My "business" has always been an alternative "business" model.
Frankly, after reading, again and again, in the journal, and on these lists, the mantra of "business" as defined by folks like Tim Barnes... or even perhaps Dale Probst, a fine soul, whom fate determined would not see his own carefully financed retirement... as I read their descriptions, I feel myself hyper-ventilating...saying to myself, "I'd rather have dental surgery".
Never in my life, and I mean never, did I buy the meaning of the word "business", or even the meaning of the word "work", as defined by...someone/thing or other than myself. My shop schedule is defined by my biorhythms. Work starts after I piss around in the morning, take my walk, do my exercises and futz around some more. Work continues until I start to feel like stopping...which is usually 6 hrs total-ish. And, in the middle of the day, if an interesting idea occurs to me, I will often stop and mess with the idea for a while without fretting about "time on task". My "work" is defined by time, and "time is defined by the present experience of time...not the present experience of some future promised time.
When you speak to folks, especially now after the sheltering in, when this time aspect of life and work has become so undeniably apparent, they say: " I love what I do. It's not the work. It's the time factor that makes me want to retire, or to worse, quit". It's the time factor...it's always the time factor. Time in the present, always losing out to promised time in the future...a massive con.
From the start, I knew that grafting a corporate definition onto an artist or artisan, which is what I knew I was, would kill the joy, creativity, brain space , and most importantly, the time required to do the "work" I was interested in doing. For me, "work" is what I do, yes to live in my house and buy food, but it is, and has always been my hobby and an opportunity to mess around with things I find challenging and interesting. Since my work is my hobby, and since time at work is experienced in the present, and since the shop is on my residential property (no rent-very low overhead), and since I can stop in the middle of the day to mess with my garden, and since being content, do not spend money on stuff that is not necessary, I do not need or want to retire. We are not rich, I assure you. If for some reason, the money lags, I don't care, because there is no debt. The main thing is that as a tone junkie, I am engaged every day in creating that tone, and can't wait to get out to the shop every day, to have another go at it.
The key, is to avoid unnecessary debt like the plague, strategize ways to keep your overhead as absolutely low as possible. Also avoid being conned into "needing" expensive things that do not foster contentment, and avoid the notion that we can control the future by sitting on large amounts of retirement wealth, acquired at the cost of the present. In some ways, as society is slowly coming to realize, both economically and emotionally, retirement as a dead stop, is not actually that good of an idea. It certainly has no historic precedence, since it is a very recent invention.
On my rebuilds, I present a very detailed proposal. However, once the proposal is signed, I stop thinking about money. I will always work for the nicest sounding piano I am capable of producing, often going well over my proposal. I don't care. As long as I was happy with the original price detailed in the proposal, and am happy working for the customer, I will work until I get that nicest sound that piano will give me.
Tuning, which is not my favorite thing to do, now, is only for my rebuild customers, and real nice other pianos I have serviced in the past. The folks I tune for are as much of my enjoyment as the sound of the instrument itself. The key for me in doing any tuning, which as I said is not my favorite thing to do, is that, since I am tuning my own instruments, as a tone junkie, I get to hear the sound of these instruments I have created. The sounds are so important to me, they are a "payment" which exceeds the value of the check I receive, by a long shot...really. I take 2-1/2 hrs on these tunings (usually 2 passes), because that's how long I take.
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Jim Ialeggio
grandpianosolutions.com
Shirley, MA
978 425-9026
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2021 18:23
From: Petrus Janssen
Subject: Appointment Statistics
i do an average of 20 tunings each week (m-f), sometimes 1 or 2 a day and then other days 7.
It takes me a little over one hour to tune a piano that i have serviced before and up to 2 hours for pianos i haven't serviced before. When i work at the university, i can tune a piano in 45 minutes but i rather take a little longer.
on a yearly basis, i drive 10k miles. Sometimes less than 10 miles a day but other days it may be 130 (which is rare). Since i use Gazelle, it does try to minimize the driving from customer to customer: sometimes less than 10 minutes, the bulk around 15 to 20 minutes and then sometimes it may be 45 minutes (typically if i'm servicing an area farther away from my home and my last customer may be close to my home.
Peter
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Petrus Janssen
Peachtree City GA
678-416-8055
Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2021 16:15
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: Appointment Statistics
Semi retired so only one service call a day, down from two or three, sometimes four. M-F only. There are times when in order to accommodate a special customer, or a special need I may schedule more than one call in the day, but these days that is a rare. I love it when a customer has two pianos in the same location. To me, that's still one service call.
I no longer take tunings on the West Side so my service area has been reduced significantly. This is Los Angeles. I can't charge enough to make the stress of driving in that kind of 24 hour traffic worth my while. Because of the reduction in service area, drive times are down from over 90 minutes each way, (at an average speed of 12 MPH), to around 20 or 30 minutes, with traffic closer to home being a rarity.
I usually allow for two hours per visit. Tuning takes me between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on how cooperative the piano is. Key cleaning, dusting, pedals, etc., plus schmoozing with the customer fill out that time. But with only one service call a day, when something comes up, and it frequently does, I don't have to worry about the next customer and can easily take care of it right then instead of having to make a second call. The customer and I both win.
In spite of the fact that I have reduced my service area, and the fact that I have recently raised my rates I, nevertheless, have a full calendar clear into the middle of June. I guess I must be doing something right. :-)
I don't have an online calendar, and my email address is not posted on my website. I want the customer to call me so we can actually discuss their needs and I can arrive prepared for the job. If someone calls, and I don't recognize the number, I don't answer the call. Phone scams and phishing are just too prevalent. If it's a customer that's really is interested in my services they will leave a message and I will call them back within minutes.
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
Original Message:
Sent: 04-30-2021 14:59
From: Cobrun Sells
Subject: Appointment Statistics
I'm curious, and I know there are many variables behind these questions like where a person lives, population size, everything included in an appointment, traffic, but;
How many tunings/appointments do you do a day?
How much driving do you do a day (total and average length between appointments)?
How long is your average tuning (from the moment you start to adjust your 1st tuning pin to to moment you finish adjusting your last tuning pin on a piano)?
What is your length of appointment in hours/minutes including your drive to your next location?
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Cobrun Sells
cobrun94@yahoo.com
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