Hello Jim, I live in a town of 8,000. It generates on the average a couple calls a month. I have within 30 miles both to my north and south town of 100,000 or more. I purchased a remote phone number in both towns when I started. They transfer to my shop number in Clinton. Which always transfers to my cell phone, so I don't endup missing calls, since most new customers will skip the answering maching and go to the next person on the list. I took out 1" adds in both city telephone directories that listed the nubers and my services. I tune, repair and buy and sell a few pianos. I have made as much with the buying and selling as I have tuning when you consider the 30 mile drive to get into my larger customer bases. I have tried 1" adds in the newspapers of both towns, they would run everyother day for a month. They barely paid for themselves. After four years I do get a lot of word of mouth customers, that's great, but you can't just sit and wait for that to start your business. I have failed to call or send postcards so the dozens of pianos that I've tuned for people who haven't had them tuned for years, are falling back into the same spot before they called me. I do have a number of serious players that call every six months without my urging. For $$ numbers. In my busy years I've done $25k. That was growing at about 5k per year. Since I'm retired and on a pension from electrical engineering that's fine. Calling and building on the database might have put me at $35K to $40K at this time. I hope this helps with your planning. Richard Snelson rsnelson0984@mchsi.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Kinnear" <jim@pianoguy.com> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 9:09 AM Subject: PTBiz vs pianoDB > All > I am considering business specific software and tried pianodb years ago. > It is MSAccess based, and at the time it was more complex than I needed. > have any of you tried both, or something else, and if so, how would you > compare their respective qualities . . > -price > -ease of date entry and retreival > -relevance to this business > > I recently left my salaried employment , and intend to pursue this vocation > full time. > There's lots of questions that come up and I've found the content of this > list, OT discussions notwithstanding, very helpful and enlightening. > Perhaps, in some way, you all have helped me to make the decision. > > Can anyone shed some light on what size population base one should have to > generate a reasonable living . . . a very subjective question, I know, but > serious none the less. > Thanks to all of you in advance. > > Jim Kinnear > Collingwood, ON > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John M. Formsma" <john@formsmapiano.com> > To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> > Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 8:38 AM > Subject: RE: PTBiz > > > > Rich and others, > > > > Yeah, I thought Ed was a little uptight about the security of his > > program. > > > > The last update I purchased included a thing called a HASP, which plugs > > into a USB port and basically is the "security code." The HASP > > eliminates having to call for another code. Therefore, you may move the > > program freely onto another computer as often as you like, but you must > > have the HASP in order to use the program. It was a good update, I > > thought. > > > > My experience with PTBiz since 2000 has been basically good, although it > > has some odd quirks. In my opinion, it offers good service for the > > money. (E.g., I could have developed something similar with Access, but > > I tried that and saw quickly it would take me weeks to develop something > > suitable. Not how I want to spend my time.) I'm open to other software, > > though. > > > > Anyone care to share their experiences? > > > > John Formsma > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On > > > Behalf Of Richard Snelson > > > Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 10:29 PM > > > To: Pianotech > > > Subject: Re: PTBiz > > > > > > > > > All I can tell you from experience with the individual that sells this > > > software is beware! He will screw you into buying updates > > > that you don't > > > want, if you ever have to move it to a new computer. He did > > > just that to > > > me, a couple months back. I had purchased the software a > > > couple years ago, > > > called to move it to new machine. Too bad, must buy update. I > > > see no major > > > changes in the update that would justify having to purchase > > > it. Software > > > requires calling him to get an unlock code to move it to a > > > new computer. > > > Calling him is not a plesant experience. He refused to give > > > me the code to > > > move it. Said sorry "Charlie" but he no longer had the codes. > > > "Bullsh--" The > > > software has been out there free to down load for sometime. > > > It runs a few > > > days and then requires purchase. I would never do business with this > > > individual again. Rich > > > Richard Snelson > > > rsnelson0984@mchsi.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: <HazenBannister@cs.com> > > > To: <pianotech@ptg.org> > > > Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 10:11 PM > > > Subject: PTBiz > > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > PTBiz software for piano technicians is now shareware. > > > > www.ptbiz.com > > > > Best, > > > > Hazen Bannister > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >
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