Peter, last year I bought the whole Word Perfect Suite, but I haven't taken the time to get into it properly. It seemed to me that it might be a good idea to remake all those forms and stationery, and have them all fresh and fitting with what I'm doing these days. But realistically there are far more important things I need to work on, and the old systems still work pretty well.
In these discussions of tuning styles and business practices, perhaps it's time to consider that this profession is wildly different for some of us than for others.
Many of us are up at or near retirement age (though as long as I can manage to work on pianos I will never completely retire.)
Those who are younger, often in places with a high cost of living, may have dependents. Their income has to be many times what mine is, which also raises their tax burden. Essentially, many people in this country, not just piano tuners, are running as fast as they can to keep from losing ground.
The physical capacity for high volume work is problematic for many aging piano technicians.
Younger people, relatively new to the field, of course will work on a growing customer base and getting repeat business. They will figure out how to reach people with social media, websites, and so forth.
We all are affected by the changes in the world around us (just ask people in Florida and Houston ...) and by the relatively low prices which pianos are selling for -- sometimes people have trouble giving them away! This has a horrible effect on the viability of rebuilding pianos, which I think is a shame. Many of the older ones were superb. I hate to see them discarded and neglected, especially those which came west early enough that their basic structure is still good.
I think it may be time for the general public to rethink the idea of "a job." Historically, a relatively small portion of the population had "a job" on which their entire livelihood depended, where all their needs were met through buying things and buying all their food (these days often precooked as well), and hiring people to do almost all maintenance for them. For a lot of the first half of the 20th century, even conventional families where the man was the breadwinner had women who gardened, put up food, sewed clothes, knitted, etc. The men fixed things and mended houses and did heavy yard work during the weekends. Sometimes they changed the oil in the car and repaired the car, as well, back when they were simple enough. Heck, I did that in my 30's ... for instance, I found out that when replacing distributor wires that it wasn't enough to get them in the same order on the distributor cap, the first wire had to start at the same place on the cap as before. Well, if you don't get it right -- surprise -- the car won't start. Good old slant six, runs forever or until you lose patience.
Now, with a large population, outsourced manufacturing, tons of automation, and a lot of financial malfeasance, living simply, doing things for oneself, and working part time at several things might be better than looking for jobs which just aren't there. It might take moving to a place where the equity in one's previous home would pay off a house and lot entirely, and a gimlet focus on paying off debt and avoiding taking on new debt like the plague. Well, piano tuners are resourceful and inventive people who can deal with a tremendous number of unexpected situations so long as an ailing piano is involved. If the strapped financial level of the general public plus increasingly awful natural disasters reduces our workload, we should be better prepared than most to improvise new answers to how our basic needs can be met.
And it appears that another hurricane may be moving toward the Virgin Islands. Probably not many working pianos in the Virgin Islands right now. <sigh> They probably will pay more attention to walls, windows, a roof, running water, and electricity before they try to replace pianos.
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Susan Kline
Philomath, Oregon
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-17-2017 13:49
From: Peter Grey
Subject: Client Management
Susan
I still do pretty much the same thing with the first Windows version of Quattro Pro spreadsheet from 1993. Until about a year ago I was still using QuickBooks Basic from 2006. Worked perfectly well but no longer compatible with newer versions the accountant uses. 😣
Every time they "upgrade" these things they make changes that require you to re-learn (which takes time) and they are not always better. Then incompatibility...grrrr!
Keep it simple.
Pwg
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Peter Grey
Stratham NH
603-686-2395
pianodoctor57@gmail.com
Original Message:
Sent: 09-17-2017 13:11
From: Susan Kline
Subject: Client Management
Yes, I checked out Gazelle. Incredibly good for a high volume tuner. Totally overkill for me.
Reminders? I send none, because the amount of work coming in without them is as much as I want to do.
Entry into a mobile device? Well, the flip phone isn't interested, and I think I'm allergic to Android, being basically a fossil at this point. I did buy a tablet awhile back, but I don't use it.
Back in my early computer days I bought MsWorks, which back then did quite a few neat things. It wasn't that expensive, you only bought it once, and it never phoned home. Every time they revise it, functionality drops off and bugs appear. I learned to build forms in it, made myself a customer database, invoices, and a bunch of tax forms, which I arranged in order, so each one feeds the later ones. I'm still getting good use from this system, partly (mostly?) by having a business computer which does not socialize. It is strictly a hermit, and doesn't even know what the internet is. It is an old desktop which got emptied when a hard drive failed. It still uses the same old software: Windows ME and Quicken 97. They still work perfectly. I'm a little bit concerned that when the very old HP printer finally gives up I'll have trouble finding one which won't mind taking orders from Windows ME.
I had the notion of getting into better less obsolete software, and then I discovered that an Msworks database cannot transfer data into anything else. I was put out. So I just kept using the old system, and it still works for me, though I admit it would be pleasant to enter everything while out in the field.
As for the Cloud, I never understood why, in a world with so many bad actors and so little privacy, anyone would want to send personal data for someone else to keep, to lose, to mine, to get paid for keeping. It's easy enough to have a business computer with NO connectivity, and to save to several thumb drives. Is there a fire in your house? You drop the thumb drive into your pocket and get out.
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Susan Kline
Philomath, Oregon
Original Message:
Sent: 09-17-2017 09:15
From: Gary Bruce
Subject: Client Management
Original Message------
Filemaker Pro. Available for Apple or Windows, will work on your Ipad. Customizable.
http://www.filemaker.com/products/whats-new#fm-mobility
Will Truitt
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William Truitt
Bridgewater NH
603-744-2277
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