Hy Not to blow my own horn, but I would like to recommend you buy my book, "The Business of Piano Tuning." It's available from Randy Potter. rpotter at bendcable.com. It will help you a lot in establishing your business. Mind you, I'll be the first to admit my book is not the end all of all the information you'll need, but it will at least get you going in the right direction. I've answered your questions below. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT -----Original Message----- From: Hy Cohen <frowninverter at gmail.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Wed, Jul 7, 2010 5:04 pm Subject: [pianotech] Re-Working Business Plan Hi Everyone, I am brand new to the list. While I am not a member of PTG yet, I plan to be filing for my membership probably around September. Anyway, while I was in school, I drafted a business plan for piano technology. Now, I’m going through and re-working numbers, marketing, etc. What a job! <grin> I have a few major questions I’m hoping you will be able to assist me with: 1. Are there estimates available on what the average start-up costs are for a piano tuning / repair business in the U.S.? If so, where? That's hard to say. To buy the basic tuning kit, including an ETD (electronic tuning device), and your basic repair kit, will probably set you back about $2000 - $3000. If you don't use an ETD, you can save yourself between $750 and $1500. My suggestion is to buy the basic tuning and repair kit, then add tools as you need them. One piece of advice regarding the cost of the tools. If you need a tool to make a repair or to do a regulation, don't look at the price. Just buy it. The cost of the tool will be paid for with your first job or two. From there on, it is making money for you. If you wait until you can afford it, you'll never learn. (Kind of when you got married. Could you really afford to do that?) :) 2. When looking at your overall population for your service area, how many households (using Sensuous data) per technician is needed? The general rule of thumb is you multiply the population of a geographical area by 19%, and that's approximately how many piano there are, including homes, churches, schools, etc. One piano tuner should be able to make a comfortable living with approximately 1500 - 2000 pianos. 3. Is there a rough way to estimate how many technicians (or those who say they are) are in the area you are servicing? For example, in my area, there appears to be about 54 members of the PTG (associate & RPT), but I know there are others out there that even a phone book can’t tell you (i.e. I know they’re some on Craig’s List). There are probably about three times as many people working on pianos as there are members of the PTG. In other words, in your area, there will be about 150 piano tuners. Not all of them are full time, and some will be "tooners", those who know very little, but think they know a lot. If the number of tuners needed is less than the number of technician there are, there will be work for you. 4. How many total customers do you need to adequately support a piano tuning & repair business? So far I have been told anywhere from 500 to 1,000 customers). I've answered that in #2 5. What are your suggestions for good ways to start getting your name out and attracting your first customers? This would have been an easier answer for me if I would have been able to start my business back in my home area where I know a whole lot of people who have pianos, but while I was in school to become a piano tech, the love bug bit me, I got married to someone who didn’t appreciate the beautiful Puget Sound area of Washington State, and I ended up heading down to California where she is from. <grin> We just moved here less than two weeks ago. And I swear I’m melting! <giggle> This is where my book will come in handy. Also, look at the archives of this list, as this topic has been discussed many time in the past several weeks and months. Okay that’s more than enough questions. <grin> Thank you guys so much for your assistance! Warmly, Hy frowninverter at gmail.com Good Luck Wim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100707/383de68d/attachment.htm>
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