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<font size=3>When I first looked into YP ads I encountered this:<br>
<br>
First you need a business phone account with the Phone Co, generally
more<br>
$ than residential service. A $200.00 deposit was required.
You are then charged<br>
commercial rates for phone usage. The calling packages were not as
attractive as<br>
residential ones.<br>
<br>
The IRS would not allow it to be deductible if it is the only line in the
home. So a<br>
second line would have had to be installed.<br>
<br>
Just starting out, I did not have the capital to fund this project so I
contacted dealers<br>
for their floor and home tuning. I made contacts with other tuners who
sent me work<br>
they could not get to or didn't want to get to.<br>
<br>
It was slow at first but at least I was not working to maintain YP
exposure, it was<br>
hard enough keeping up the rent and car expenses.<br>
<br>
A few years ago I tried a radio spot for fun, That's all it was, fun to
hear my<br>
name on the radio. I did get a few jobs out of it but the ad-to-cash
ratio was 17%.<br>
I wanted a bigger draw and mostly I got comments, "I heard your
ad", from people<br>
I met on the street. I gave free tuning to the local non-profit cable
access station<br>
for an acknowledgement at the end of the program when they used the
piano.<br>
Again only comments from customers as I was tuning their piano, nothing
new.<br>
I even let them use various grands (which I needed to store :-) for the
same promo.<br>
I told them I would tune it free when and if they had certain pianists
taping; anything<br>
else, the producers of the spot would have to pay. I saw the pianos
being used<br>
all the time but never tuned, after a while I took the piano out because
I did not<br>
want the exposure of an out of tune piano with my promo at the end. You
cannot<br>
rely on producers to tend to this detail, not even all pianists realize
that a recording<br>
magically exposes tuning deficiencies. I was not of the ambition to tune
it every<br>
month for gratis since there was absolutely no business being derived
from it.<br>
<br>
They went back to the comically decrepit spinet. I referred them to a
'new' guy<br>
in town :-) and see his name in promo now.<br>
<br>
The best, fastest business building tool is word of mouth.<br>
Do your job, do it well, the money will follow.<br>
<br>
Jon Page<br>
<br>
At 12:53 AM 01/22/2000 -0800, you wrote:<br>
>Martin,<br>
><br>
>Whether or not a Yellow Pages ad will work or not may have to do
with<br>
>the quality of the particular ad. Mine has an engraved picture of
a<br>
<font size=3>>Victorian-era woman playing on a grand piano. People
respond with, e.g.,<br>
>"I like your ad, it's real classy." There's a line that
says I've been<br>
>tuning in the area since 1974. Another part lists the institutions
that<br>
>I work for (which draws frequent comment). There is the PTG logo and
in<br>
>recent years, I added VISA/MC logos. Another important aspect is that
it<br>
>was designed by a graphic artist. It costs less than 2 tunings a
month,<br>
>for a 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" display ad, and I easily pick up more
than enough<br>
>to cover the cost. (Some of the above, though it might not work for
you<br>
>at the moment, could be of interest for the future.)<br>
><br>
>I don't do any other advertising. Yellow Pages is the most important
one<br>
>because, for one thing, I don't have a store front so the ad is
my<br>
>"place of business". It's where people can "drive
by" to get an<br>
>impression of who I am. Hearing about me from a friend, music
store,<br>
>etc., is frequently how I get new customers but I'm sure that some
of<br>
>them look me up in the book first before they make the call.<br>
><br>
>So I would consider the Yellow Pages ad, of whatever size, as
an<br>
>integral part of the cost of doing business, not only to help keep
it<br>
>thriving but to lend legitimacy, too.<br>
><br>
>If you're considering other forms of advertising, I would go about it
in<br>
>a full way; a half-hearted ad or one that runs just a short time
"to<br>
>test the waters" is a waste of money. <br>
><br>
>Some miscellaneous ideas that occur: print up a nice-looking flier
to<br>
>post on a lot of bulletin boards around town, especially
colleges,<br>
>universities and music stores. Go to parties and don't be shy about
what<br>
>you do for a living. If selling at a flea market is your cup of tea,
be<br>
>sure to put up a sign advertising your services (this used to work
for<br>
>me every time). Go into restaurants and bars where there are pianos
and<br>
>offer the manager/owner a free inspection and quote them an
attractive<br>
>price.<br>
><br>
>You'll come up with your own ideas to suit your personality, I'm
sure.<br>
>Put some thought into what qualities you want to project and get help
in<br>
>designing business cards, fliers, display ads and the like. I used to
do<br>
>my own graphic design but when I hired a professional, I noticed a
big<br>
>difference in the response that I got. It was money well worth
spending.<br>
>(Come to think of it, no money changed hands. I tuned and regulated
her<br>
>piano!)<br>
><br>
><br>
>Martin Dubow wrote:<br>
><br>
>> I'm pretty much just getting started. What are your opinions
about the<br>
>> best way of advertising for work?<br>
>><br>
>> Thanks.<br>
>><br>
>> Martin Dubow<br>
><br>
>-- <br>
>Thomas A. Cole, RPT<br>
<font size=3>>Santa Cruz, CA<br>
><a href="mailto:tcole@cruzio.com" eudora="autourl"><font size=3>mailto:tcole@cruzio.com</a><br>
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