In general, Ryan, great advice. But before hanging adverting on doors, it is best to check with the local governing agency, (city hall, county seat) if this is allowed. Some communities don't like having people go door to door. Wim I have a friend who literally went door to door when he first arrived in town. Hang door hanger advertisements on every possible residence within a 2 mile radius of where you live. -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Sowers <tunerryan at gmail.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sun, Jul 4, 2010 9:37 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Getting started... Good to hear from you Joe!! Excellent post! Starting a piano service business is certainly not a "Get Rich Quick!" scheme by any measure. Putting out some advertising and waiting for the business to come in is pretty ineffective. Here is my list of ideas: Join PTG and attend monthly meetings and annual seminars religiously. Volunteer to help - (bringing yummy snacks to the meetings will endure you to all!). Pass the RPT exams as soon as possible. After that run for chapter office. Dress professionally. Wear slacks, a nice shirt and tie, carry altoids at all times, Have a nice looking tool kit full of pretty, shiny implements. Make sure to develop personal traits that will help you suceed. If necessary get coaching. Try to affiliate yourself with reputable piano dealers, and develop positive relationships with them. Join the Local Music Teachers Association and attend their monthly meetings. Offer to do a program for them. Donate tunings for annual adjudications. Anything you can do to get in with the teachers is worth its weight in gold!! Contact every church in your town directly. Churches are community centers and a link to lots of clients. I have a friend who literally went door to door when he first arrived in town. Hang door hanger advertisements on every possible residence within a 2 mile radius of where you live. Develop positive relationships with other reputable piano technicians. Get good at doing grunt work in their shops. If you can help them make money they will love you! Be very sensitive if you are costing them more than you are worth. Do your homework! Read the classics: Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing Without Advertising, How to Win Friends and Influence People, etc. Always have your own project piano to work on. Fix it up, sell it, and get another one. Make sure your business card, invoices, and stationary are professional. I hate chintzy business cards!! Make sure you can play at least one good piano tune. It doesn't have to be Rachmaninoff -just something pretty to show off the tuning. On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 8:07 AM, Joseph Alkana <josephspiano at comcast.net> wrote: If you’ve taken the Randy Potter course, you know from the material that Randy advocates joining PTG as a viable way to gain insight, camaraderie and possible work via the association with members over time. Not seeing your name in the guild membership directory, I wonder if you have pursued that avenue as recommended by the course? Also Randy strongly recommends that as a part of your training you avail yourself of a mentor while completing your studies. Did you follow that recommendation? What information have you gleaned from attending technician meetings, training sessions with dealers, and that national convention just past in Las Vegas. You did attend, as recommended by Randy’s course? What exactly have you done to prepare yourself for operating a business as a piano technician, other than, we assume, learning the rudiments of tuning? Not trying to be sarcastic or demeaning here; we’d just like to know more about your preparation, training and efforts to pursue a business in piano technology. Have you really completed the business segment of the Randy Potter course and followed through with the many suggestions for business building? On the basis of the information you give, it sounds as though you are ill-prepared to “jump start” any business endeavor. Please enlighten us further and I’m sure we can provide you more specific ideas to help you. Before we can give you concrete suggestions, it would be helpful to eliminate, from our prospective, the ideas and efforts you have already tried. Sincerely, Joseph Alkana RPT (Retired) From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Tom Rhea, Jr. Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 8:33 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Getting started... List, I’m getting a really late start as a piano technician. I’ve – essentially – completed the Randy Potter Piano Technology course and have been tuning for a few months. Business is – to put it bluntly – horrible! After a flurry of interest, I’m finding it very difficult to drum up new business in the Hampton Roads, VA area. There are several RPTs and other technicians locally, but not enough – I think – to cover all the needs of the community. Since I’m 65, I don’t have a lot of time to go before I’ll just be too old to continue, but I’d like to be as effective and prolific as I can be, given my limited longevity. Any ideas on how to jump-start my business? Thanks, Tom Rhea, Jr. Rhea Piano Service -- Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100704/98399258/attachment-0001.htm>
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