Okay everyone. This is a long string of answers. If you can offer info on one, most of or all of my questions I will be very appreciative. Any feed back would be of some help too.

My husband has been in the band instrument repair business for decades, yet he has always been the background of the business and have never had to make contacts and cold calls.

We are in a rural area with a lot of secondary schools. How should we/he approach the schools superintendent in a cold call to drum up business? I am a lot more out going but do not know anything about the business. Is there some trick that I could use to do his "dirty work?"

Also, like most repair men he does not have a degree or certificate or local cliente as we are hundreds of miles away from his old customers. How do we get around that?

There are two major band instrument repair and sales companies here but they are at least sixty miles away. How do we compete with them? Is there a secret to getting business through the interenet? He has been repairing for 31 years and is a professional musician here with some shows in the Branson, Missouri area.

He has a lot of American made instruments that have been meticulously repaired and are ready to sale. He was trying to sell them on eBay, but a few weeks ago he tried to sell (on consignment with Les Brown Jr) a 1936 selmer sax that belong to Les Sr and due to the low sales interest in that section had to sell for a lot less than it was worth. How does he go in selling the used horns here until he gets a clientele?

Last, how does he get music students, repairs and buyers to come to his beautiful yet well stocked shop to come here or let us deliver?

Hi, UsBlkgal! Remember me? I answered your question the last time that you asked about advertising for this. I hope that you tried some of the many free sites for advertising.

The link to the answer that I gave to you is here: https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/music/...tml#post471334

You could go with your husband when making "cold calls." He knows the language of the business. I would suggest speaking with the band directors rather than anyone in administration. Although they may be supportive of music programs, chances are that the administrators won't know squat about music. It's best that band directors here information from the "horses mouth." Plus, if you approach the band directors personally, it shows your integrity and they will actually get to know you, which is important. There's nothing like the personal touch when garnering business or people to get involved in things.

You could go with your husband when making "cold calls." He knows the language of the business. The band directors will understand him. Your presence would help to support the fact that he is a family man. It is important in rural communities, for people to have a "family" outlook on things. Plus, if he were just a single man, students might be a little hesitant to approach him about servicing their instruments.

You ask some former customers such as band directors and members of bands if you can use them as references if band directors or potential customers ask for references. Since you are in a rural area, maybe there would be a small town newspaper that would be willing to run a story about the new person (couple?) in town with his (their?) band instrument repair service. And, that he (they) is (are) LOCAL, and not many miles away. Having someone interested in writing an article about that is much more likely to happen in rural papers than in major metropolitan ones. I am sure that the type of service that you provide would be a welcome addition to the local area.

Competing is easy. You are already local, so you have a big, automatic plus in your favor already. There is no "secret" to advertising on the Internet. You just have to know how to word your ads properly so that your ads will come up first in the searches. If you gave me some of your contact information in a private message to me, I'd even be willing to put a couple of free ads on the Internet for you in order to show you the kind of exposure that you can get. It's easy. You just have to spend a little time doing it. You can do it. I do like to support anything in the arts if it is good.

Here is an example: Right now I'm writing Band Instrument Repair Branson, MO. Although the site that we are on right now is not to be used for advertising, what I have just typed is going to start coming up in searches in just a couple of days, especially on Google. Some of the other search engines are still listing information that is really old and/or out-of-date. What I have typed is not an ad, because I have not provided any contact information. What else would people type in when searching for a musical instrument repair person in Branson, MO but, what I have just typed? There are other variations of the wording that could be used, but what I typed is basically the thing for which people are looking. Ask Me Help Desk gets excellent coverage on the Internet.

For my businesses, I beat all of my competition around where I live if people are looking for the kinds of services that I provide. Two of the things that I do for a living is that I am a piano tuner/technician and I also give piano lessons. Anyone looking for those kinds of services around where I live is going to find my ads first on the Internet. And, if I'm not listed first, I will still comprise most of the listings that you will see in the first three or four pages of a search.

I also like for people to find me by accident for the services that I can supply to them. At certain times of the year I run specials for my piano tuning. For instance, just before Valentine's Day, I ran ads for Valentine's Day Gift Baskets. I beat all of the florists in the area because of the way that I had worded my ads. In addition to other words that would lure people to plants and/or flowers, I said things in my ads like "Why serenade your sweetie on Valentine's Day on a piano that is out of tune?" "Give something different for Valentine's Day this year." "How about paying to have someone's piano tuned?" "Now, between (dates) receive $5.00 off of the regular price of $65.00 for a tuning by giving me a printed copy of this ad." One time, believe-it-or-not, someone was looking for goats in Iowa on one of the places where I had placed an ad. (They are an animal rescue.) They decided to have their piano tuned, even though that wasn't the thing for which they were looking. I run the same sort of specials for Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.

