that the school system market is lucrative! A school system certainly has lots of pianos to tune, but in my area, there are several technicians willing to tune schools for about half price. (These tuners are not PTG members by the way.) If you really want to prospect the schools, find out the name of each school music teacher and visit her/him on an off period. The music teacher is the only one who cares if the piano is tuned right anyway. The administrators are often concerned with price, friendship and not making waves, you know, the easy way out. So now that you've cut your price and gotten a music teacher on your side, I'll never forget my first school tuning. A 40 year old Steinway M that had spent it's entire life with the abuse expected of a high school classroom with no maintenance other than annual tuning. The teacher was a doctoral candidate who really knew the keyboard. My work was scrutinized as closely as my college final tuning exam. I felt more pressure even than I did in school. . .at least I knew my college instructor. I still tune that piano and now, all the others in that district albeit at about 2/3 of what I normally charge. It will be interesting to read what experiences others on the list have had with schools. Regards, Danny Moore
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