Paul, I think Wim was talking about 2000 customer (pianos) , not 2000 tunings. It has been my experience as I was building my business in New York, that 200 customers yielded about 100 tunings per year. When I reach 1000 customers (pianos) I was doing about 500 tunings a year. After moving to North Carolina and starting my business all over again, I find it to be the same ratio.
Al Guecia
From: Paul T Williams
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:43 PM
To: toddpianoworks at att.net ; pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Piano Technicians and Populations
Indeed, 2000 pianos! How would you have the time! Tuning repairing, the inevitable rebuilding (or partial) job thrown in. Just 2,000 tunings a year means a little over 5 per day ( at 340 days per year) Man, ya gotta have some break... God Bless your ears, and with travel time at 5 minutes between tunings! I only tune 5-6 per day if I'm getting ready for a new semester here at UNL, and I'm exhausted afterwards! Or,.... in the old days tuning those dreaded "wharehouse piano sales" put on by the different stores I used to work for. You know... where little kids try to match the note you're working on on the piano next to it... the little old ladies who try to humm the note you're working on, the constant chatter, and the salesman who blasts out a mediocre rendition (that's being nice!) of a Chopin polonaise to "impress" the potential buyer.
From the population issue aspect, I used to live on an island north of Seattle. God bless em all, but we had 4 RPT's, and at least 2 "tooners" for a 50,000 polulation! That's why we all had to travel to the mainland to make a living. Then there was the ferry lines......Ohhhhh how I miss those days! ;>) NOT!!!
Todd, I've always wondered where you are building your business? Your questions a great and it sounds like you're on the right track to get it going. Keep up the good work and keep asking questions! I only wish I'd have joined this blog years ago.
Best,
Paul Williams RPT
PTG member since 1992
Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net>
Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
12/10/2008 04:19 PM Please respond to
toddpianoworks at att.net; Please respond to
pianotech at ptg.org
To pianotech at ptg.org
cc
Subject Re: [pianotech] Piano Technicians and Populations
What constitutes a "comfortable" living?? If I had 2000 pianos that I only tuned once a year, that would be over 200,000 per year!!! And that's just tuning. And I understand about overhead and all that, but what am I missing here?
TODD PIANO WORKS
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com
--- On Wed, 12/10/08, wimblees at aol.com <wimblees at aol.com> wrote:
From: wimblees at aol.com <wimblees at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Piano Technicians and Populations
To: fg at floydgadd.com, pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 6:28 PM
Floyd
A long time ago, Kimball did some research on this. They claimed that if you take a given geographical area's population, and multiply that number by 19%, that's how many pianos there are in that geographical area. (That doesn't mean that 19% of the population has a piano, but between schools, churches, bars, etc, that's how many pianos there are.) Considering that one piano technician should be able to make a comfortable living with approximately 2000 pianos, you can figure out how many piano technicians are needed in a given geographical area.
When I was RVP, I gave that information once at a chapter meeting, where there were 13 tuners in attendance. The next day I learned that one of them had decided to quit the business, because he figured out that there just weren't enough pianos in the area to make a living.
Of course, as you indicated, this is not an ironclad rule, and some areas might need more, and some less. But it's gives you a starting point.
Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Mililani, Oahu, HI
808-349-2943
Author of:
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Floyd Gadd <fg at floydgadd.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 4:45 am
Subject: [pianotech] Piano Technicians and Populations
Where can I find industry data to answer the question of how much of a
population base it takes to support a piano technician?
I was talking with a locksmith friend the other evening, and he recounted
that as he was setting up his business a number of years ago, research led
him to understand that in his industry, a population of about 15,000 per
technician was necessary to make business viable. His experience in a
center with a population of 12,000 that grew to just over just 15,000
convinced him that the data was useful.
I'm sure that whatever figure emerges, there are variables, such as the
scope of the tasks a technician is prepared to undertake, but I would be
interested in
knowing what data is out there.
Floyd Gadd
Manitoba Chapter
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