You could do the same thing.

The fact that he is a professional musician is also a plus. I would think that most people wanting to have their instruments repaired would prefer to have it repaired by someone who could also play it or know how it needs to sound and at least how to play it maybe not on a professional level but at least could be able to test the instrument for the customer if the need arises. When I am done tuning a piano for someone, I give them a mini-concert.

Advertise on the Internet on the places that I had previously mentioned to you in my June 20, 2007 answer to you. Advertise locally that the instruments are for sale, in print and also when speaking to the band directors.

For your last question I am just going to summarize the things that I have already mentioned above; in my previous post to you and add just a little bit more. Advertise - Internet and newspapers, hang a small advertising "shingle" out with the little pull-off tabs with the name and contact information on it anywhere you can find a public bulletin board where you allowed to advertise businesses. You can find such bulletin boards in bowling alleys, restaurants, Quick-Mart type places, Laundromats, grocery stores, small town libraries, etc. Just takes a little "leg work." Some Sundays I go for a drive with some friends along and pick a quadrant of the Quad Cities to go hang out my "shingles" and also have some fun with my friends. Get into the Yellow Pages of the phone book eventually.

Become a part of the local music scene. Support the music in the schools. Find out the dates of concerts and go to them. When a school or other place (doesn't have to be even music related) is looking for people to place ads in programs, place an ad. Always carry business cards with you and bring up what you do, in conversation with people. Provide excellent service, and the business for repair, students, buying of instruments as well as the money will come. Word gets around.

I hope that the foregoing has been helpful to you. And, I wish you well in all of your efforts to build your business!

Have a nice day! :)

Clough

The best advice I can give you would be to go buy the book "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber. It deals specifically with people who have been technicians in an industry who move to becoming business owners, just like your husband.

If you both read it, I think it'll greatly help you build the new business together. It's the template I used to build my paintball company, and it's a great read in general.

Just one day later, the words band instrument repair, Branson, MO from the postings here are already showing up as being first in a Google search. Your business could also be first!

Please see the following link: band instrument repair Branson, MO - Google Search

Dear Clough,

Wow that information was invaluable! I have printed it for future use. As always, I appreciated your insightful information.

When I used to have my Kawai piano tuned no one ever gave a little concert. I never asked for a business card and did not call the same tuner because I was not really impressed one way with their skills. In retrospect, had they played something I would have remember them and their services a lot better... great idea.

Thank you many times.

To Bocasean: I am going to purchase the e-myth revisited on eBay. Thanks every little bit helps.

Dear Clough,

Once again, thanks for the info: I am composing ads to some of the sites that you have mentioned. My problemis that I have been trying to get into contact with Google but have not been able to contact them. There has got to be some way.

Anyway, I know that this sounds dumb but if you or anyone could enlighten me as to how to cancel our Branson band instrument ad on Google and place a better one placed at the top of the page? The old one has the answers to my advertisement questions here. I don't think that that will help the business if customers see that we do not know anything about advertising even though my hubby is a trained professional... help thanks

Dear UsBlkgal,

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.

If I were you, I wouldn't be concerned about what we have written on this thread here as showing up on Google first. Once you have placed a number of ads, and worded them in a certain way, your ads will show up first. What we have posted here is not an ad. There is no contact information for you concerning names, addresses or phone numbers. You don't need to contact Google. If people do click on the link for what is here, they will see that it is not the information that they seek if they are looking for band instrument repair around where you live. They will not be interested. It could be that they themselves may be interested in advertising their own businesses though, around anywhere where they might live. In that sense, what is written here will be helpful to them. The information that is here therefore, could be a help for any business or organization that wishes to advertise for free on the Internet.

Just some additional tips for your advertising are below.

Please look for my ads on the Internet. What I do is not limited to the following, but includes: piano tuning and repair, handyman, church organist, party pianist, piano teacher, garden tilling, interior as well as exterior painting, decorating, furniture refinishing, piano keytop replacement, brass refinishing and maybe some other things that I have now forgotten what I have listed as I write this to you. Almost anything that you find on the Internet with Clough Quad Cities as the words in the link are going to be my ads. Everything that I list, I copy and paste into emails and save in my Drafts folder, and then another folder that I create, just for organizing what I have listed for advertising. That way, when an ad expires, then I can quickly copy and paste it back into an ad and make it active again. Some free advertising sites will let you keep the ads on them for years. I also have one in my email that is entirely devoted to my user names and passwords.

