Not to blow my own horn, but a lot of the suggestions and ideas that are being bantered around here are what my book is all about. For those of you who are having some difficulties trying to figure out how to run a business, especially if you've never done it before, the book will give you some suggestions. By my own admission, not everyone will agree with every word I've written, but for the most part, there are a lot of good suggestions and guidelines that will help. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Sowers <tunerryan at gmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Sat, 21 Mar 2009 9:24 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning in a down economy Here Here! I think many piano technicians are, by nature, lousy business people (my self included!). I definitely have had to learn things the hard way and am continuing to learn more very year. Having graduated from a hard-core liberal arts college I started into this with a pretty strong anti-business mentality. Luckily I also had developed a fairly open mind and over time I have absorbed a tremendous amount from the many successful technicians that I have had the pleasure to interact with through PTG. It doesn't take too long to discover who the top-notch techs are in any given geographical region. How do they run their businesses? What is their service philosophy? How do they dress? etc. David, I appreciate your comment about "looking at your level of disorganization with a cold and detached eye". For my wife and I, we have been practicing putting aside our "employee attitude" and putting on our "managerial attitude". This mentality has really helped when deciding how to set our rates. Even though most of us own our own businesses we often think like an employee. We worry that if we charge more our clients will be disappointed or resentful. We wonder if we are really worth it. It can be really helpful to turn off that part of ourselves and take the "cold and detached eye" look. When we put on our CEO hat and realize that we have an obligation to our stockholders (in this case ourselves and our families) some decisions become easier. Then we simply tell our employee self what to do and their job is to follow orders. I know this sounds kind of schizophrenic, but I think it is really helpful.? On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 11:34 AM, David Andersen <david at davidandersenpianos.com> wrote: My treasured mentor and colleague T. Servinsky has identified two crucial aspects of a successful small business: 1. Your business' ?brand ( in this case, Tom) has a general perception in the community as giving, caring good guys. 2.?Your business' ?brand HAS a general perception in the community because you MAKE EFFORT to get your business in front of as many eyes as possible WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE AS YOU EMPLOY TO TUNE OR REGULATE. I really can't emphasize this enough. A successful small business REQUIRES a commitment to marketing beyond word of mouth if you want to grow and get better quality work. It's a BITCH to work on pianos all day then try to build a business by doing all the other things you need to do "after work." The soul rebels. That's why you should: 1. STOP being penny-wise and pound-foolish and take one morning a week and do nothing but build relationships and market yourself. Each one of us has a custom business style. Within that style is a set of marketing protocols that you can enjoy and employ. Be creative; don't do something that feels stupid to you; be practical and prudent; but DO IT. This is the time. 2.?STOP being penny-wise and pound-foolish and hire some part-time help at $10-15/hour to help you get organized. You can't imagine what a help this can be with the right hire. It restarted my entire career. Be honest with yourself; look at your level of disorganization with a cold and detached eye, then do something about it. In battle, those who hesitate are often soon dead. David Andersen Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090321/60719fc0/attachment.html>
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