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Guess how long it takes us to get there future repairs done, as well as how we adjust our future pricing strategies in regards to those specific schools.

My uncle owned a barber shop for decades (it was actually my grandfather's before that). He hemmed and hawed about raising prices all the time afraid he would loose to many customers.. then whenever he did he was always pleasantly surprised that his good customers always stayed and his problematic customers went somewhere else.

It can really end up on the lead secretary's control...

gocsick wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 9:47 am My uncle owned a barber shop for decades (it was actually my grandfather's before that). He hemmed and hawed about raising prices all the time afraid he would loose to many customers.. then whenever he did he was always pleasantly surprised that his good customers always stayed and his problematic customers went somewhere else.

I have a really good lady barber who doesn't charge enough. She owns the shop, and it's always crowded.

I'm always telling her that she's at least $10 too cheap and probably 15 and she reacts with the same type of thing that you just reported your uncle claiming.

I can tell you from experience that schools tend to be that way with most business. Yes, sometimes band directors fail to keep up with their paper work (all too common), but by and large, schools try to hang on to every dollar until they just have to let go - as if they can't do without that extra $10 interest on their money. Even substitute teachers, who are in demand, are paid 2-3 months after putting in the work days. I did some sub teaching at the request of my former colleague but quit doing even that. Band directors can only put so much pressure on the business office before said office starts punishing them. That said, yes, they are doing you dirty, and I don't understand why they don't take care of the people who take care of them.

They're being pennywise and dollar dumb, because - the school systems that do me this way routinely - I charge them way more (compared to other school systems) than they make in interest by paying me late.

Both $175 and $275 sound like reasonable prices for repairing a sousaphone, do they not?

Absolutely yes. School business managers are bean counters. They don't look at the big picture. That's how they were trained. If you only knew the contortions I had to go through just to buy tubas for my school bands... I literally had to compare them to football helmets for one administrator. As for paying for repairs, the repair people would call me and then I would call to beg the business office, etc. It was like arguing with a rock, except the rocks were smarter.

I can work with poor school systems and wealthy school systems.
I charge reasonable prices to wealthy ones, and a stick it to them - the next time if they don't pay me within a reasonable amount of time (and there really isn't an excuse, even forgetting - or losing their copy of the invoice - demonstrates a lack of concern).
I can undercharge a little bit for poor school systems and view it (a little undercharging or a lot of undercharging) as charity, because - honestly - I'm not a member of any church (I'm playing at different ones various weeks of several months. The preacher gets paid, the guy outside with the orange jacket who stops traffic for the parishioners gets paid, and I get paid), and I don't contribute to any charities. If I can do some underpriced work or even some free work for some individuals or entities which don't have enough money to pay me what I'm worth, that's what I do. I also choose to accept music playing work sometimes that doesn't really cover my expenses, and even play for free sometimes. (To those lawyers and doctors that play for free all the time, this isn't the same thing. Every once in awhile, you might do a surgery or represent a client for free. I'm a musician and you are a doctor or lawyer; that's the type of comparable to which I'm referring.)
BTW ... If my repair customers get their stuff back from me later than they told me they need it, it's probably because I was sick or injured. Today, I busted my right hand index finger skin wide open right on the joint at a diagonal 1-1/4 inches inches long. I went into the doctor, she sewed it up (not the nicest stitch job I've ever had, but good enough to stop the bleeding and hold the skin together), I went back and finished one tuba and repaired one more. It hurt.

I'm with you on charities. What I observed in my workplace was pressure for people to volunteer for high-profile charities so that the company could brag about how much volunteering their employees did. I don't know how much of the donated money to these charities actually gets to the supposed recipients (I suspect little or none, it all being used up by "administrative costs, while the employees who were pressured into volunteering do unpaid work for the company and the charities. Fascinating that people continue to fall for this.

We did have a turnaround though while I was working there -- I can't remember what it was, but there was a consequence in the workplace if people did not volunteer. I don't know if someone sued or just threatened to sue (unpaid hours are illegal) but that changed and it no longer was a factor.

I do my "charity work" by giving to individuals things they need or that I perceive that they need, and I do it quietly. Sometimes secretly, so they don't even know where it came from. THAT is community. United Way is not "community." it is Business.

Mary Ann wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 11:05 am I'm with you on charities. What I observed in my workplace was pressure for people to volunteer for high-profile charities so that the company could brag about how much volunteering their employees did. I don't know how much of the donated money to these charities actually gets to the supposed recipients (I suspect little or none, it all being used up by "administrative costs, while the employees who were pressured into volunteering do unpaid work for the company and the charities. Fascinating that people continue to fall for this.

When I worked for UPS loading trucks, back in the day, the Teamsters had a United Way Charity Drive.. and our local chapter was insistent that we get 100% participation. They didn't care about the amount only that everyone gave something. One guy didn't want to participate and the shop steward had a quiet conversation with him that started with "You have a nice car, it would be a shame if the windshield accidently got broken..." I signed up $5.00/year donation taken out in $0.10 from each paycheck.

bloke wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2026 12:01 am They're being pennywise and dollar dumb, because - the school systems that do me this way routinely - I charge them way more (compared to other school systems) than they make in interest by paying me late.

Both $175 and $275 sound like reasonable prices for repairing a sousaphone, do they not?

Reasonable?! That's very underpriced!

Here's my experience from working with 7 different school business managers in 3 different towns and school districts: I would get asked by them how we had previously paid for repairs. Every single time, they would answer, "he(/she) (previous business manager) could go to jail for that!". Then we would change the procedure until the next one came on board.

I came to the conclusion that all school business managers should be in jail.

prodigal wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 1:28 pm

bloke wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2026 12:01 am They're being pennywise and dollar dumb, because - the school systems that do me this way routinely - I charge them way more (compared to other school systems) than they make in interest by paying me late.

Both $175 and $275 sound like reasonable prices for repairing a sousaphone, do they not?

Reasonable?! That's very underpriced!

I can do a hell of a lot for sousaphone in an hour.
If you're thinking of me as one of those people who wears a lab coat and those blue rubber gloves like those silly Facebook repair videos, that's not me.

I was trying to consistently charge blah blah blah per hour a couple of years ago, but have since decided that blah blah blah plus $25 is a little bit more suitable. Still, people receive an awful lot out of me during one of those hours.
I can do quite a few very nice things to instruments with my bare hands compared to what some other people try to do with tools - and end up going backward - rather than forward.