[pianotech] Charging by job, or by hour?

[tnrwim at aol.com]

I use an hours chart too, but I don't live by it.  If a job has unique problems, it also has a unique price.  ;-]
 
William R. Monroe


You are absolutely right. But, again, this is where I was coming from. You have a price chart. How did you arrive at your prices? There's got to be some sort of "formula", or something that made you come up with a price for a job? Or did you just arbitrarily pick a number out of the air? 

Wim





-----Original Message-----
From: William Monroe <bill at a440piano.net>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wed, Jul 21, 2010 5:17 pm
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Charging by job, or by hour?


Variable pricing is only a problem if it's arbitrary - I think this is an important point.  So little of our work is purely recipe fodder.  Also, I think it's important that we give our customers a some credit.  If Mrs. Jones Bridle strap job is pretty straightforward, maybe it reasonably costs $X.  Maybe Mrs. James piano has already had it done once - awfully, and you find you're going to have a barrel of fun removing the residue of the previous job, maybe it reasonably should cost $1.5X.  Now what?  Two prices.  Why?  Explain it, demonstrate it.  Big deal.  I find when I take the time to educate my clients on what we're undertaking, they are more than accepting of possible variances in costs from one situation to the next.  I use an hours chart too, but I don't live by it.  If a job has unique problems, it also has a unique price.  ;-]
 
William R. Monroe
 
SNIP

 
There are two reasons I have a chart of my work, based on how long it take me to do the work. First is to not cheat myself. I don't remember exactly how long it takes to do each job, so I have it written down. I look at the chart, and tell the customer it will cost $300 to replace a set of bridle straps. If she likes the price, we have a deal. If not, I know that I'm not going to loose money doing it for less. It is my choice to decide to reduce the amount, based on how hungry I am that week. 
 
The seond reason I use a chart is not to cheat my customers. When I quote Mrs. James $300 to replace the bridle straps, I want to make sure I quote the same figure to Mrs. Jones, because there is a chance that Mrs. James and Mrs. Jones are sister. If I quote Mrs. James $300 and Mrs. Jones $450, there will be questions I don't want to answer
 
Wim  





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