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<DIV>In a message dated 4/12/04 6:53:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Wimblees@a=
ol.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue =
2px solid">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thank you for your contribution to the topi=
c at hand. My question to you is, if you charge your normal rate for th=
e first piano, and it took you 30 minutes to tune, then how much do you char=
ge per hour to do the other tunings? Is you hourly rate the same as your tun=
ing rate? Do you charge a full hour for only a partial hour? </FONT></DIV></=
BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV>OK, Wim. With all due respect for all applicable laws, codes, and statu=
tes, I will talk real dollars here. (And bear in mind that I'm not adv=
ocating that anyone else charges the same fees.) I charge $95 for a tu=
ning service call. This is based on my billing rate of $54 per hour</D=
IV></DIV>
<DIV>and equates to about 1.75 hours. I will perhaps spend 1.25 hours =
actually tuning; another 0.3 hours on minor repairs, aligning, regulating, l=
ubricating, etc.; and 0.2 hours communicating with the client, writing out a=
n invoice, checking out her autoharp, etc.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now, suppose I do a service call for the local church, three pianos.&nb=
sp; One of these is the grand piano in the sanctuary, in regular, somewhat c=
ritical use; tuned about four times per year. The second is a 20-year-=
old studio upright in the choir room, twice a year. The third is a 105=
-year-old upright in the fellowship hall with a shot pinblock, sem=
itone low in pitch, most of the keytops missing, but is still used occasiona=
lly and gets tuned every other year if somebody remembers. I tune the =
sanctuary piano first and bill $95; it has only taken me an hour this time a=
round, so I'm temporarily 'ahead of the game'. I go to the choir =
room where I spend two hours including replacing a couple broken treble stri=
ngs. I check my watch and see that I've now been working for the churc=
h three hours altogether; that comes to $162 at my billing rate; subtracting=
the $95 I've already billed them, I charge $67 for the second piano (for 1.=
24 hours of work, theoretically, although part of time has been 'borrowed' f=
rom the first tuning). Third piano: I know it won't stand raisin=
g to pitch and that it is only occasionally used, never critically. I =
judge that the church will best served spending the least money on=
this one - and I'll be happier spending little time on it! It gets a =
half-hour tuning without pitch-raising and I repair a broken hammer shank: 0=
.7 hours on this wreck, and I bill $38. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The church knows that I'm working for their best interests, doing the r=
ight things for the right pianos, keeping their costs down. I've =
not 'discounted' my tuning fee, but I have switched to the hourly rate after=
the first piano, thereby saving money for the client while assuring my inco=
me. It's true this doesn't result in the same bill for the church each=
time, but it assures them that the job will be done right with appropriate =
cost containment. In my experience, this makes them very happy - and i=
t keeps me from having to do work I can't bill for.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I hope this helps some of my colleagues.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Lucida Handwriting" color=#000000 size=3 FAM=
ILY="SCRIPT" PTSIZE="11">~ Tom McNeil ~</FONT><FONT lang=0 =
face="Lucida Handwriting" color=#000000 size=5 FAMILY="SCRIPT" PTSIZ=
E="16"><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Castellar color=#008080 size=5=
FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="16">V</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Castellar colo=
r=#008080 size=4 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="14">ermont </FONT><FONT lang=
=0 face=Castellar color=#008080 size=5 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="16=
">P</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Castellar color=#008080 size=4 FAMILY=
="SERIF" PTSIZE="14">iano </FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Castellar color=
=#008080 size=5 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="16">R</FONT><FONT lang=0 fa=
ce=Castellar color=#008080 size=4 FAMILY="SERIF" PTSIZE="14">estor=
ations</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>