Yeah, yeah..... good posts Ed...Fenton..David L    Over time I cultivated the shop work in with the intention of being there full time.  And I was mostly   When Sheldon Smith was still alive he gave me some sage advice. " Don't give up all your private clients." I think he tuned for Yoshis in S.F. ever day or routinely. He loved the gig.   Well I almost did give em up & then I found that after about 10 years of mostly in the the shop(I do Love the shop) I discovered I missed my therapy clients.  You know the ones  who love to see you & the ones the feed my/your soul   So now I'm trying to be out one complete day a week. It's been more healthy & as you all have testified to...this is where new jobs come from.  It's all about what balances your life. Oh my Gosh...Were so fortunate to have the choice.   Dale       <div id=AOLMsgPart_0_3cf35051-116f-4a4a-ac95-31e4bc1702ad style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff">I go right along with Ed, here. I have one part time helper in the shop when I have too many jobs at once. One belly job completely swamps me between tunings and over the line action work that comes in, I just have a small shop at home so overhead is low, what a life! What a life! I enjoy having someone that knows my shop and tools and how I like to use them, it's a big plus to be able to call him in.  Fenton  ----- Original Message ----- From: <<A href="mailto:A440A@aol.com">A440A@aol.com</A>>  To: <<A href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>>  Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 9:54 AM  Subject: Re: shop work    > Ric writes:  >  > < per  > week, all year long.  > First appointment @ 10am ,last @ 4 roughly. (9+ hours a day, with travel)  >  > How do you all factor shop work into your scheduales? Right now ,I work in  > some time on Sun> (my day off !) >>  >  > Greetings,  > First thing is to raise your tuning price by 20%. This should free up > some  > time in your schedule to pursue other work. You are presently working 45 > hour  > weeks, and if you don't schedule a regular day off, you will not last as > long.  >  > I really like having a non-deadline job in the shop at all times. This  > allows me to carry on with my tuning schedule (which is where most of the  > rebuilding and regulating work comes from), and never have to worry about > an "off"  > day where nobody calls. As long as I have an action on the bench, there is  > highly profitable work right here at home that can be done in whatever > time  > increments fit the holes in tuning calls. I can even schedule several > days in the  > shop as a sort of "vacation" from the tuning, and make more than I can > with the  > tuning hammer. This makes it easy to stop worrying about having nothing > to  > do, and the funny thing is, the increase in tuning prices didn't really > change  > the number of calls I get, it just raised my income.  >  >  >  > Ed Foote RPT  > <A href="http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html" target=_blank>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html</A>  > <A href="http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html" target=_blank>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html</A>  > ************** It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms and advice on  > AOL Money & Finance.   > (<A href="http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolcmp00300000002850)</HTML" target=_blank>http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolcmp00300000002850)</HTML</A>>  >  >   </div> <div id='u8CA6CB9E6C8CA92-114-2265' class='aol_ad_footer'><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Get the <A title="http://www.mapquest.com/toolbar?NCID=mpqmap00030000000003" href="http://www.mapquest.com/toolbar?NCID=mpqmap00030000000003" target="_blank">MapQuest Toolbar</A>, Maps, Traffic, Directions & More! </div>