I try to keep things simple and the same as far as user names and passwords. Clough is usually sufficient, and then a password that is easy for me to remember. If a site wants a number attached to my username or password, then I just add a number such as "1" or different number, if that user name is already being used by someone else. Some sites will require you to use a combination of numbers and letters for your password. If a site wants you to make sure that you have checked on a box that says "Agree to Terms and Conditions" or, something like that, be sure to read them and also copy and paste them in to a blank email to save in a folder. After that, if they ask you to put a check in that same box when you place an ad, you just do it without having to read everything again.

If you do live around the area of Branson, MO, you have some marginal competition on the Internet as far as advertising. You can beat them easily.
Please look at what is showing up on their links in the searches for doing the band instrument repair around where you live. You can use the same words that they do, as long as you don't use their name. If someone does use an adjective as part of their name, then you can use it as part of a sentence in your ad. That way you are not really using the name of their business, and so, there would be no legal problem in doing that. In the United States, it falls under "fair use" and is not an infringement of the trademark that they have. There are also words in the links to their sites that won't show up on the actual sites. That is because the words are hidden in the contents of their WebPages in order to lure people to their sites. You can use these same words in your ads as I have mentioned earlier in this paragraph.

Search engines find things in various ways. Google is the best. Next would probably be WebCrawler. Some people might want to debate with me on this, but that is there right so to do. And, then the list will go on as to what the best search engines are. People are going to be using whatever search engine that they are used to using and have found to be successful for themselves. A lot of people don't even know that Google exists. How you word your ads must also be geared to the folks that are going to be using another search engine.

For instance, Google doesn't include repeated words in the searches, whereas Yahoo does. So, for things to show up more on Google, you will want to use words that aren't exactly repeats of each other, Use music instruments, musical instrument, band instruments, band instrument in the same ad. The difference between plural and singular is important when you want things to show up on Google.

Another thing to consider, is that Google basically searches for things alphabetically. One example: If your competitor uses "repairs" as the word in their ad, then you use "repair." The word "repair" will come up in a search before "repairs."

Yahoo, on the other hand, loves it if there are multiple words that are spelled exactly the same and are repeated. So, in order to excel and compete on Yahoo when people are searching for something, you will want to repeat the same words many times. If words are to be repeated a lot of times in an ad, I usually use them as keywords at the bottom of my ads. That way, they don't take up the reading time for what my ad is about at the beginning of the ad.

If any of the ads that you are going to post are going to be lengthy, then it is helpful for you to place your contact information towards the beginning of the ads. That way, people will find your ads because of the way the you have worded them, but don't necessarily need to read the entirety of the contents of your ad before knowing your contact information. They will know what your ad is about before reading the entire ad.

Here is another tip. The use of the ending of words with and "ing" as compared to "er" as the ending of words is also important. People looking for me around the area where I live, might look for what I do by typing in Piano Tuner Quad Cites, or Piano Tuning Quad Cites. Because most of the Yellow Pages that I have encountered use and "ing" ending to list people who are already listed in the Yellow Pages of a phone book, those ads are going to appear first on Google. But, if you are not in the Yellow Pages of the phone book, your ads can look more captivating and inviting to customers, by the way that you have worded them, even though they might come up next in the listings after those that are listed in the Yellow Pages.

I would like to note, that sometimes listings can disappear for awhile, when people are doing searches for things. I don't know why this is so. I would like to think that you have already found my email address because I would like to also presume that you have looked at some of my ads. For a number of weeks recently, by typing in my email address in Google it was showing up as only being somewhere under a hundred listings. That was getting me concerned, as I have been well over a thousand listings by searching for me with just my email address. And, over 5,000 listings for me in searching for what I do in other ways. In recent days, the listings that have my email address are around 850. So, I think that it is on the upswing again.

I do wish you and your husband well in all that you do! Please let me know if you need any more help. I would be glad to do that!

Clough

Wow, as always, we are "emulsified" by your business know how! (Emusilfied is just a little play on words.)

Seriously, I have been sitting here daily checking out your ads and placing orders on other sites! You do not know how empowering that this has made us feel. You have single handedly given us a huge "hand up" by bringing us into the light of advertisement.

Your advice is so creative and explained so graphically that I keep reading and wondering: "why didn't I think of that?"

Clough you are a Godsend. If we can ever be of help to your service please contact us.

I feel as though your are a friend.

Thanks

P.S. If any of you other business "Magnates" (another play on words) want quick, concise business tips please read and down load the information that I received here. I know the founder of "Entrepreneur" magazine and after all of those years I did not know that advertisers were so resourceful and crafty! This a great pick me up.