<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2523" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>It's up to you.  I moved my business out here = this spring, so I'm going everywhere to get business, up to 100 miles one = way.  If I can schedule three pianos within 20 or 30 miles of each other, I'm = happy; otherwise, I charge a proportional travel fee (like about $10).  = Most of my customers are clustered about 45 miles from me (another tuner has most = of the customers in my city -- and has referred others to me).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Some people charge by the mile on top of their base = fee.  Once you build a customer base, you can schedule them more = conveniently.  I've seriously looked at the economy of staying overnight vs. coming all = the way home and back...</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>You can break the mood with the travel fee by = mentioning your drive-through window tuning discount of half off, if they come to you... = :-)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>--Cy Shuster--</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Bluefield, WV</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black"><B>From:</B> <A title=pianotuner@frontiernet.net href="mailto:pianotuner@frontiernet.net">Doug Renz Piano Tuning</A> = </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, December 15, = 2004 4:20 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Customer = Locations</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How far away from your home (or place = of business)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>does one tune or service a piano? 25 = miles, 50 miles, 100 miles?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour to = travel to a customer.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I am tuning piano's that are about 40 = minutes away at this point</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>which is not too bad, but could do = more business if it was in the rural</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>parts of where I live. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you do go a long way to service a = piano, to you charge a fee for </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>something like this?  Any thoughts? </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Doug Renz</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Associate PTG </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rochester, NY</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>