Arnold: You don't say what area of the country you are in, only that there are lots of ther piano tuners in the area. Therefore I presume you are ina large metropolitan area. That, in itself, will make it difficult to get yourself established, but there is one way in which you can get business. Do the best darned job you can on each and every piano. Pretty soon, the quality of your work will get you the business. You specifically asked about promotions and advertsing. I have tried them all, and found none of them to be succesful. I too live in an area that has an abundance of piano tuners, so the competition is stiff. I spent $750 on radio advertising once, and got about $800 dollars worth of business. I spent $600 on coupons, and got back maybe a little more in new business. A press release will work fine if you live in an area where you are are one of only a few tuners, but if you are in a large metropolitan area, and your newspapers are big issues, it will get lost. The best advertising for the dollar, other than word of mouth, is the Yellow Pages. People will get your name from a friend, but will not know how to spell it, or where you live. A listing in the YP will help, not only with new customers, but also your old ones. Not everyone remembers your phone number, or where they have it written down, so they will go to the YP to find it. The next best place is a small community type newspsper that gets trhown on the lawn. I have had a continous ad running in my community newspaper for 10 years, and a lot of my customers tell me they got my name from that. The only other way to get business is to work your tail off. Don't say no to any job, and be willing to work any hour and any day. And, as Barb Richmond mentioned on an other post, don't just "tune" the pianos, service them. Good Luck. WIllem Blees RPT St. Louis.
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