A Career Question

[Brian L Jane]

Greetings List -

I have been off the list for a couple of months and I hope that this is
not a topic that has been brought up lately:

I wanted to inquire with those of you that are on this list that have
been at the piano technician business more than a few years and have been
around during some difficult economic times. I have been discussing with
my spouse the prospect of leaving my present full time employment to
dedicate myself to the business that I have been building as a piano
technician for the last two years. The "day job" that I have [being a
firefighter] has basically allowed me to have 30/40 hours per week to
tune, regulate, install DC Systems, etc. The business is doing better
than I expected with an appointment book that has been running 4-6 weeks
in advance since last Fall. 

The Fire Department is every-other-day kind of thing [72 hours a week] 
working 24 hours shifts 0730 one morning to 0730 the next morning [and I
do get to sleep most nights]. But with being at the Fire Station every
other night and then taking care of clients during the weekdays off, I
find myself missing a lot of things at home with my wife and three young
children. Diving into the piano business full time, I am figuring, would
allow me to be home every night and more available on both weekend days
as opposed to just the usual Saturday OR Sunday. I have 12 years till I
can retire with pension from the F.D. I'll be 38 in a couple of weeks.

What kind of criteria does one use in making this kind of decision? What
kind of things in a piano technician's business are indicators that there
is a full time business there that would survive?

The things I get confronted with in this decision making process are
thinking about the "what ifs" in regards to an economic down. Is there
anybody out there that has been a piano technician during a "negative
cycle" in our economy nationally or even locally? What kind of experience
did you have and what kinds of things did you do that allowed you to
survive it with out having to go back to the previous "day job"?

Thanks in advance for your responses!
Brian, San Diego County Chapter