December and January were gang busters for me. But the phone has not been ringing as much now. I stayed home all day yesterday, and next week?I have one day with absolutely nothing scheduled, yet. Al thought the economy on Hawaii is not as bad as in other parts of the country, it's the scare that is keeping people from spending money. The paper and TV reports every day how bad tourism is, with hotel occupancy is at 60%, when it's usually in the high 70's. But occupancy rates are always down in the first quarter of the year. But this time people are scared because the papers say the economy is bad. Unemployment is at 6%, which might sound bad, but as one economist? on TV said the other day, 94% of people are still working. If they would just spend their money, we'll be OK But that doesn't change the fact that business is slow.?In the past, I have sent out postcards to clients, teachers, schools and churches offering a 20% discounts, which got me more business, but nothing to cheer about. The main reason is that?my 20%?discount price puts me in line with what?the other tuners are charging. So now I'm thinking of going all out and offering a 40% discount. Even at that, I would still be getting more than one other tuner. I have been very reluctant to do this, but drastic times call for drastic measures. The discount will be for tuning only. Repairs, etc, will be at my regular price. And believe it or not, when I recommend several hundred dollars for of repairs and regulation to?the cheap skates?who called because of the discount, they were more than happy to pay. So I'm hoping the same thing will happen this time. 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: KeyKat88 at aol.com To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 5:38 am Subject: [pianotech] how's business? is "crisis" affecting it? Greetrings, ? ???????Business is a little slower than usual. How's about any one else? ? Julia Reading, PA? Nothing says I love you like flowers! Find a florist near you now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090213/99f16d84/attachment.html>
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