<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <style>  </style> </head> <body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> Hi David,   This last time I raised my prices I started including the tuning price on my reminder post card. It has really helped eliminate the sticker shock that I’ve experienced on previous price increases. Now my existing customers know when I go out what the price is, there is no surprise.   <div> Dean Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 Terre Haute IN  47802 </div>   -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Chadwick Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 8:50 PM To: PTG Subject: More work than I can handle   <div> Jim, </div> <div> Thanks for your suggestions. I have recently gone up in price to just over the century mark. Presently I’m the high price in town for basic services. I have thought of going even higher and offer a more comprehensive service call to address issues which I would've otherwise have charged extra for but I always seem to have a dilemma with asking for more. My thoughts are usually that I'll suddenly dive bomb and loose all of my clientele. I'm Informing all of my steady customers of another rate change next year..... just to soften the blow. </div> <div> David C. </div> <div> Las Vegas, NV </div> <div>   </div> <div>   </div> <div>   </div> <div> David; If someone else has suggested this just take it as my vote for your "problem" :-) Raise your prices. This will do two things first it will leave you with more income and it will cut down on the amount of work needful to generate the same income as you currently get. Yes, you will lose some of your marginal customers but I would think that the loss will be more than made up by your increased prices.    Since you are sending a goodly number of customers to other techs this should not be a problem for you. Keep your increases reasonable and consistent throughout your pricing stucture.   Don't just say it wwon't work because it has not failed in the past as long as increases are reasonable.   What is a reasonable increase? Depends on what you feel comfortable with and where your rates are now. Try it you'll like it. My thoughts. Jim B (FL) </div> </div> </body> </html>