Scheduling question - benchmarks - business sense

[Michael Magness]

On Dec 7, 2007 1:16 AM, Ron and Lorene Shiflet <rlshiflet at cableone.net>
wrote:

>  Here is a standard benchmark that anyone can use.  It is based on a
> technician with plenty of work, working in an ideal situation.  While
> everybody's individual circumstances vary, use this as the standard to which
> everything else can be based.  This is the starting point and by following
> it, you can stay profitable no matter where you are or how much you
> work. It can be adapted/modified to fit anyone...anywhere and includes a
> cross check to keep shop work prices in harmony with tuning work.
>
> Pricing is a delicate situation that nobody seems to want to talk about.
> It's my understanding that people in the PTG got accused of price fixing
> years ago and now nobody will discuss it.   Therefore, this is my opinion
> and I am solely responsible for it.
>
>
>    - You can tune about 1,000 pianos per year.  [4 pianos/day x 5
>    days/week = 20 tunings/week]  [20 tunings/week x 50 weeks/year = 1,000
>    tunings/year].  This gives you a job with straight days, no weekends, and
>    a 2 week vacation.
>    - Based upon the above scenario, you can schedule 4 tunings/day...2
>    hours apart.  You will spent 1.5 hours doing the tuning, and 30
>    minutes traveling to the next appointment.  Typically you will tune
>    from 8-10 and 10-12.  Lunch is from 12-1.  You will tune from 1-3 and from
>    3-5.  Go home after that and have a life.
>    - Your hourly rate should be based upon the 2 hour tuning, not the
>    1.5 hour tuning.  For example, if you charge $60/ tune, then your
>    hourly rate is $30.  If you charge $80 tune, then your hourly rate is $40,
>    and so forth.  This allows you to keep your tuning prices in agreement with
>    your shopwork.  Don't forget to charge for parts.
>    - Your price needs to be based more upon your budget and needs
>    instead of the 'market rate' or what the competition is charging.  You need
>    to factor in costs such as insurance, retirement, self employment tax, the 2
>    weeks vacation and everything else that a job with benefits would have.
>    Insurance includes auto, health, life, workers comp...that's right, workers
>    comp, and business liability.  Too many people call around and go with the
>    going rate and underprice themselves instead of correctly charging their
>    annual budget plus benefits.  *If you cannot pay for those coverages
>    with what you are charging, then you are too low.*
>    - The price of your tuning, mulitplied by 1000 will equal your
>    annual income.  If you are charging $60/tune then you should be making about
>    $60,000/year.  If you are in the $60K bracket (but after reading the post
>    above) realize that you need to be in the $80K bracket to pay your bills,
>    taxes and benefits, then you should charge $80/tune instead of $60/tune.  A
>    typical benefits package costs about $20,000/year.
>    - From the day you start your business, if, in 5 years, you are
>    not tuning 1,000 pianos a year, then you are either in the wrong business or
>    the wrong location.  If you charge $75/tuning, then in 5 years, if you are
>    not earning $75,000/year, then you are either in the wrong location or the
>    wrong business.  Personally, I am in the wrong location but I have my
>    reasons for staying here.  My pricing, on the other hand, is correct.
>
> *Other Points to Ponder*
>
>    - Never, never, never use the bathroom in the customers home.  You
>    are invading their privacy.  Know where the public restrooms are use them
>    during the 30 minutes drive between appointments.
>    - Never, never, never, smoke in their home...even  if they do and
>    even if they offer it.
>    - I know technicians who have made a good living from their PTG
>    counterparts who lost customers over these 2 simple rules.
>
>
>
Vacation? What's a vacation? Oh yeah I remember those, I took one with my
parents when I was a kid!

Seriously Ron & Lorene that's some great advice. I can only add a few do's
and don'ts.

If you ring the bell and no one answers, this is where your cell phone pays
off, call from the doorstep, I have had people at home, vacuming, Ironing in
the basement w/ the TV turned up, who didn't hear the bell. Before you sit
in that chair, ask, it may be a delicate antique that no one is allowed to
sit in, I tune for a teacher and her 40+ students because someone did that.
Always set your toolcase/bag/kit on the floor! Never on a table/chair/bench,
again customer with an antique footstool scratched by a toolbox of a
previous tech is now my customer. If you use metal tools, even wire handle
mutes, use a towel or piece of cloth on the fallboard to lay them on, you
may know they won't scratch but perception is the key here. I have had
people tell me, "He wasn't careful with the finish, he put those metal
handled things right on the wood"! Yes you are there to do your job but you
are also a guest, act like it and you will be "invited" back.

Mike

-- 
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging
their prejudices.
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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